You’d have to run an instrument that you can force to have 0-10VDC outputs, but that could be done with a regular old temperature controller with analog outputs. Not sure if it’s right for the application, but with some tinkering could probably be calibrated properly for useful measurements of temperature. And it would sure be fun! Quakemap.com has great software for downloading your track data from your gps onto maps and / or into excel… Definitely worth the $10 license.

http://www.dataq.com/products/startkit/di148.htm

I’ve had lots of fun tracking stuff like this but it’s usually with some other type of sensor, though I measure a lot of temperature too, but have never done mobile measurements. There are other USB temperature recorders out there also with maybe 1 second sampling rates, though probably not traceable to NIST for the cheap ones… Have fun!

Mike S.

http://pages.unibas.ch/geo/mcr/Projects/BUBBLE/images/plots/t1_energy.gif

Wind and temperature: VERY COOL.

http://pages.unibas.ch/geo/mcr/Projects/BUBBLE/images/plots/t5_meteo.gif

NOTE anthony, Parker did not define “windy” in terms of velocity. I’ll explain if you like.

http://pages.unibas.ch/geo/mcr/Projects/BUBBLE/textpages/md_windtunnel.en.htm

http://www.bioone.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.2181%2F1533-6085(2005)038%5B0029%3AAOTUHI%5D2.0.CO%3B2

http://ams.confex.com/ams/AFAPURBBIO/techprogram/paper_79115.htm

( have a look at the infrared stuff)

http://asusmart.com/flash/presentations/golden_cool_pavements_2.swf

AND my favorite project: Bubble

http://pages.unibas.ch/geo/mcr/Projects/BUBBLE/textpages/md_tracer.en.htm

This will give you a temperature profile that will have short-term time effects removed. There is still an underlying temporal component having to do with the time of day as well as the season. It would be interesting to conduct these transects on a frequent basis throughout the year, at different times of day, to see how the profile varies.

If you’re planning on trying multiple transects, I suggest you identify what it is you wish to further nail down. Is it to create a map of the UHI? Or is it to observe how the UHI changes between the temperature high and low? If you wish to map the UHI you should limit the variables by running transects at approximately the same time every day. And of course if you’re measuring the range of UHI it should be done over the same transect at different times of day.

I just checked out the Meridian Hills station at http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KININDIA18 and I see it captures local wind data too. Man oh man, you could have baseline data for a city and on a particularly windy day run a few transects and you could easily test Parker’s hypothesis about UHI and wind. Indianapolis looks like a great place to test that theory out, as there doesn’t appear to be any confounding water bodies or extended urban development in the surrounding area.

Ah, science! Thanks Anthony for reviving my excitement, what with all the possibilities this test of yours brings with it. If your road kit is affordable enough, you may need to be establishing surfacetransects.org as well!

I’m working on a battery powered temperature logger with integrated radiation shield, that has a port to download data…should be ready in a couple of weeks.

The cost will be low enough that others can do UHI transects too, as the unit can serve as reference as well as moble station. It will be small enough to simply position on a lightweight piece of PVC or a rod pushed into ground to get a standard observing height of 1.5 meter.

I have it covered, there are multitudes of private weather stations in the area in addition to the official NWS readings, graphs of temp/dewp are available here:

http://www.wunderground.com/stationmaps/gmap.asp?zip=46201&magic=1&wmo=99999

and here’s a sample of individual station data,

http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KINFRANK4

they even have a comma delimited file output option at the bottom of the tabular data.

Mosh thanks for the link to the paper, nice to have precedence.

You’re getting pretty darn close to an area of science that I am quite familiar with, that being airborne geophysical surveying to measure magnetic field, electrical conductivity, etc.

I’ll just focus on the magnetic sampling. The aircraft tows a sensor along a flight line, recording along the flight path at a very high sample rate. This is the part that your kit and methodology mimics fairly well. In the airborne survey many successive flight lines are flown, at a line spacing appropriate to the sensor altitude and desired resolution. All the parallel lines are tied together by flying tie lines perpendicular to the main fligh lines. The tie line spacing would be in the ballpark of an order of magnitude greater than the flight line spacing.

I’m not suggesting this degree of coverage, but the concepts of tie lines will be useful as will the notion of levelling, a process that essentially forces the measurements to a common value at points of intersection. Levelling is done after removing the diurnal variation in the data. Diurnal variation is established by having a base station constantly recording the magnetic field during the time the survey is being performed. Because the diurnal variation in the magnetic field does not vary over a local area it is possible to remove the drift.

Another method to remove drift in the signal is to reoccupy your starting point after completing your survey and remove the difference between the start and end temperatures, assuming a linear response over the time in question. Oh, I see Tex brought that up.

It’s too late to modify your kit to include a base station, so you’ll have to see about finding one locally for which you can get hourly or better data. The problem with base stations is that the temperature field can vary so much spatially as well as temporally. Still having a base station would strengthen (or weaken) the assumption of a linear change in the delta T.

OK, I’m gushing I suppose. I’d better read your posting from Indianapolis and get caught up.

There are others. UHI mobile transects.

I think it was in Europe.. I’ll have lok see

Might check for a CRN site around indy. And check the agri sites..

I think you should set up a reference station somewhere outside the city during the duration of the measurements. That way you could track the temperature changes due to the time delay (maybe even adjust if needed?). If you don’t do this, I see alot of people “pooh-pooh”ing the experiment.

BTW, I’ve never seen pooh-pooh spelled like the bear!