Improving our Understanding of Urban Boundary Layer Dynamics in Baltimore

The Baltimore Social Environmental Collaborative (BSEC) seeks to improve urban climate modeling in Baltimore in partnership with the communities that are impacted by urban climate and air quality. The BSEC project will address several urban climate science questions across natural and social sciences. Here we present plans to deploy two eddy covariance towers in the Baltimore area, and Lidar and Sodar atmospheric profiling systems, creating an urban atmospheric boundary layer observatory. Our first flux tower deployments will measure contrasting neighborhoods typical of residential areas of the city. One site is in the Broadway East neighborhood, a high density, low vegetation cover, low income neighborhood. The second tower is in the Howard Park neighborhood, a medium density, medium vegetation cover, higher income area. In addition to the flux instruments, we will also be deploying a 4 sonic anemometer profile system at each tower to study the urban surface layer, a Doppler lidar to measure boundary layer depth and profiles of mean wind and atmospheric turbulence, and a Doppler sodar to measure low-level bay breezes. These observations will help inform and constrain earth system model simulations of the Baltimore atmospheric boundary layer, enhancing urban climate science leading to equitable solutions for climate change in urban areas.