Current and future work: the ACTUAL and ClearfLo projects

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 programme

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

ACTUAL

Objectives:1) Set up ACTUAL measurements:

Platform 1: remote sensing * Doppler lidar * Sodar, with Stuart Bradley at Uni. Of Auckland * Comparison with scintillometer deployed by Sue Grimmond at King’s College LondonPlatform 2: Westminster City Council roof (since Oct 2006)Platform 3: BT Tower Platform 4: Wind tunnel simulations (Uni. of Surrey), collaboration with A. Robins

• Deployment spring 2010• Data available throughout website by

autumn 2010

Advanced Climate Technology Urban Atmospheric Laboratory

zBT = 190 m

Z ~ 2-3H

Z = H

Z ~ 9H

ACTUAL2) Assess the validity and impact of urban climate simulation (partners: The

Met Office, Peter Clark)

Advanced Climate Technology Urban Atmospheric Laboratory

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

114 119 124 129 134 139 144 149 154Julian day

win

dspe

ed (m

s-1

)

U UM (179.3m)U BT (190m)

ACTUAL

3) Quanify the effect of building layout and design on urban climate (Partners: Arup, Jake Hacker, Andrew Allsop)

Advanced Climate Technology Urban Atmospheric Laboratory

X / H

Y/H

-4 -2 0 2 4-4

-2

0

2

4

C* [-]: 0.0E+00 4.0E-02 8.0E-02 1.2E-01 1.6E-01 2.0E-01z = 1.2H

b)

13.6

13.6

13.6

17.2

13.6

13.6

RM10S

ACTUAL

4) Determine the effect of urban climate on energy supply and demand (with Tim Cockerill at Imperial College)

Advanced Climate Technology Urban Atmospheric Laboratory

Flat 1: Ratio of the Potential Power at various locations in relation to the potential of the free srtream

z/h

-1 -0.5 0 0.5 1

1.2

1.3

1.4

1.5

1.6

1.7

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

0.35

0.4

0.45

0.5

ClearfLo

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

• Start date January 2010• Regular Knowledge Exchange meetings, part

hosted by APRIL • Two Intensive Observation Periods

(summer/winter pollution episodes, TBC)

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 (WRF-CMAQ)

• Sites: central London; urban background (NK); rural (Chilbolton, Harwell, Detling)• O3, CO, NOx, PM, SO2 existing; add AMS for particulate species on BT Tower. DOAS for NOx profiles through boundary layer• Add eddy covariance (fluxes), scintillometer (path averaged heat fluxes), ceilometer (boundary layer depth)• Sites at different heights (NK, MR – street; KCL – rooftop; BT – 190m)• Medium term measurements (2 years) integrating study of met and chemical processes

ClearfLo

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

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

• Contact: s.e.belcher@reading.ac.uk for more info

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 – rural/urban transition boundary layer 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 (ALERT, OPAL project)