Learning from Existing and Developing Test Beds

OFCM Challenges of Urban Test Beds10th GMU Conference on Atmospheric Transport

and Dispersion Modeling

Walter BachArmy Research Office

2 August 2006

Acknowledgments

• Will Pendergrass – UrbaNet

• Bruce Hicks – UrbaNet

• Ken Crawford – Oklahoma City Urban Micronet

• David Kingsmill – NOAA Hydro-Meteorological Test Bed

• Jim Anderson – AWS WeatherBug

• Maria Pirone – Private sector involvement

• Many Others

Community• Community Attention

– There are problems ! • Air Quality (ozone, emissions, health)• Public & private safety • Public & private transportation• Urban flooding • WMD• Severe weather – snow, ice, heat, cold,

– Tailor the approach to the problems• Community Cooperation

– Governmental Agencies – Emergency Services– Public Education

• Each Community is different

Purpose / Objectives

• Clear objectives for each Test Bed – KISS– Must serve multiple users– Long term

• Attainable objectives– Community impact– Users impact– Science impact

Designs

• Build the test bed incrementally– Can’t cover all scales– Can’t solve all the problems

• Urban Test Beds are measurement driven– Forecast models have difficulty with urban scales– Motions are highly stochastic– Surface features (local & region)

• Use in place processing where possible• Use robust wireless data transmission

Observations

• QA/QC– Maintenance– Calibration – Precision of measurement

• Multiple time & space scales– Highly variable wind statistics

• Roof tops can work• Look above canopy – through BL

• Provide for Campaigns ( IOP’s)

Correlation of U-components with National Arboretum 7-27-06 12:30

-1 -0.5 0 0.5 1

HOOVER

NOAA

NY EML

Navy Annex

1 hour 2 hours 6 hours

NAS

DOE

DC EMA

NRL

Correlation of U-components with National Arboretum 7-27-06 12:45

-0.2 -0.1 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4

HOOVER

NOAA

NY EML

Navy Annex

1 hour 2 hours 6 hours

NAS

DOE

DC EMA

NRL

Communications

• With user communities – joint production and feedback of new products

• With science communities – R&D needs being met? developments, testing

• With public – Newspapers, Radio –TV, Internet

• With education – schools, libraries

Research

• Measurements to study the whole boundary layer

• Data assimilation in surface and sub-canopy layer.

• Correlation lengths / times among network elements

• Mixing heights• Scales really represented by measurements• How well does the network satisfy its objectives

Conclusions

• The Urban Test Bed serves many masters in many different ways.

• Community awareness and involvement are crucial to establishing the test bed.

• It can always be improved• Beneficiaries must commit to support the

development and maintenance of the test bed.• User and Science driven; Community benefit