Greenhouse Gas Monitoring

• Close to densely-used highway
• Lat: 41.4976ºN / Lon: 2.1089ºE / Altitude: 147 m asl / Sampling heights: 15 m agl
• Operational since 2020

This station is located on the campus of the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB), on the rooftop of the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA), 2 km downwind from the Collserola range, at the Vallès Occidental valley and 13km west of the Mediterraean Sea.

CO₂ concentrations for this location currently range between 430 ppm (middle of the day) to 470 ppm during the weekend and more than 550 ppm during week days (night and early morning).

Windroses

Albeit the station is in the midst of a highly green, low-density campus, it is located between two of the most frequented motorways in Catalonia, the AP7 and C58. SW component winds are predominant, making up 45% of the daily wind observations recorded at the Automatic Weather Station Sant Cugat del Vallès – CAR, located 3km south-west of the ICTA station. Wind speeds are typically higher than the rest of the AMB, ranging between wind 6 to 18.4 m/s , even when the wind blows from the NE and NW.

The sampling period of this windrose is the whole year 2020. The weather station is in Sant Cugat del Vallès, 3km south-west of the ICTA station.

• Urban park amidst highly built area
• Lat: 41.3874°N / Lon: 2.1145°E / Altitude: 80 m asl / Sampling heights: 4 m agl
• Operational since 9/2021

This station is located within urban green parks (Pedralbes Park and Cervantes Park) and is 1 km east of the Collserola range, but it is also surrounded by heavily constructed area made up by university campuses, residences, and businesses. It is near one of the busiest streets of Barcelona (Avinguda Diagonal), with four lanes in each traffic direction, heavily transited at all hours of the day and one of the most important accesses into the city from the southwest. It is located 5km inland from the Port of Barcelona. 

Currently, CO₂ concentrations for IDAEA range between 420 ppm to more than 450 ppm. The maximum value registered is 580 ppm.

Windroses

At night, NW wind component normally predominates. According to the Automatic Weather Station Barcelona – Zona Universitària  which is 400 meters away, 43% of all night observations of the year 2020 were characterized by NW winds. During the day there is a more evenly distributed wind direction along the cardinal points (between 10-20% of 2020 day observations in all directions except the N wind components with around 5%) . During the day, the maximum wind speed is 11 m/s and the wind directions with high wind speeds are NE and NW. At night, the wind speeds decrease below 4 m/s and, most times are between 0 and 2 m/s.

The sampling period of this windrose is the whole year 2020. The weather station is in Zona Universitaria.

• Urban coastline (Instituto de Ciencias del Mar- CSIC)
• Lat: 41.385111°N / Lon: 2.195944°E / Altitude: 40 m asl / Sampling heights: 15 m agl
• Operational since

This station is located in one of the densest areas of Barcelona (Barceloneta) and is characterized by high density of buildings and no urban green. On the east side, however, the station faces the Mediterranean Sea.

Windroses

During the daytime, S and ESE wind components dominate most of the time according to the Davis weather station set up right next to the gas inlet of the measurement station (26% of the days of 2020 the wind was blowing from these directions), together with components between W and NW (15% of the observations). At night, the wind is mainly from NW.  

The sampling period of this windrose is the whole year 2020 and data observations of the night hours are from 8pm to 8am. The weather station is in the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM).

• Collserola forest
• Lat: 41.4183°N / Lon: 2.1242°E / Altitude: 415 m asl / Sampling heights: 15 m agl
• Operational since 2/2022

The station is located on the eastern end of the Collserola mountain range, the highest point in the AMB. It is characterized by dense forest and lies 7km west of the sea.  

Currently, daily CO₂ concentrations in this location range between 405 ppm (morning, background concentration) to more than 450 ppm (in the afternoon, typical anthropogenic signal). The maximum value recorded is 520 ppm.

Windroses

Typically, westerly winds dominate during the night to early morning hours sweeping over the forest mass of Collserola, thus providing a sound background measurement at least during those hours because most of the anthropogenic activity of the city lies to the east. The daily wind observations of 2020 collected from the Automatic Weather Station Barcelona – Observatori Fabra just 20 meters away indicate that westerly winds are present 60% of the time during the night to early morning hours, and frequently with high wind speeds from 6 to 15.9 m/s. During the day, the westerly winds decrease, and the SW wind component dominates (45% of the 2020 daily observations).  

The sampling period of this windrose is the whole year 2020. The weather station is in Observatori Fabra. 

• Agriculture/Airport (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya UPC – Agropolis)
• Lat: 41.2885°N / Lon: 2.0451°E / Altitude: 3 m asl / Sampling heights: 8 m agl
• Operational since 17/12/2025

The station is located in the municipality of Viladecans, surrounded by one of the largest horticultural production areas in Catalonia (the Agrarian Park of Baix Llobregat). It lies about 1 km east (straight line) of Barcelona–El Prat Airport, 8 km from the port, and roughly 15 km northeast of the centre of Barcelona. The seashore is about 2 km to the south.

The datasets from this site will become available in 2026.