In 2009, the observation programme at Birkenes Observatory was given a major upgrade along with an overall upgrade of the station infrastructure (go to an overview of the observational programme). The observatory was moved a few hundred metres and now has a comprehensive aerosol programme in addition to measuring CO₂ and CH₄ using a Picarro instrument.

Since the summer of 2009, the observational instruments have been housed in a container assembly on the top of a hill, with a free line of sight to the oncoming airflow in all directions. The land use in vicinity of the site is characterized by 65 % forest, 10 % meadow, 15 % freshwater lakes, and 10 % agricultural areas (low intensity). This relocation improved the regional representativeness of the station significantly. All electrical data infrastructure is new and was upgraded to enable NILU to control near-real-time measurements. Most data are available from http://ebas.nilu.no/.

The observations meet EMEP and GAW standards, and now comprise almost all observations that the GAW Scientific Advisory Group for Aerosols considers relevant for aerosol climate effect assessments. This upgrade was also an important improvement of the Norwegian observation programme of climate forcing drivers, which was previously more focused on the polar regions. The station will be further developed under the EMEP monitoring strategy and as a part of the new FP7 EU project ACTRIS.

Personnel visit the observatory on a daily basis, and NILU engineers are regularly present at the station.