In 1989 the United Nation's Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) programme was established to monitor the background load of the world's atmosphere with pollutants and trace compounds, to determine their trends and long-term evolution, and to do research on climate-environment relationships. Besides over 300 regional stations GAW uses a worldwide network of  26 Global Stations (Trinidad Head, USA and Cape Verd Islands not yet on the map), which carry out a complete range of chemical and related meteorological measurements. Global stations are expected to operate conti- nuously and at a high and consistent data quality level and should preferably be located in remote areas whith no significant changes in land-use in the coming decades. Scientific results made available from observations at GAW stations include the confirmation of the ozone decrease over Antarctica, the strong anticorrelation between UV-B and ozone, the concentration increase of climate affecting greenhouse gases and of ozone-depleting substances, etc.

The Environmental Reserach Station Schneefernerhaus hosts the alpine plattform of the GAW Global Station Zugspitze-Hohenpeißenberg.

GAW Global station network