QUESTION: ARE CURRENT MET OBSERVATIONS ADEQUATE FOR URBAN APPLICATIONS?

1
QUESTIONARE CURRENT MET OBSERVATIONS ADEQUATE
FOR URBAN APPLICATIONS?

• R. P. Hosker, Jr.
• NOAA-Air Resources Laboratory
• Atmospheric Turbulence Diffusion Division
• Oak Ridge, TN 37830
• ray.hosker_at_noaa.gov

My short answer mostly NO.
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CITIES ARE NOT LIKE RURAL AREAS!
Sketch by Oke and Rotach, in Piringer et al,
2002 WASP-Focus, 2, pp 1-16.
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SCIENCE ISSUES WITH CURRENT URBAN OBSERVING
SYSTEMS

• Inadequate resolution of spatial scales within
  urban areas.
• Few observations in the vertical but very
  important for dispersion predictions in urban
  areas.
• Representativeness a major problem in cities,
  espec. in complex environments (e.g., terrain,
  coastal). Remote sensing/averaging an answer?
• Limited guidance for siting instruments in urban
  areas, espec. in CBDs.

4
NON-SCIENCE ISSUES WITH CURRENT URBAN OBSERVING
SYSTEMS

• Adequate funding long-term commitments for
  urban measurement networks. Need lawmaker
  understanding and support.
• Siting problem 1 owner permission often driven
  by liability worries. How to fix?
• Siting problem 2 cities change site
  characteristics vary. Need continuity in obs.
• Siting problem 3 some useful instrument
  systems are not neighbor-friendly. Need to
  adjust design criteria for urban instrumentation.

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5 AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST FOR URBAN MET
OBSERVATIONS

• Severe Weather (storms, floods, heat, cold)
• Homeland Security (hazardous releases)
• Air Quality (air pollutants and products)
• Water Quality (transfer of airborne materials)
• Climate (long term changes and trends)

A request was made to add fire weather to these
perhaps really a special case of severe weather?
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Met Requirements For

• Severe Weather. Resolve sub-urban scale spatial
  variability. Representative sites. Rapid
  updates robust comms power reasonable
  accuracy.
• Current systems OK? Only in some places. Need
  more networks.

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Met Requirements For

• Homeland Security. WD is critical. Resolve
  local scale variability of wind T fields both
  horizontally vertically. Turbulence info.
  Rapid updates robust comms. Ability to
  recognize CBR release.
• Current systems OK? Generally, no. Need
  specialized integrated networks vertical data,
  coupled to modeling.

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Met Requirements For

• Air Quality. Resolve sub-urban scale variation
  of winds, T, mixing layer depth. Photochemistry
  variables important. Concentration data. Hourly
  updates. Solid calibrations.
• Current systems OK? Generally, not quite. Need
  enhanced networks, vertical data.

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Met Requirements For

• Water Quality. Resolve sub-urban or smaller
  scale variability of precip (location rate),
  run-off.
• Current systems OK? Perhaps, if using radar obs.
  to supplement local precip measurements.

10
Met Requirements For

• Climate. Need regionally representative values
  of T, precip, multi-wavelength solar, etc. Need
  high accuracy and high precision. Long-term
  (decades to centuries) unchanging sites. High
  quality calibrations extensive metadata low
  data loss.
• Current systems OK? Only in some places. Need
  firm commitment to QUALITY. Need more urban
  sites.

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Suggested Observation Priorities

• Public Safety. Severe weather obs. warnings.
  Homeland security obs warnings. Design nets
  (hardware, placement) to reduce human risk.
• Public Health, Environment. Air water
  quality-related obs. Design integrated networks
  to assist rational decision-making, so as to
  reduce urban dweller exposures.
• Improved Understanding. Climate obs. Long-term
  maintenance commitments essential. Urban other
  climatically sensitive regions under-represented.