The Welgegund atmospheric chemistry station in the North-West province of South Africa is the most well-equipped atmospheric science station in Africa and one of only a handful of stations globally that can measure so many different parameters. With the ability to monitor temperature, rainfall, moisture, cloud height, trace gases (CO2, SO2, O3, etc), dust, aerosols, mercury, volatile organic compounds and more, it is deserving of the term supersite.

Based on a mobile station that was put in a few places over a few years, it eventually found a permanent home 25km NW of Potchefstroom. This location was chosen because it is close enough to the North-West University (NWU) in Potchefstroom to allow regular maintenance and servicing yet has a relatively natural fresh-air signature most of the time but does capture distinctive plumes of polluted air when winds blow from the Gauteng megacity or the Highveld power generation-industrial complex.

Funding to keep the station going and upgrade it with more instruments comes from a variety of sources, but mainly from the NWU, BIOGRIP, FMI and UH (see below for details). The collaborative nature of this project is not only good for instrumentation but also allows students and scientists to learn from each other and demonstrates the value of good cooperation, even between countries as far apart and different as RSA and Finland. Aside from the many academic publications and the scientific understanding, much of the data is online and open access and feeds into global data networks.

A celebration of Welgegund was held on 17-18th November 2025, featuring a lunch at NWU, a tour of the station, a dinner in Potchefstroom and an evening function in Pretoria. Many dignitaries attended, including the Finnish Ambassador (Pekka Metso), the Director General of the FMI (Petteri Taalas), the Vice Chancellor of NWU (Bismark Tyobeka) and the Director of BIOGRIP (Roger Diamond) and attendees had a chance to talk about the science, renew acquaintances and make new connections.

Learn more:

Welgegund - https://en.ilmatieteenlaitos.fi/welgegund-reseach-station
NWU: North-West University - https://www.nwu.ac.za/
FMI: Finnish Meteorological Institute - https://en.ilmatieteenlaitos.fi/
UH: University of Helsinki - https://www.helsinki.fi/en
BIOGRIP: Biogeochemistry Research Infrastructure Platform - https://www.biogrip.ac.za/