i-Box

i-Box

i-Box (short for Innsbruck Box) is a test bed for studying boundary layer processes in complex terrain. It is designed to be a long-term “reference box” for studying the characteristics of turbulence structure and exchange processes in truly complex topography.

i-Box is located in the Inn Valley, an approximately Northeast-Southwest oriented valley in western Austria, characterized by very complex terrain with steep slopes, flat foothills, numerous side valleys, variable land use characteristics etc. i-Box sites are chosen as representative of the specific topographic features: valley bottom, slopes of different angles and orientation, in order to secure the universality of the obtained results.

Comprenhensive information about i-Box can be found here:
https://www.uibk.ac.at/acinn/research/atmospheric-dynamics/projects/innsbruck-box-i-box.html.en

An overview of the project is available here:
https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-15-00246.1

i-Box is funded by the University of Innsbruck, the Austrian Science Fund, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (Hochschulraum Strukturmittel) and MeteoSwiss. The project runs from 1 August 2011 to 31 January 2020. The project leader is Mathias Rotach at the University of Innsbruck, ACINN.