Students of the School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences of the University of Manchester (United Kingdom) at the Izana Atmospheric Observatory

On Tuesday, 30 March, a group of 41 students of the School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences of the University of Manchester (United Kingdom), guided by members of the school’s staff, visited the facilities of the Izaña Atmospheric Observatory. The visit was carried out as part of their yearly fieldtrip to the island of Tenerife. During this trip the students not only study the different aspects of Tenerife’s impressive geology but also try to get a better understanding of its meteorology, botany and the human impact on the island’s ecosystem and, most importantly, how these different aspects of the system are linked together. The visit to the atmospheric observatory, a first in the history of the field trip, was guided by the director of the observatory, Dr. Emilio Cuevas. After a presentation in the observatory’s lecture hall, summarising the activities carried out at the observatory, the students visited the observatory’s terrace, where the different instruments installed there, as well as their functions, were explained. This was followed by a tour of one of the laboratories, which gave the students an opportunity to get a better understanding of the sample analysis and data processing carried out at the Observatory.  Through this visit, the students were able to obtain a more comprehensive vision of the Canary archipelago’s meteorology, as well as its effects on, and links with, the rest of the environmental variables. Atmospheric physics is an important area of research and undergraduate study at the University of Manchester and therefore the opportunity to visit the Izaña Atmospheric Observatory provided an important glimpse into exactly how atmospheric monitoring stations fit into the global network of atmospheric and environmental research.