Switzerland to create world’s first real-time pollen monitoring system
Allergy sufferers will be able to get more reliable, real-time information on pollen levels in Switzerland when an automated national pollen monitoring system is launched in 2023 – a world first.
Switzerland is set to become the first country in the world to introduce a national real-time pollen monitoring network across its entire territory. MeteoSwiss External linkis currently a European leader in this domain and leads an ad hoc programme of the European EUMETNET network, which brings together eleven weather services on the continent.
Since 2010, the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology (MeteoSwiss) has been testing five real-time pollen measuring systems.
Two systems from Switzerland are based on the same principle. Pollen pass through laser beams, which provide information on the size and shape of the particles. Other lasers make the particles fluorescent, revealing their composition.
A prototype from Lucerne also records an image of each pollen grain in flight and creates a kind of hologram. In both systems, information on particle size, shape and composition allows pollen to be identified using artificial intelligence and algorithms.
MeteoSwiss currently measures pollen concentrations manually once a week at 15 monitoring stationsExternal link across the country using pollen traps. The time-consuming process means that the results are only available after 2-9 days.
MeteoSwiss says in the future allergy sufferers will be able to plan outdoor activities and preventive medical treatment much better with more reliable forecasts. Doctors and pharmaceutical companies and climatologists will also be able to use the network data.
The new system is estimated to cost CHF3-4 million ($3-4 million) to install. The indirect costs of lost productivity and sick days related to pollen allergies are estimated at between CHF1-3.5 billion francs a year in Switzerland.
Medieval squirrels may have ‘helped spread leprosy’
This content was published on
An examination of squirrel remains in the United Kingdom has opened up interesting questions and possibilities in terms of the history of the disease.
Swiss money laundering office registers record number of reports
This content was published on
The Money Laundering Reporting Office Switzerland (MROS) registered a record number of reports of suspicious activity last year.
Two teens accused of planning terror attack released from custody
This content was published on
The Schaffhausen judiciary has released the two teenagers from custody who allegedly planned bomb attacks in Switzerland.
OECD: Sluggish economic activity slowing growth in Switzerland
This content was published on
Sluggish economic activity at the start of the year is weighing on growth in Switzerland, with GDP expected to fall to 1.1% in 2024.
Report finds mistakes which led to Swiss government data breach
This content was published on
Mistakes were made by both the government and internet company Xplain in the case of a criminal cyber-attack on the Bern-based IT business.
Swiss government wants better gender balance in federal administration
This content was published on
New Swiss government personnel management targets say there must be even more female managers in the federal administration.
Swiss national science foundation funded over 5,000 projects in 2023
This content was published on
In 2023, the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) provided a total of CHF961 million worth of funding towards research projects.
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.
Read more
More
Has the hot Swiss summer helped hay fever sufferers?
This content was published on
The highest levels of pollen concentration were recorded in late June and early July, two weeks earlier than normal. MeteoSwissExternal link believes the heat and drought conditions were responsible for the phenomenon, which was last observed in the hot summer of 2003 that also saw a drought. Levels varied by region, with French-speaking Geneva witnessing…
Pollen allergy app launched as part of largest Swiss study of its kind
This content was published on
Called “Ally Science”, the app is available from Tuesday in the four national languages and in English. It enables users to maintain their pollen allergy diary, check pollen forecasts, and together with the app community generate real-time representations of increases in allergy symptoms in different parts of the country. The anonymised data generated from user…
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.