Monday 4 July : There we go...
During the previous year the project was presented to many people. Two critical reactions often recurred and we would like to come back on these.
During the previous year the project was presented to many people. Two critical reactions often recurred and we would like to come back on these.
What can we do with these weather stations?
No surprise that our answer sounds like really a lot.First of all the data of the stations will be used for research, not only at Ghent University but also together with researchers from other institutions (e.g. RMI or VITO) that have experience with urban climate. The data will offer more insight in the micro-climate within a city. This is important as the majority of the world population is living in cities. We will be able to:
- estimate drawbacks (e.g. extra heat stress) and advantages (e.g. less heating needed) of the urban climate in Ghent
- evaluate and improve the weather models that have a sufficiently high resolution to include urban effects
Apart from this the project offers a framework to get students in touch with meteorology and meteorological research. Aside from university students this project is also interesting for secondary schools. As an example we will organize a STEM project with the St Bavo school, which is hosting a weather station.
The data of these stations are also of interest for others and we will give one example. A city consists of large impervious surfaces. During intense precipitation the sewage system of the city will thus need to process large flows of rainwater and this makes cities sensitive to floods. Farys (responsible for water management in Ghent) bought rain gauges for our weather stations to get more insight in the response of the sewage system on heavy precipitation over the city.
Last but not least, the stations are interesting for the inhabitants of the city who are interested in the weather in their neighbourhood.
Are there no existing weather stations in Ghent?
Yes, there were already some weather stations in Ghent. Apart from some hobbyists, meteorological observations are collected by VMM, KMI, observatory Armand Pien and the faculty of Bio-Engineering.A study based on these data is an option although one should be very careful. Let us take for example temperature observations. The aforementioned weather stations will differ in a subtle way
- different types of sensors with different accuracy can be used
- data can be stored in a different way (e.g. 1-minute averages or 5-minute averages)
- the radiation screens can be different (e.g. passive versus active ventilation)
- the siting conditions of the stations can be different (e.g. 2m height, on a roof,...)
Assume the air having the same temperature everywhere in the city. The previous reasons cause that the different stations will not necessarily result in identical temperature readings. The magnitude of the differences will depend on the weather conditions, e.g. on calm days the type of ventilation in the radiation screen will be important.
The use of 6 identical, highly accurate weather stations forms the strength of this project. This ensures that differences in the measurements are really caused by local effects.