Readers may remember a couple of weeks back when I lamented that the downward economy had finally caught up to me and my little weather business. I asked readers if they’d mind if I’d showcase a weather station or two to help drum up some business. Nobody objected and many readers were very helpful and sympathetic. Thank you sincerely.
I always like to find ways to bring meteorological and climate science to the layman, hence this blog. My specialty is instrumentation, and readers may recall back in fall 2008 when I rigged up my vehicle with an NIST calibrated data logger, window mounted Gill IR shield, and a live connection to my laptop and drove a transect to measure the surface temperature. The result was this first ever graph of Reno’s UHI (Urban Heat Island) signature:
Click for larger image
That little experiment garnered quite a few comments, and I always wanted to find an inexpensive way for others to recreate what I did without having to invest in a high priced NIST calibrated probe, IR shield, datalogger, and laptop, all told which would run about $1200. That’s beyond the means of many people who might take an interest. It’s also well beyond the means of most students who might want to do something like this for their local science fair in their own hometown.
I’m pleased to say I have devised a solution for about 1/10th the cost, and I’ve just finished testing it in my hometown of Chico, CA. The results follow.
As many readers know, I sell some nifty USB dataloggers, and you may have seen this ad on the right sidebar which links to my online store.
The dataloggers are inexpensive, mostly under $100, and work great for various monitoring applications where you want to gather and evaluate temperature data. Problem is, they had no way to be mounted to anything easily, and I couldn’t see an easy way to mount one to a vehicle like I did with the IR Gill shield:
The NIST calibrated temperature sensor (inside the Gill IR shield) mounted on the vehicle using an improvised window mount., Cable goes to datalogger inside, and datalogger connected to laptop.
My goal has always been to recreate this inexpensively and reliably so many of you could map UHI in your own city. Making this within reach of students and their parents was the ultimate goal. How does $84.95 sound compared to $1200? You don’t even need to take a laptop in the vehicle with you.
Some days, serendipity strikes. A discussion about US flags with fellow blogger Russ Steele made me think about this idea of using the window flag mounts commonly seen en-route to football and baseball games:
Except my version has no team flag, it flies a datalogger instead:
How’s that for simple?
I spent today working this product idea out and testing it to make sure it is simple enough for anyone to recreate anywhere. Then I ran some road tests. Here’s how it works.
First we start with the USB-2 Temperature and Humidity datalogger. The reason I chose this unit over a temperature-only USB-1 version is that it already has a built in mini IR shield that allows free airflow. It reacts faster for that reason.
Next I provide a modified vehicle window mount and mounting hardware specifically to keep the USB-2 datalogger affixed, click images to enlarge:
Adhesive Velcro strip plus a removable secure strap worked best:
I ran some tests to see if I could fling the datalogger off the end. It held even after inflicting a few G’s on it at arms length.
Here’s the finished product:
The next test was to see if the datalogger was far enough out of the vehicle slipstream to prevent any temperature contamination while moving. That was evident from the data right away.
I did four daytime driving transects of my town to see if there were any hiccups or gotchas with install, driving, removal, and data download. Finding none, I wrote up some instructions:
Measuring UHI in your city:
- Install the software on your Windows PC (or laptop if you bring it with you in the car). Experiment with and familiarize yourself with the datalogger.
- Choose a route you can drive in your town that provides a good north-south and/or east-west driving transect from country, through suburbs, downtown, and back to countryside again. Use Google Earth or a similar mapping tool to assist in planning your route. Try to choose a route that will not take any more than 30 minutes to minimize ambient temperature change that may occur.
- Choose a clear night with no wind or light wind if possible. Later at night like 11PM-midnight is best so as to have minimum traffic and stoplights.
- Set the data logger to start logging either immediately or at some start time in the future. Put the waterproof cap back on
- Affix the datalogger to the vehicle mount using the strap provided.
- Put the vehicle mount on the top edge of your vehicle window and close it for a tight fit.
- Drive to the start point, Either wait for the pre-programmed start time or trigger the data logger to start from your laptop. It is always best to start on an easy to check period like top of the hour, quarter hour, or half hour.
- Drive the route, trying to maintain a fixed speed.
- Have your passenger note landmarks/locations in a logbook as you drive so that you can correlate with temperatures later.
- Optional – take a logging GPS unit with you if you want exact positions and time.
- Once completing the first transect, turn around and drive it again. You may wish to do several transects if time allows so that you can create an average profile later.
- Remove the USB-2 datalogger from the vehicle mount, plug into your PC, launch the included software and plot your results! Export the data to a spreadsheet for further analysis.
Saturday night, April 3rd, I ran my first for real UHI transect on Highway 99 from Garner Lane North of town to Neal Road South of town. I chose these points because they were safe places to turnaround and because they were both well enough removed from the population center that I expected they would approximate “rural” conditions.
After driving a transect and reverse driving it again, here is what the datalogger showed from the program that ships with the datalogger:
As you can see, the red temperature curve shows two humps, these are the two transects mirrored. First one was driving NW to SE, and the reverse (second) was SE to NW. Humidity and dewpoint are also displayed. The temperature looks a little blocky becuase the resolution of the datalogger is 0.5°C. However, given the world’s surface data is measured to the nearest degree, this is more than adequate for the purpose.
My home weather station (in town) showed light winds less than 5mph from the southeast and 50°F (10°C) when I left. Skies were clear. It was a good evening to measure UHI.
I took a voice recorder with me to note the time I started driving and the time I turned around and reversed the transect. I drove the reverse transect about 10mph faster because the first transect I didn’t want to pass a semi truck (speed limit 55mph for trucks through town) and pick up any waste heat, so I held well behind it.
Next I exported that data into my favorite graphing program ( DPlot ) and edited the starting and ending data times based on my recorder notes. I had set the datalogger at home to automatically start at 8:45 PM and I hadn’t reached my Garner lane start point yet. My actual transect began at 8:47 PM from Garner Lane at Highway 99 intersection.
Then I pulled up my Google Earth and started exporting some images for reference. Here’s the normal map view of the transect with starting and ending points:
And here’s the NW to SE driving transect overlaid onto a Google Earth 3D image looking NE so that Highway 99 appears as a “x- axis”:
As you can see, the graph matches the infrastructure character of the town fairly well, with the peak coinciding with the center of town (marked by the crosshair and label). The temperature is less in the rural outskirts of town.
So there we have it, it appears that my small college town of ~ 80,000 people has a UHI value of about 1.5°C (2.7°F) via this transect. The second return transect from SE to NW has the same magnitude, but is offset due to ambient temperature drop that occurred during the drive. When I returned home at 9:30PM, and hour later my home weather station had dropped to 44°F.
So would you like to do this for your hometown? Do you have a son/daughter nephew/niece that would benefit from a weekend science project learning about how to measure temperature and graph it to show UHI? Or, maybe you just want to do it yourself for fun and quantify what you’ve noticed for years via your automobile thermometer.
I’ll be happy to post any results here.
The only real caveat to this experiment is: don’t stop your vehicle if you can help it. Without a constant airstream, some waste heat from the vehicle might make its way to the sensor. Choose your driving route to avoid long stoplights, and I’ve found that in many cities after 11PM certain thoroughfares are “greenlighted”.
If you like this little idea or know somebody who would, please feel free to buy my little UHI measurement kit at a price most anyone can afford: $84.95 It helps me and provides more data that shows UHI to be a real, measurable, effect.
Here is the link to purchase the kit: http://weathershop.com/usb2-UHI.htm
And yes, I do ship internationally.
Thanks for your consideration, happy motoring! – Anthony
UPDATE: Hu McCulloch reminds me of the similar experiment Warren Meyer and his son did a couple of years ago which you can read about here:
http://www.climate-skeptic.com/2008/02/measureing-the.html
Some commenters were concerned about contamination of the data due to the vehicle. This is possible, even likely, at a dead stop. But at highway speeds of 60 mph or even street speeds of 30 mph any such contamination gets swept away in the slipstream. Essentially the thermometer has turbocharged aspiration, and is measuring the true temperature of the air being intersected. There may be issues with wast heat from vehicles ahead, but if you drive carefully and avoid tailgating, this can be avoided. Doing multiple transsects over time and averagign the runs is another way to minimize such biases.
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The raw data from the USB datalogger is below, note the date format is dd/mm/yyyy.
ChicoUHILogger,Time,Celsius(°C),Humidity(%rh),dew point(°C),Serial Number 1,03/04/2010 20:45:00,9.5,58.5,1.8,010004039 2,03/04/2010 20:45:10,9.5,59.0,1.9 3,03/04/2010 20:45:20,9.5,59.5,2.0 4,03/04/2010 20:45:30,9.5,59.5,2.0 5,03/04/2010 20:45:40,9.0,60.5,1.8 6,03/04/2010 20:45:50,9.0,60.5,1.8 7,03/04/2010 20:46:00,9.0,61.0,1.9 8,03/04/2010 20:46:10,9.0,60.5,1.8 9,03/04/2010 20:46:20,9.0,61.0,1.9 10,03/04/2010 20:46:30,9.0,61.0,1.9 11,03/04/2010 20:46:40,9.0,61.5,2.0 12,03/04/2010 20:46:50,9.0,61.5,2.0 13,03/04/2010 20:47:00,8.5,62.5,1.8 14,03/04/2010 20:47:10,8.5,63.0,1.9 15,03/04/2010 20:47:20,8.5,63.0,1.9 16,03/04/2010 20:47:30,8.5,62.5,1.8 17,03/04/2010 20:47:40,8.5,62.0,1.6 18,03/04/2010 20:47:50,8.5,60.5,1.3 19,03/04/2010 20:48:00,8.5,60.5,1.3 20,03/04/2010 20:48:10,8.5,60.5,1.3 21,03/04/2010 20:48:20,9.0,60.0,1.7 22,03/04/2010 20:48:30,9.0,59.5,1.5 23,03/04/2010 20:48:40,9.0,59.0,1.4 24,03/04/2010 20:48:50,9.0,58.5,1.3 25,03/04/2010 20:49:00,9.0,58.0,1.2 26,03/04/2010 20:49:10,9.0,58.0,1.2 27,03/04/2010 20:49:20,9.5,57.5,1.5 28,03/04/2010 20:49:30,9.5,57.0,1.4 29,03/04/2010 20:49:40,9.5,57.0,1.4 30,03/04/2010 20:49:50,9.5,56.5,1.3 31,03/04/2010 20:50:00,9.5,56.5,1.3 32,03/04/2010 20:50:10,9.5,56.5,1.3 33,03/04/2010 20:50:20,10.0,56.5,1.8 34,03/04/2010 20:50:30,10.0,56.5,1.8 35,03/04/2010 20:50:40,10.0,56.0,1.6 36,03/04/2010 20:50:50,10.0,55.5,1.5 37,03/04/2010 20:51:00,10.0,55.5,1.5 38,03/04/2010 20:51:10,10.0,55.5,1.5 39,03/04/2010 20:51:20,10.0,55.5,1.5 40,03/04/2010 20:51:30,10.0,55.5,1.5 41,03/04/2010 20:51:40,10.0,55.5,1.5 42,03/04/2010 20:51:50,10.0,56.0,1.6 43,03/04/2010 20:52:00,10.0,56.5,1.8 44,03/04/2010 20:52:10,10.0,56.0,1.6 45,03/04/2010 20:52:20,10.0,56.5,1.8 46,03/04/2010 20:52:30,10.0,56.0,1.6 47,03/04/2010 20:52:40,10.0,55.5,1.5 48,03/04/2010 20:52:50,10.0,55.0,1.4 49,03/04/2010 20:53:00,10.0,54.5,1.3 50,03/04/2010 20:53:10,10.0,54.5,1.3 51,03/04/2010 20:53:20,10.0,54.5,1.3 52,03/04/2010 20:53:30,10.0,55.0,1.4 53,03/04/2010 20:53:40,10.0,54.5,1.3 54,03/04/2010 20:53:50,10.0,54.5,1.3 55,03/04/2010 20:54:00,10.0,54.5,1.3 56,03/04/2010 20:54:10,10.0,55.0,1.4 57,03/04/2010 20:54:20,10.0,55.5,1.5 58,03/04/2010 20:54:30,10.0,55.5,1.5 59,03/04/2010 20:54:40,10.0,57.0,1.9 60,03/04/2010 20:54:50,10.0,57.0,1.9 61,03/04/2010 20:55:00,10.0,57.5,2.0 62,03/04/2010 20:55:10,9.5,58.0,1.7 63,03/04/2010 20:55:20,9.5,58.0,1.7 64,03/04/2010 20:55:30,9.5,58.0,1.7 65,03/04/2010 20:55:40,9.5,57.5,1.5 66,03/04/2010 20:55:50,9.5,57.5,1.5 67,03/04/2010 20:56:00,9.5,58.5,1.8 68,03/04/2010 20:56:10,9.5,58.5,1.8 69,03/04/2010 20:56:20,9.5,59.5,2.0 70,03/04/2010 20:56:30,9.5,60.0,2.1 71,03/04/2010 20:56:40,9.0,60.5,1.8 72,03/04/2010 20:56:50,9.0,60.5,1.8 73,03/04/2010 20:57:00,9.0,61.0,1.9 74,03/04/2010 20:57:10,9.0,61.0,1.9 75,03/04/2010 20:57:20,9.0,61.0,1.9 76,03/04/2010 20:57:30,9.0,61.5,2.0 77,03/04/2010 20:57:40,9.0,61.5,2.0 78,03/04/2010 20:57:50,9.0,61.5,2.0 79,03/04/2010 20:58:00,9.0,61.0,1.9 80,03/04/2010 20:58:10,9.0,61.0,1.9 81,03/04/2010 20:58:20,9.0,61.0,1.9 82,03/04/2010 20:58:30,9.0,61.0,1.9 83,03/04/2010 20:58:40,9.0,60.5,1.8 84,03/04/2010 20:58:50,9.0,61.0,1.9 85,03/04/2010 20:59:00,9.0,60.5,1.8 86,03/04/2010 20:59:10,9.0,60.5,1.8 87,03/04/2010 20:59:20,8.5,61.0,1.4 88,03/04/2010 20:59:30,8.5,62.0,1.6 89,03/04/2010 20:59:40,8.5,62.5,1.8 90,03/04/2010 20:59:50,8.5,62.5,1.8 91,03/04/2010 21:00:00,8.5,62.5,1.8 92,03/04/2010 21:00:10,8.5,62.5,1.8 93,03/04/2010 21:00:20,8.5,63.0,1.9 94,03/04/2010 21:00:30,8.5,63.0,1.9 95,03/04/2010 21:00:40,8.5,64.0,2.1 96,03/04/2010 21:00:50,8.5,64.5,2.2 97,03/04/2010 21:01:00,8.5,64.0,2.1 98,03/04/2010 21:01:10,8.5,64.0,2.1 99,03/04/2010 21:01:20,8.5,64.0,2.1 100,03/04/2010 21:01:30,8.0,64.5,1.7 101,03/04/2010 21:01:40,8.0,65.0,1.8 102,03/04/2010 21:01:50,8.0,65.5,1.9 103,03/04/2010 21:02:00,8.0,66.0,2.0 104,03/04/2010 21:02:10,8.0,66.0,2.0 105,03/04/2010 21:02:20,8.0,66.5,2.2 106,03/04/2010 21:02:30,8.0,65.5,1.9 107,03/04/2010 21:02:40,8.0,64.5,1.7 108,03/04/2010 21:02:50,8.0,65.0,1.8 109,03/04/2010 21:03:00,8.0,66.0,2.0 110,03/04/2010 21:03:10,8.0,66.0,2.0 111,03/04/2010 21:03:20,8.0,66.0,2.0 112,03/04/2010 21:03:30,8.0,66.0,2.0 113,03/04/2010 21:03:40,8.0,65.0,1.8 114,03/04/2010 21:03:50,8.0,64.0,1.6 115,03/04/2010 21:04:00,8.0,63.5,1.5 116,03/04/2010 21:04:10,8.0,63.0,1.4 117,03/04/2010 21:04:20,8.0,62.0,1.2 118,03/04/2010 21:04:30,8.5,61.0,1.4 119,03/04/2010 21:04:40,8.5,61.5,1.5 120,03/04/2010 21:04:50,8.5,61.0,1.4 121,03/04/2010 21:05:00,8.5,60.5,1.3 122,03/04/2010 21:05:10,8.5,60.5,1.3 123,03/04/2010 21:05:20,8.5,60.0,1.2 124,03/04/2010 21:05:30,9.0,60.5,1.8 125,03/04/2010 21:05:40,9.0,61.5,2.0 126,03/04/2010 21:05:50,9.0,61.0,1.9 127,03/04/2010 21:06:00,9.0,61.0,1.9 128,03/04/2010 21:06:10,9.0,61.0,1.9 129,03/04/2010 21:06:20,9.0,61.0,1.9 130,03/04/2010 21:06:30,9.0,60.5,1.8 131,03/04/2010 21:06:40,9.0,60.0,1.7 132,03/04/2010 21:06:50,9.0,59.5,1.5 133,03/04/2010 21:07:00,9.0,59.0,1.4 134,03/04/2010 21:07:10,9.0,59.0,1.4 135,03/04/2010 21:07:20,9.0,59.0,1.4 136,03/04/2010 21:07:30,9.0,58.5,1.3 137,03/04/2010 21:07:40,9.0,58.5,1.3 138,03/04/2010 21:07:50,9.0,58.5,1.3 139,03/04/2010 21:08:00,9.0,58.0,1.2 140,03/04/2010 21:08:10,9.5,58.0,1.7 141,03/04/2010 21:08:20,9.5,57.5,1.5 142,03/04/2010 21:08:30,9.5,57.5,1.5 143,03/04/2010 21:08:40,9.5,57.0,1.4 144,03/04/2010 21:08:50,9.5,57.0,1.4 145,03/04/2010 21:09:00,9.5,57.0,1.4 146,03/04/2010 21:09:10,9.5,57.0,1.4 147,03/04/2010 21:09:20,9.5,57.0,1.4 148,03/04/2010 21:09:30,9.5,57.0,1.4 149,03/04/2010 21:09:40,9.5,57.0,1.4 150,03/04/2010 21:09:50,9.5,57.0,1.4 151,03/04/2010 21:10:00,9.5,56.5,1.3 152,03/04/2010 21:10:10,9.5,57.0,1.4 153,03/04/2010 21:10:20,9.5,57.0,1.4 154,03/04/2010 21:10:30,9.5,57.0,1.4 155,03/04/2010 21:10:40,9.5,59.0,1.9 156,03/04/2010 21:10:50,9.5,61.0,2.4 157,03/04/2010 21:11:00,9.5,61.5,2.5 158,03/04/2010 21:11:10,9.0,61.0,1.9 159,03/04/2010 21:11:20,9.0,61.0,1.9 160,03/04/2010 21:11:30,9.0,61.0,1.9 161,03/04/2010 21:11:40,9.0,62.0,2.1 162,03/04/2010 21:11:50,8.5,62.0,1.6 163,03/04/2010 21:12:00,8.5,62.5,1.8 164,03/04/2010 21:12:10,8.5,63.0,1.9 165,03/04/2010 21:12:20,8.5,63.5,2.0 166,03/04/2010 21:12:30,8.5,64.0,2.1 167,03/04/2010 21:12:40,8.5,63.5,2.0 168,03/04/2010 21:12:50,8.0,63.5,1.5 169,03/04/2010 21:13:00,8.0,64.0,1.6 170,03/04/2010 21:13:10,8.0,64.0,1.6 171,03/04/2010 21:13:20,8.0,64.5,1.7 172,03/04/2010 21:13:30,8.0,65.5,1.9 173,03/04/2010 21:13:40,8.0,65.0,1.8 174,03/04/2010 21:13:50,8.0,64.0,1.6 175,03/04/2010 21:14:00,8.0,63.5,1.5 176,03/04/2010 21:14:10,8.0,63.0,1.4 177,03/04/2010 21:14:20,8.0,62.5,1.3
Great work – I doubt if Phil Jones or David Parker could have done this from their warm offices though instead of playing around with dodgy datasets about windspeeds to find the conclusion they wanted. I don’t drive but I encourage all to do this!
REPLY: Thanks. You could do this on a bicycle just as easily. As long as you keep the airflow going you’ll get a result. Yeah those guys at the top of the climate foodchain, particularly Parker, need a swift kick in the butt to get out of their office and do some real-world measurements. – Anthony
Now imagine of just a one percent of cars had this system installed in several countries around the world. We would have the best method of measuring real temperature at the surface. The job of collating, processing, filtering, analyzing and reporting would be an issue but it would be far more accurate than the stationary temperature stations that are next to air-conditioners, parks, etc.
Since the data has a timestamp, it would be great to match it with GPS data. I’m sure the WUWT community would com up with a solution that could even plot it on Google maps! Just some software for merging the GPS data and your datalogger would be needed…
Ecotretas
Very impressive.
Is this a recognised method of measuring UHI or is there an element of innovation?
How does the results with the inexpensive kit compare to those with the expensive kit?
Can you yet say whether there’s a discrepancy between the official correction for UHI for your home town and the correction your instrumentation would indicate is appropriate?
One thing about an improvement in instrumentation and access to it is that it doesn’t favour one side of the argument over the other.
Wonderful. Absolutely.
Wonderful combination of imagination, creativity and ability.
This and similar activity, if widely spread, should remove much of the nimbus in AGW.
I have a suggestion for improvement though, concerning the temperature measurement. Many of you may know that Analog Devices sell an absolute temperature controlled current generator AD590. It is an IC for, say, ca$10 (?).
Once I selected the series resistor for optimum current measurement for the voltmeter I had at hand with 1 microvolt resolution. The result showed 1 mK resolution. I am not joking, it immediately became clear I could follow temperature variations with 0.001 K resolution.
Obviously, many considerations are important in this case, I am merely indicating that many useful variations could be implemented.
Keep up the wonderful work,
Stockholm, Sweden
REPLY: There’s a voltage datalogger with 0-30v range also available. Your idea could work with that but the output would be noisy
Nice idea except for one thing: BIASES introduced by the surroundings.
I’m surprised that you’d —on the one hand— criticize the feds over their selection of specific weather stations, while on the other not consider the biases which will be introduced by so many uncontrollable factors such as the temperatures of:
— the pavement
— the vehicle
— the driver (who might be breathing heavily)
— the passengers (who might also be breathing heavily)
— passing vehicle exhausts
— wind currents which might cause the air temperature to remain static
— the surrounding topology of buildings, etc.
I like your idea, but in order for it to garner ~any~ degree of the scientific, one would have to have a fleet of identical vehicles AND a cameras facing all degrees of the compass such as to capture the lay of the land, and traverse the same route for several hours each day so as to acquire a replicative set of measurements.
We have started “keeping and eye on UHI” using a normal in-car external temperature sensor, but have always been concerned about how accurate it might be. Hmm, might have to sgn up for one of these.
Looking at Guam, I was always puzzled by the huge 1.5 degree C rise in temperature in WSMO Agana:
Wsmo Agana, G 13.6 N 144.8 E 529912170000 rural area 1956 – 2004
Having found the station location and evidence for population growth in the area, in the light of what you have shown here the ‘rural’ station location was certainly close enough to growing houseing developments to be affected by the increasing urbanisation before it was shut down. link
Of course, if the Governements of the world were really keen on working out U.H.I , they would put these on Public service cars. But i suppose the problem is that they are idle most of the time, not doing any work, so the result would be debatable. Haha.
It would be great to get a National Taxi Service behind this, maybe we can get a grant from the Greenhouse Office(Australia) or Obama’s Green Mafia mob.
Also another suggestion would be a National Trucking line. surely someone knows someone that could help this happen. A lot of these guys are G.P.S monitered, so it would collate???
Isn’t it relevant what kind of weather it is or was during the day? I would presume that an urban heat effect would be greater when sunny, be affected by wind direction, be influenced by rain etc. Would be interesting to do a few trips to measure this?
Off topic – but this is just the last in a succession of scandalous behaviour by our Scottish politicians.
MSPs fly out on £30,000 business-class ‘jolly’ – to talk about climate change
At a time when Scotland faces spending cuts of up to £3 billion in its budget, the parliament will today send four MSPs and two officials on a trip to New York, Boston and Washington DC.
The business-class transatlantic flights are costing in excess of £10,000, while accommodation has been booked in some of the best hotels.
The trip – described last night as an unnecessary, taxpayer-funded “jolly” – has been arranged as part of Tartan Week, even though the Scottish Government is already sending three ministers to take part in the celebrations in New York.
http://www.scotsman.com/politics/MSPs-fly-out-on-30000.6200049.jp
899 (02:28:44) : BIASES introduced by the surroundings.
THAT is exactly what you are trying to measure, that is what UHI is.
Anthony, why not compare daytime UHI to Nighttime UHI?
REPLY: Sure why not, the beauty is that this simple system allows for different investigations. But mostly the night time signal is affected due to re-radiation of stored daytime heat as IR. Daytime UHI will be there, but lower in magnitude. – A
There is a lot you could do with this if it was integrated into a neural network/fuzzy logic system and monitored at single locations over a long time scale (year+). You would need at least two dataloggers – one close to the actual UHI affected station and one or more upwind/downwind of prevailing winds along with hourly(?) readings from the ASOS/MMTS/wind direction/speed/insolation.
As neural nets look at and learn from complex relationships, such an integrated system would evenually integrate the UHI affecting the actual sensor under a wide variety of temperature/weather combinations thoughout the year and could, for current systems at least, give a very accurate and real time correction. It would however be site specific. There is probably a grant proposal in this for someone.
Anthony, this is a great idea and if I didn’t already have a room full of temperature monitoring gear I’d buy one!
Nice instrument! It should be trivial to either write one’s own small program to log both position and temperature/humidity or alternatively logging both separately and match later based on time. I have to get one for my father, he is old but he serely would like to do a number of test runs around Helsinki (Finland). Me driving both chatting 🙂 .
I was thinking of doing this two years ago, but I was concerned about the response time and the .5 degree precision. Thought about a digital meat thermometer with .1 degree precision, but the one I had burned up in the oven.
REPLY: A logging meat thermometer? I think not. – A
899
— the driver (who might be breathing heavily)
— the passengers (who might also be breathing heavily)
Before picking fault, look at the photographs – the windows are up.
DO’OH!
REPLY: More than that, even if the windows were down, at 60mph explain how a small breath is going to reach up to the sensor instead of getting sucked into the slipstream and instantly pushed downwind fast. – A
Transects which center roughly on weather stations would certainly be enlightening.
I think I would like to do several of Burlington, VT and Plattsburgh, NY. Two cites about fifteen miles from each other, one of which has experienced high economic growth and “global warming,” and the other of which lost a large air force base, has experience modest growth at best, and does not seem to show much “global warming.”
A really great idea. As TJA says, it would be really useful to monitor UHI for the stations documented by SurfaceStations.
As far as I understand it, the IPCC effectively discounts UHI, possibly on the basis of a paper by Parker that used wind monitoring. To use such an indirect method seems bizarre when it’s so easy to measure UHI directly.
Anthony measured a UHI of 1.5 degrees. The presenter of the BBC Climate Wars series measured a UHI of several degrees at Las Vegas.
These UHI measurements are consistently much larger than the total claimed global warming of 0.7 degrees. Houston, we have a problem….
Chris
Good start on creating a global real-time dataset. No doubt the alarmists will mount the temperature sensors on the car’s exhaust pipe to achieve the results they expect.
Years ago on one of my many trips to sunny California, we were crusing around downtown LA , and in Hollywood with the roof down on our beautiful Mustang convertible rent-a-car. It was so hot in fact that we had to head for the beach in Santa Monica, a short 5 mile drive. On the way, once we started to escape the UHI from LA core,the temperature took a notable drop. By the time we got to Venice Beach, we had to stop and put up the roof and try and get warm. I couldn’t believe the difference in temperature. LA is in a giant basin where the heat can’t escape, but once you head toward the ocean, that is where you will get a real temperature reading. It just simply demonstrates the UHI on a massive scale in one localized area of the planet.
Fortunatly I doubt if there are any weather stations in or around the downtown area as they would be easily compromised. The UHI is real for sure.
I think it is impotant for all to remember that the planet is 70% water, and 27% desert or ice caps. With only 3% of the planet available for supporting human industrialization it isn;’t likely we can have any real effect on its climate. Also, only about 1/3 rd of the planet have access to electricity and/or running water, so we can eliminate their ” carbon footprint” . Which leaves a tiny part of the planet which is industrialized. Think about that , the next time you fly anywhere….just lean over and look out the window. The entire population of the planet could fit in an area of about 20 square miles ( not comfortably or realistically, but just a comparison )
All the best guys:
Ian
Hell, I ain’t going to whip up any datasets or such, but I’m going to buy one just for the absolute neatness of the concept. I’ve used the temperature only unit for a couple of months, it’s kinda addicting. Now I need humidity measurement! Jeez that a recording barometer could be so inexpensive…
Here in La Grande, Oregon in the Northeast Mountains, I have noted the Temps involved with the local METAR stations and the AWAS at the local Airport. Last year in January I noted that while the Airport which is out in the Grande Ronde Valley , and has some but not much, in the way of physical plant activity is Two to Six degrees colder than my neighborhood- sometimes as much as ten. Around me I have the Hospital, Junior and Senior high Schools and six blocks distant is the University. All with physical plants running 24/7 it is as much as a whole climate Zone difference here. The Airport seems to run USDA zone 5 and we here in south La Grande Zone 6. The rest of the area seems to be zone 5 a&b though we are higher than the Airport. UHE is Real and Anthony, you deserve a cheer for helping US out and this article is a simple solution to a problem- great article…
Nifty item anthony! and only one error…
it didnt take millions in funding/grants etc.
so of course it will be panned.
it didnt cost enough!
off topic, but you asked about OLd Sci am etc mags for folks to check old weather etc items?
friend in aus managed to geta stack from 1963 4 5 6 7 and early 70s.
her ebay store is EdenhopeAntiques, she could be mailed via there, I asked her to hold off adding them until wuwt folks had a chance, she was considering cutting them up:_( seems some folks collect old adverts. I shudder! destroying history for an ad?? I hope this may help someone who can afford them and has the time and knowledge.
Great job! Blogreaders may recall that Coyote’s (Climate Skeptic’s) son did something similar in Phoenix for his science fair a couple of years ago: http://www.climate-skeptic.com/2008/02/measureing-the.html, but this sounds simpler and less expensive.
It would be important to record altitude and do a standard adjustment for it — many downtowns are on rivers, so that altitude rises in both directions from the center. The picture of your route seems to indicate that the S end was in the foothills.
Latitude could also be an issue. Driving 30 miles NS doesn’t seem like far, but it takes you about 1% of the way to the N pole!
I would trust ducttape over velcro for an $85 instrument. Would this be unsatisfactory?
Daytime UHI would be interesting as well, if one could find a route with little traffic. Are freeways adequate routes, or do they create their own UHI?
REPLY: Yes Warren Meyer and his son did a similar project, thanks for the reminder, I’ll add it. A lot of that metadata can be solved using an onboard logging GPS that also records altitude. My original UHI roadkit used GPS but again my goal was to put this within reach of many financially.
Duct tape holds well but is a pain to remove and leaves a residue. This little velcro strip and clamp leaves none and the unit can be released from the mount without any fuss trying to find a seam. – A