Meteorol Atmos Phys 103, 5–12 (2009)DOI 10.1007/s00703-008-0312-9Printed in The Netherlands

Deutsches Zentrum f€uur Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Institut f€uur Physik der Atmosph€aare, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany

The International Conferences on Alpine Meteorology:Characteristics and trends from a 57-year-series of scientificcommunication

H. Volkert

With 2 Figures

Received 31 October 2007; Accepted 21 February 2008Published online 30 July 2008 # Springer-Verlag 2008

Summary

General information is assembled about origin, conductand written documentation concerning the full series of 29biennial International Conferences on Alpine Meteorology(ICAM) between 1950 and 2007. The slowly evolvingformat of interactive scientific communication is apparentsince the series was started by Mario Bossolasco, a vision-ary geophysical scientist. A comparison with the relatedmountain meteorology conference series organized by theAmerican Meteorological Society helps to put the Europeanachievement in perspective. Such a compact bookkeepingactivity is considered essential for valuing properly theconsiderable impact of a regular, focussed, single-sessionconference series like ICAM for issues like internationalcooperation, practical education of students, and scientificadvancement in general.

1. Introduction

Science deals with a ‘‘system of knowledgeconcerned with the physical world and its phe-nomena’’ (www.britannica.com=dictionary; Entry:science). Debates about the acquisition of suchknowledge by individuals and its dissemination

to colleagues have a history spanning at leasttwo millenia (cf. Zeki 2000). Conferences are‘‘meetings of persons for discussing matters ofcommon concern’’ (ditto; Entry: conference).Conferences dealing with science and with phys-ics in particular are prominently discussed withregard to sociologic issues such as personal fair-ness, intercultural rules, and gender stereo-typing(cf. Langedijk 2005). Therefore it appears bothuseful and timely to consider the knowledgedisseminating mechanisms of the multi-decadaland regular series of International Conferenceson Alpine Meteorology (ICAM), which startedin 1950 and recently had its 29th meeting inChamb�eery, France.

Bifurcation points of scientific thought can on-ly rarely be linked to discussions at a conference.For meteorology the double gathering in Bergen(Norway), organized by Vilhelm Bjerknes sepa-rately for all non-Germanic speakers and the re-mainder in the summer of 1920 right after theend of World War I, was identified as a turningpoint for the prevailing mainstream theories forcyclogenesis (Davies 1997). In general, scientificconferences are one of the methods for consol-idating research results parallel to or before aformal publication in peer-reviewed journals.

Correspondence: Hans Volkert, Deutsches Zentrum f€uur Luft- und

Raumfahrt (DLR), Institut f€uur Physik der Atmosph€aare (IPA),

Oberpfaffenhofen, 82234 Wessling, Germany (E-mail: hans.

volkert@dlr.de)

The unbroken series of ICAM spanning morethan five decades offers the possibility of ins-pecting the gradual changes in conference sizeand format with time and attempting to general-ize conclusions about the function of such me-dium size events for progress in atmosphericscience.

This short survey has several aims. First, it setsout to recall the beginning of the ICAM series in1950. Second, the conduct and gradually changingscope of the conferences are briefly chronicled

together with a documentation of the availablepublished material. Next, a comparison with asimilar undertaking in North America makesclear what has been achieved in Europe andhow an intensified cooperation across the Atlanticcan provide real synergies. Then, a look to thefuture is attempted that takes into account thegrowing interest in weather and climate researchin the vicinity of mountain ranges, and finally afew general conclusion are made. These points aredealt with sequentially in the following sections.

Table 1. Time series of ICAMs circling five times through half a dozen of Alpine countries with year and number,country code (cc), location and source of proceedings or volumes of extended abstracts. Sources for entries in the lastcolumn: Annalen der Meteorologie Nr. 30, pp. 369–70 (up to 1994); from internet searches for later years

Year cc Location Proceedings Year cc Location Proceedings

19501st

I Milano andTorino

Geof. pura e appl. 17,1950, 81–245

198016th

F Aix-les-Bains Soc. M�eet�eeorol. de France,Boulogne-Billancourt,1980, 462 pp

19522nd

A Obergurgl Wetter und Leben, 5,1953, 1–54

198217th

D Berchtesgaden Ann. d. MeteorologieNr. 19, 1982, 293 pp

19543rd

CH Davos Wetter und Leben, 6,1954, 187–211

198418th

Y(Cro)

Opatija Zbornik met. hidrolog.radova 10, 1984, 345 pp

19564th

F Chamonix La M�eet�eeorologie IV,1957, 111–377

198619th

A Rauris €OOsterr. Ges. f. Meteorol.,Vienna, 1987, 457 pp

19585th

D Garmisch Bericht Dt. WetterdienstNr. 54, 1959, 302 pp

198820th

I Sestola Servizio Meteorol. Ital.,Roma 1988

19606th

Y(Slo)

Bled Hydromet. Inst. Report,Beograd, 1962, 514 pp

199021th

CH Engelberg Reports MeteoSwissNr. 48, 1990, 437 pp andNr. 49, 1991, 135 pp

19627th

I Sestri�eere Geofisica e MeteorologiaII, 1963, 303 pp

199222nd

F Toulouse Soc. M�eet�eeorol. de France,1992, 452 pp and LaM�eet�eeorologie VII, 45,1992, 1–64

19648th

A Villach Carinthia II, special issueno. 24, Vienna, 314 pp

199423rd

D Lindau Ann. d. MeteorologieNr. 30, 1994, 370 pp

19669th

CH Brig andZermatt

Reports MeteoSwissNr. 4, 1967, 366 pp

199624th

Slo Bled Hydrometeo. Inst. ofSlovenia, Ljubljana,1996, >303 pp

196810th

F Grenoble La M�eet�eeorologie, specialissue, 1969, 464 pp

199825th

I Torino CIMA proceedings,Torino, 1998, >272 pp

197011th

D Oberstdorf Ann. d. MeteorologieNr. 5, 1971, 300 pp

200026th

A Innsbruck €OOsterr. Beitr. Meteorol.Geophys., issue 23,2000, on CD

197212th

Y(BH)

Sarajevo Zbornik met. hidrolog.radova 5, Beograd, 1973,375 pp

200327th

CH Brig Online: http:==www.map.meteoswiss.ch=map-doc=icam2003=0th.index.htm

197413th

I St. Vincent(Valled’Aosta)

Riv. di Geofisica, specialedition, 1975, 201 pp

200528th

Cro Zadar Online: http:==www.map.meteoswiss.ch=map-doc=icam2005=

197614th

A Rauris Arb. ZAMG Nr. 32 and33, Vienna, 1978

200729th

F Chamb�eery Online: http:==www.cnrm.meteo.fr=icam2007=

197815th

CH Grindelwald Reports MeteoSwissNr. 40, 1978, 332 pp;Nr. 41, 1979, 63 pp

200930th

D Rastatt(planned)

Yet to be determined

6 H. Volkert

2. The origin of ICAM

The first ICAM took place in 1950 in Italy due tothe personal initiative of Mario Bossolasco, who,since 1946, was a university professor and direc-tor of the Geophysical and Geodetic Institute inGenoa. Bossolasco was born on 30 June 1903 inTorino and died on 7 April 1985 in the same city(Eva 1988). After graduating in mathematics hespecialized in geophysics, including seismologyand meteorology. Under his initiative the re-search journal Geophysica Pura ed Applicatawas started in 1939. This journal was renamedPure and Applied Geophysics in 1973, after hetransferred it to the Swiss publisher Birkh€aauserand quit his work as editor after 34 years.Bossolasco had studied and worked abroad be-fore World War II and was well connected in theItalian and international research communitiesthrough personal collaborations and throughhis work with international institutions such asWMO and IUGG.

Just five years after the end of the World WarII, Bossolasco persuaded the national IstitutoGeofisico Italiano to convene the Primo ConvegnoInternazionale di Meteorologia Alpina – the FirstInternational Conference on Alpine Meteorology(cf. Table 1 and reference therein). The confer-ence papers were published only three monthsafter the conference in the very journal thatBossolasco had edited since a full decade, ineither Italian, English, French or German. The ini-tiative was apparently inspired by pan-Europeanhopes prevailing during the post-war period.Bossolasco’s opening speech expressed a clearvision in which Alpine meteorology, an interdis-ciplinary topic at the heart of geophysics, wasexpected to be a prototype for post-war interna-tional cooperation. Explicit mention was made ofthe considerable impact of the Alps on largescale flows – like secondary cyclogenesis in theGulf of Genoa as a result of splitting of largercyclones coming from the Atlantic –, of thespawning of severe weather in the wake of the

Fig. 1. Spatial distribution of the ICAM locations within the wider Alpine area shared by (now) seven Alpine countries(A, CH, CRO, D, F, I and SI) from Milano (1950) to Chamb�eery (2007) and Rastatt (planned for 2009; cf. Table 1).The Alpine topography of irregular snow-covered massifs separated by long, deep and snow-free valleys is visualizedby a cloud-free satellite scene (except low stratus over the Po valley and the Adriatic Sea; 2 February 2002; MODISinstrument; on a stereographic projection with a 1� � 1�-dotted grid)

Characteristics and trends from a 57-year-series of scientific communication 7

Alps, and of the Alps constituting a very specialnatural laboratory for a number of meteorologi-cal fields. He concluded not without pathos: ‘‘Asshown by our science and its numerous applica-tions, the Alps can help to unite the nations ratherthan dividing them’’. The topics presented at theconference included rotating tank experimentswith obstacles (Fultz, USA), F€oohn studies inItaly (Bossolasco, Italy), a synoptic investigationof Alpine precipitation (Striffling, France), andstratospheric flows above Europe (Hovm€ooller,Sweden).

The first ICAM produced sufficient momen-tum so that the second and third conferenceswere organized in Austria (1952; 128 partici-pants) and Switzerland (1954; 129 participants).Of key importance was the active involvement ofthe national meteorological services and the re-cently founded World Meteorological Organiza-tion (WMO) as their common international bodyunder the auspices of the newly formed UnitedNations. General reports and shorter abstracts ofthe oral presentations were published in the jour-nal Wetter und Leben about six months after theconference (cf. Table 1). The spirit of friendshipamong colleagues and the very limited resourcesavailable during the first post-war decade shinethrough these reports.

3. The conduct of ICAM through fiveAlpine cycles

As outlined in Table 1, the other three Alpinecountries France, Germany, and (former)Yugoslavia followed the founding trio, beforethe second cycle started in 1962, again in Italy.Like clockwork the third cycle began in 1974,the fourth in 1986, while the fifth will becompleted with the 30th ICAM to take placein Germany in 2009. A nine-month-shift fromSeptember of even years to late spring of oddyears took place in 2003 to establish an alternat-ing sequence with the Mountain MeteorologyConference (MMC) series of the American Mete-orological Society (AMS) and to maintain thetrans-Atlantic cooperation which had developedduring the conduct of the Mesoscale Alpine Pro-gramme (1995–2005; cf. Volkert and Gutermann2007). Geographically, the Alps themselves con-stituted the focal area of the 27 different venuesup to 2007 (Fig. 1), while neighbouring ranges

were occasionally touched as well, including thePyren�eees (Toulouse 1992), the Appenines (Sestola1988), and the Dinaric Alps (Sarajevo 1972;Opatija 1984; Zadar 2005).

An inspection of the proceedings volumes re-veals a number of general points: (i) until 1976proceedings were published well after the confer-ence, often in quite elaborate edited layouts,(ii) from 1978 onward volumes of extended ab-stracts were distributed at the conference to assistall participants in selecting presentations of high-est personal interest, (iii) in 1978 and 1990Switzerland produced both on-site and resum�eeversions, (iv) until the 1970s all presentations wereoral, leading to an increasing number of rejections(cf. Introduction to Ann. Meteorol. 5, 1970), (v) agrowing number of poster presentations and theexclusive use of English became regular practiseonly during the late 1980s, (vi) the large mountainmeteorology field campaigns ALPEX (1982), PY-REX (1990), and MAP-SOP (1999) are well re-flected in contributions to the following ICAMs,(vii) from 2003 onwards submission of extendedabstracts via the internet greatly eased their col-lection, but a printed volume proved to be ofunmatched value to the participants during theevent, especially in comparison with the publica-tion on a compact disc (CD).

Here it is not possible to present a thoroughreview of key scientific contributions in theICAM series that eventually led to the advance-ment of mountain meteorology. Nevertheless asubjective selection of important explorativestudies is given here (in the following the super-scriptT1 refers to the appropriate volume listedin Table 1), mostly concerning topics which arestill of high interest today: (i) airborne observa-tions of mountain gravity waves (Berenger andGerbier 1957T1), (ii) a study of the vertical dis-tribution of semi-perma-frost soils within theAlps (Hastenrath 1959T1), (iii) high-elevationsystematic measurements of direct solar radiation(Bossolasco et al. 1963T1), (iv) special groundbased observations in support of features de-tected from the new polar orbiting meteorologi-cal satellites (Kletter 1963T1; Berenger 1969T1),(v) airborne measurements of the diurnal va-riation of heating profiles in Alpine valleys(Reinhardt 1971T1), (vi) trials to quantify precip-itation amounts in mountainous terrain by radarobservations (Attmannspacher and Aniol 1971T1),

8 H. Volkert

(vii) mesoscale analyses using a specializedAlpine weather chart format (Steinacker 1978T1),(viii) non-hydrostatic simulation of valley flows(Groß, 1982T1), (ix) the dynamical impact of theAlps on the upstream flow from theoretical andobservational findings (Davies, Binder andFurger 1984T1), (x) simulation of orographic pre-cipitation by operational numerical weather pre-diction models (Binder and Wacker 1990T1), and(xi) a first collection of the PYREX field cam-paign results (Bougeault 1992T1) as well as chal-lenges and prospects for an envisaged MesoscaleAlpine Programme (Volkert 1994T1). The fullextended abstracts of the last three ICAM meet-ings can be viewed online (links are given inTable 1). A detailed statistical overview regard-

ing the scientific presentations during the firstsix ICAMs was compiled by Lauscher (1963T1;in German).

4. Comparison with AMS mountainmeteorology conferences

The phasing-in of ICAM with the closely relatedAmerican Meteorological Society’s MMCs in2002 was mentioned above. Interestingly, thisseries started in 1978 with the Conference onSierra Nevada Meteorology at Lake Tahoe,California, sponsored by the AMS and the USForest Service. Earlier conferences related tomountain meteorology included the one-daySymposium on Mountain Meteorology in Fort

Table 2. Time series of AMS Mountain Meteorology Conferences, held mainly in the USA, with year and number,country code (cc) and state code (sc), and comments (on the preprint volumes and online access to conferenceprogrammes and extended abstracts)

Year cc, sc Location Comments Year cc, sc Location Comments

19781st

USA,CA

LakeTahoe

Conference on SierraNevada Meteorology,AMS and USDA

Forest Service

19988th

USA,AZ

Flagstaff Preprints, 8th Conf. onMountain Meteorology,AMS, 475 pp

19812nd

USA,CO

SteamboatSprings

Preprints, 2nd Conf. onMountain Meteorology,AMS, 408 pp

20009th

USA,CO

Aspen 9th Conf. on MountainMeteorology, AMS, 427 pp;online at: http:==ams.confex.com=ams=AugAspen=techprogram=programexpanded_28.htm

19843rd

USA,OR

Portland Preprints, 3rd Conf. onMountain Meteorology,AMS, 233 pp

200210th

USA,UT

ParkCity

10th Conf. on MountainMeteorology, AMS, 440 pp.Joint with MAP meeting;online at: http:==ams.confex.com=ams=10Mountain=techprogram=programexpanded_111.htm

19874th

USA,WA

Seattle Preprints, 4th Conf. onMountain Meteorology,AMS, 278 pp

200411th

USA,NH

Barlett Joint with MAP meeting;no published Conf. volume.;online at: http:==ams.confex.com=ams=11Mountain=techprogram=programexpanded_237.htm

19905th

USA,CO

Boulder Preprints, 5th Conf. onMountain Meteorology,AMS, 337 pp

200612th

USA,NM

Santa Fe No published Conf. volume;online at: http:==ams.confex.com=ams=SantaFe2006=techprogram/programexpanded_350.htm

19926th

USA,OR

Portland Preprints, 6th Conf. onMountain Meteorology,AMS, 457 pp

200813th

CAN,BritishColumbia

Whistler(planned)

19957th

USA,CO

Breckenridge Preprints, 7th Conf. onMountain Meteorology,AMS, 390 pp

Characteristics and trends from a 57-year-series of scientific communication 9

Collins, Colorado, in 1967 (Reiter and Rasmussen1967) and the 1976 Joint Scientific Meeting onMountain Meteorology and Biometeorology inInterlaken, Switzerland, which was partially sup-ported by the AMS. Up to now, there have been12 conferences in the MMC series (Table 2). Over-seen by the Mountain Meteorology committee ofAMS, the earlier MMCs took place every 2 or 3years. The alternate year phasing of this con-ference series with the biennial ICAM confer-ences has resulted in opportunities for mountainmeteorologists to meet on a yearly basis on eitherside of the Atlantic ocean.

Since 1998 the cooperation across the Atlanticfor the planning and conduct of MAP and itsobserving period in 1999 led to increasing par-ticipation in ICAM meetings by North Americanmeteorologists and in MMC gatherings byEuropean meteorologists. The enhanced level ofinternational exchange has invigorated both con-ference series and has even led to some freshideas that are being considered for improvingother AMS technical conferences (cf. also Schultzet al. 2007).

5. The Future of ICAM

The steady increase of submitted papers andof participants over the past four years (nowregularly exceeding 200) indicates that ICAM

remains firmly established as the European coun-terpart to the shorter series of the AMS MountainMeteorology conferences. The sustained interestin mountain meteorology topics has led to aproposal that additional host countries be addedafter 2009. In June 2007, the ICAM steeringcommittee adapted its terms of reference to inviteoffers from countries such as the UK and Norway.Such a widening of the perspective may broadenthe focus of ICAM to include additional moun-tain areas and mountain research topics. This isfully in line with the Bossolasco’s vision at thestart of ICAM in 1950.

Planning for the 30th ICAM has alreadystarted. The provincial German town of Rastatt,situated at the river Murg in the wide Rhine val-ley and close to the slopes of the northern BlackForest, should offer an ideal venue within theinner observation region of the summer 2007COPS (Convective and Orographically-induced

Precipitation Study) field campaign. COPS islisted as a research and development project ofthe World Weather Research Programme ofWMO. Partly a heritage from MAP, COPS againdrew together a large number of scientists fromthe USA and many European countries. ICAM isexpected to maintain its presently high momen-tum for some years to come, as the institutionalbacking from the national meteorological ser-vices continues to lead to personal engagementby and scientific exchange among teams workingin university institutes and in public laboratories.

6. Conclusions

What general conclusions can be made after abrief inspection of the complete time seriesspanned by 29 ICAM meetings so far? Theauthor’s personal recollection from his partici-pation in the events 1982, 1994 and from 2000onwards is that all ICAMs have a flavour of sci-entific family meetings, with modesty in presen-tation and in the claims of the presented results,in truly multi-lingual and multi-cultural settings.It was surprising to detect these roots extendingright back to the start in 1950.

The regularity of the unbroken biennial se-quence appears remarkable, along with the fullrecord of published conference proceedings,nearly all of them in print. It would certainlybe useful to organize a full collection of the dis-tributed conference proceedings at some institu-tions to ease a more systematic survey ofproblems, techniques, and solutions as they weredocumented in a preliminary fashion prior to thefrequently occurring formal publication in peer-reviewed journals.

On the other hand slow changes in the con-ference format have become evident. Withinthe first two decades the ICAMs also served ascontinuing education courses as they frequentlyfeatured lecture type presentations. During the1970s and 1980s, participation began to necessi-tate a personal contribution; so the format ofposter presentations was adopted along with thesole use of English for all spoken and writtencommunications. The positive unifying andstrengthening effect of large-scale cooperativefield campaigns became clear together with truetrans-Atlantic synergies by the official and alter-nating link with MMCs of AMS (cf. also Volkert

10 H. Volkert

and Gutermann 2007). As the participation fromAsia and even southern hemisphere countriesincreases further during the coming years, theintertwined events of ICAM and MMC havethe potential to develop into a global forum formountain meteorology.

Arguably, conferences are a hidden part of theuniversal infrastructure in meteorology; longtime series, as for ICAM, tell a historical narra-tive of their own; and the topics dealt with at theICAMs touch ontologies as the various scalesand techniques applied. So the pieces of atmo-spheric science brought together at ICAMs overmore than half a century constitute a specialtheme in the history of weather and climate, fol-lowing the recent structuring of Fleming (2006).In the end, we want to underscore that a confer-ence is made by people for people. A glance atthe participants from the gatherings in 2003 and2007 (Fig. 2) reveals a sound mixture of youngerand older scientists, of women and men as wellas good continuity over time. The scientific arti-cles within this special issue demonstrate breadth

and depth of the contributions to the 29th ICAM

in Chamb�eery and we are confident of obtaining asustained combination of quantity with quality atthe 30th ICAM in 2009.

Acknowledgements

Vincenzo Pasquale (Genova) transmitted the little knownobituary of Mario Bossolasco, after Andrea Buzzi (Bologna)had pointed into the right direction. Manfred Reinhardt(Oberpfaffenhofen) provided personal memories since 1958and original ICAM conference material from his privatearchive. Vanda Grubi�ssi�cc (Reno), Jinny Nathans (Boston)and David Whiteman (Salt Lake City) provided detailedinput to Table 2 and Sect. 4. Two reviewers gave valuablehints for improvements of the presentation. All this assis-tance is gratefully acknowledged.

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Davies HC (1997) Emergence of mainstream cyclogenesistheories. Meteorol Z (N.F.) 6: 261–74

Eva C (1988) Mario Bossolasco. Obituary in ‘‘Seduta Com-memorativa’’ of 20 March 1986. Atti dell’ AccademiaLigure di Scienze e Lettere 43: Genova, Italy, pp. 31–4

Fig. 2. Two snapshot samples displaying the majority of ICAM participants in 2003 and 2007: above – 21 May 2003in the high Alpine setting of K€uuhboden=Fiescheralp above Brig (CH; photos: Brigitta Klingler); below – 6 June 2007in an Alpine valley in front of the Chamb�eery conference centre (F; photo: Daniel Goetz). The considerable numberof persons present at both occasions demonstrates continuity, while the variety of age groups also reflects a healthymix of experiences from meteorological services, research laboratories and university institutes

Characteristics and trends from a 57-year-series of scientific communication 11

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12 H. Volkert: Characteristics and trends from a 57-year-series of scientific communication