BT Tower research

APRIL network meeting on BT Tower research 26th January 2010

http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/environmentalpolicy/research/environmentalquality/april/events/bttowermeeting

• Best exposed platform over London• Climatology of turbulent mixing 2006-2008 (Wood et al. 2010)• Carbon dioxide and water vapour fluxes (Helfter et al. 2010)

ACTUAL

“Buildings don’t just withstand climate, they change it”

Aim: to challenge urban engineering practice by incorporating urban climate knowledge

Funded by EPSRC under the Challenging Engineering programmePartners: Met Office, Arup, GLA

Advanced Climate Technology Urban Atmospheric Laboratory(5 years, started March 2009)

ACTUAL: setting up the LaboratoryBT at190 m

• Aim: Long-term observations of London’s atmosphere

• Develop BT Tower measurements platform

• Westminster City Council rooftop platform

• Doppler lidar, sodar

Installation Summer 2010www.actual.ac.uk

Roof top at ~20m

ClearfLo• NERC funded consortium,

Principal Investigator: Prof. Stephen Belcher at Uni. of Reading

• Collaborators: York, Leeds, Manchester, Salford, Hertfordshire, KCL, UEA, Birmingham, Reading, NCAS

• £2.8million over 3 years, combined meteorological and chemical observations and modelling

• Start date January 2010

ClearfLo• Objectives are to:- Establish an infrastructure for air

quality research- Measure a meteorological and

chemical “climatology” of London- Determine meteorological and

chemical processes governing concentrations

- Focus on ozone, nitrogen dioxide and particulates

- Evaluate air quality modelling

• Sites at different heights and locations in and around London

• Medium term measurements (2 years) study of met and chemical processes

A growing “urban observatory”• DAPPLE project rooftop site (continuous since October 2006) turbulence

www.dapple.org.uk

• REPARTEE BT Tower and Regent’s Park gas, particulates, boundary layer turbulence (2007) http://www.cas.manchester.ac.uk/research/projects/cityflux/repartee/

• BT Tower measurements (Oct 2006 to May 2008) Water vapour, CO2, turbulence

• ISB52 – Uni. of Salford, London rural/urban transition turbulence• LUCID – running Met Office Unified Model at 250 m resolution over London

heat fluxes, temperature, heatwaves www.lucid-project.org.uk • Sue Grimmond at King’s College London: urban micrometeorology

http://geography.kcl.ac.uk/micromet/Index.htm

• Ralf Toumi/Claire McConnell at Imperial: interaction between particulates and urban climate; London Grid for Learning http://weather.lgfl.org.uk/

Conclusions

• Basic research into urban atmosphere essential to underpin policy decisions

• Timeliness: critical mass in urban climate and pollution research, established input from policy makers, industry

Urban Meteorology at Reading:http://www.met.reading.ac.uk/Research/boundary_layer/research/urban.html

Janet Barlow: j.f.barlow@reading.ac.uk