This open-access book is a practical and accessible guide for students, early-career researchers, and technical staff who need to collect environmental data but lack formal training in meteorology, physics, or instrumentation. Whether you're setting up a rural weather station, managing an urban monitoring site, or supporting a forest flux tower, this book helps you get started with clarity and confidence.
Drawing on decades of teaching and field experience, and shaped by the FAIRNESS COST Action, a pan-European network focused on improving data quality, the book provides grounded, accessible advice for real-world conditions. It emphasizes the importance of sensor selection, siting, calibration, and maintenance.
Rather than overwhelming readers with theory, the book explains how physical processes influence measurements and how to ensure data comparability across time and space. It also covers practical techniques for managing data gaps, quality control, and low-budget adaptations. Whether you're monitoring urban microclimates, managing a forest flux tower, or assessing agrometeorological risks, this book gives you the confidence and structure to collect trustworthy micrometeorological data - without needing to be an expert.
Josef Eitzinger is professor for Agrometeorology at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, BOKU, Vienna (Austria). His long-time expertise and research focus includes the processes of soil-crop-atmosphere interactions, crop modelling, crop-water balance, drought and cropping risks monitoring, agrometeorological measurements and climate change impact assessments on crop production.
Branislava Lalic is a professor of Meteorology and Biophysics at Faculty of Agriculture, UNS, Novi Sad (Serbia). Decades of experience in teaching micrometeorological measurements, instrumentation and data management, particularly to agronomy students and early-career researchers inspired this beginner-oriented guide.
Thomas Foken is a retired professor of micrometeorology at the University of Bayreuth (Germany) with many years of experience in research and teaching on the interaction between the Earth's surface and the atmosphere. He previously headed departments at the meteorological observatories in Potsdam and Lindenberg. His work on experimental meteorology has been honoured internationally.
Tamás Weidinger is a retired Associate Professor at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE, Budapest, Hungary), with a PhD in meteorology. His main research topic is surface-biosphere-atmosphere exchange processes including both measurements and modelling. He is an editor of Theoretical and Applied Climatology and Editorial Board member of Időjárás (Quarterly Journal of the HungaroMet).
