1. BT Tower research APRIL network meeting on BT Tower research 26 th 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)

2. 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 Partners: Met Office, Arup, GLA Advanced Climate Technology Urban Atmospheric Laboratory (5 years, started March 2009)

3. ACTUAL: setting up the Laboratory BT at 190 m Aim: Long-term observations of London’s atmosphere Develop BT Tower measurements platform Westminster City Council rooftop platform Doppler lidar, sodar Installation Summer 2010 www.actual.ac.uk Roof top at ~20m

4. 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

5. 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

6. Sites at different heights and locations in and around London Medium term measurements (2 years) study of met and chemical processes

7. A growing “urban observatory” DAPPLE project rooftop site (continuous since October 2006) turbulence www.dapple.org.uk 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/ http://www.cas.manchester.ac.uk/research/projects/cityflux/repartee/ BT Tower measurements (Oct 2006 to May 2008) Water vapour, CO 2, 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 www.lucid-project.org.uk Sue Grimmond at King’s College London: urban micrometeorology http://geography.kcl.ac.uk/micromet/Index.htm 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/ http://weather.lgfl.org.uk/

8. 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_l ayer/research/urban.html Janet Barlow: j.f.barlow@reading.ac.ukj.f.barlow@reading.ac.uk