Intra and inter ‘local climate zone’ variability of air temperature as observed by crowdsourced citizen weather stations in Berlin, Germany

A one-year data set for the year 2015 of near-surface air temperature (T$T$), crowdsourced from ‘Netatmo’ citizen weather stations (CWS) in Berlin, Germany, and surroundings was analysed. The CWS data set, which has been quality-checked and filtered in a previous study, consists of T$T$ measurements...

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Main Authors: Daniel Fenner, Fred Meier, Benjamin Bechtel, Marco Otto, Dieter Scherer
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Borntraeger 2017-11-01
Series:Meteorologische Zeitschrift
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1127/metz/2017/0861
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author Daniel Fenner
Fred Meier
Benjamin Bechtel
Marco Otto
Dieter Scherer
author_facet Daniel Fenner
Fred Meier
Benjamin Bechtel
Marco Otto
Dieter Scherer
author_sort Daniel Fenner
collection DOAJ
description A one-year data set for the year 2015 of near-surface air temperature (T$T$), crowdsourced from ‘Netatmo’ citizen weather stations (CWS) in Berlin, Germany, and surroundings was analysed. The CWS data set, which has been quality-checked and filtered in a previous study, consists of T$T$ measurements from several hundred CWS. It was investigated (1) how CWS are distributed among urban and rural environments, as represented by ‘local climate zones’ (LCZ), (2) how LCZ are characterised in T$T$ along the annual cycle and concerning intra-LCZ T$T$ variability, and (3) if significant T$T$ differences between LCZ (ΔT$\Delta T$) can be detected with CWS data. Further, it was investigated how the results from CWS compare to reference data from standard meteorological measurement stations. It can be shown that all ‘urban’ LCZ are covered by CWS, but only few CWS are located in ‘natural’ LCZ (e.g. forests or urban parks). CWS data along the annual cycle show generally good agreement to reference data, though for some LCZ monthly means between both data sets differ up to 1 K. Intra-LCZ T$T$ variability is particularly large during night-time. Statistically significant ΔT$\Delta T$ can be detected with CWS data between various LCZ pairs, particularly for structurally dissimilar LCZ, and the results are in agreement with existing literature on LCZ or the urban heat island. Furthermore, annual mean ΔT$\Delta T$ in CWS data agree well with reference data, thus showing the potential of CWS data for long-term studies. Several challenges related to crowdsourced CWS data need further investigation, namely missing meta data, the non-standard measurement locations, the imbalanced availability in time and space, and potentials to combine CWS and reference data to benefit from the main advantages of both, i.e., the large number of stations and the high quality of data, respectively.
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spelling doaj.art-11b9f9c4b2a14cfd8c358cc5a0133c222022-12-22T02:27:04ZengBorntraegerMeteorologische Zeitschrift0941-29482017-11-0126552554710.1127/metz/2017/086188058Intra and inter ‘local climate zone’ variability of air temperature as observed by crowdsourced citizen weather stations in Berlin, GermanyDaniel FennerFred MeierBenjamin BechtelMarco OttoDieter SchererA one-year data set for the year 2015 of near-surface air temperature (T$T$), crowdsourced from ‘Netatmo’ citizen weather stations (CWS) in Berlin, Germany, and surroundings was analysed. The CWS data set, which has been quality-checked and filtered in a previous study, consists of T$T$ measurements from several hundred CWS. It was investigated (1) how CWS are distributed among urban and rural environments, as represented by ‘local climate zones’ (LCZ), (2) how LCZ are characterised in T$T$ along the annual cycle and concerning intra-LCZ T$T$ variability, and (3) if significant T$T$ differences between LCZ (ΔT$\Delta T$) can be detected with CWS data. Further, it was investigated how the results from CWS compare to reference data from standard meteorological measurement stations. It can be shown that all ‘urban’ LCZ are covered by CWS, but only few CWS are located in ‘natural’ LCZ (e.g. forests or urban parks). CWS data along the annual cycle show generally good agreement to reference data, though for some LCZ monthly means between both data sets differ up to 1 K. Intra-LCZ T$T$ variability is particularly large during night-time. Statistically significant ΔT$\Delta T$ can be detected with CWS data between various LCZ pairs, particularly for structurally dissimilar LCZ, and the results are in agreement with existing literature on LCZ or the urban heat island. Furthermore, annual mean ΔT$\Delta T$ in CWS data agree well with reference data, thus showing the potential of CWS data for long-term studies. Several challenges related to crowdsourced CWS data need further investigation, namely missing meta data, the non-standard measurement locations, the imbalanced availability in time and space, and potentials to combine CWS and reference data to benefit from the main advantages of both, i.e., the large number of stations and the high quality of data, respectively.http://dx.doi.org/10.1127/metz/2017/0861urban climatelocal climate zonesair temperaturecrowdsourcingcitizen weather stationBerlin
spellingShingle Daniel Fenner
Fred Meier
Benjamin Bechtel
Marco Otto
Dieter Scherer
Intra and inter ‘local climate zone’ variability of air temperature as observed by crowdsourced citizen weather stations in Berlin, Germany
Meteorologische Zeitschrift
urban climate
local climate zones
air temperature
crowdsourcing
citizen weather station
Berlin
title Intra and inter ‘local climate zone’ variability of air temperature as observed by crowdsourced citizen weather stations in Berlin, Germany
title_full Intra and inter ‘local climate zone’ variability of air temperature as observed by crowdsourced citizen weather stations in Berlin, Germany
title_fullStr Intra and inter ‘local climate zone’ variability of air temperature as observed by crowdsourced citizen weather stations in Berlin, Germany
title_full_unstemmed Intra and inter ‘local climate zone’ variability of air temperature as observed by crowdsourced citizen weather stations in Berlin, Germany
title_short Intra and inter ‘local climate zone’ variability of air temperature as observed by crowdsourced citizen weather stations in Berlin, Germany
title_sort intra and inter local climate zone variability of air temperature as observed by crowdsourced citizen weather stations in berlin germany
topic urban climate
local climate zones
air temperature
crowdsourcing
citizen weather station
Berlin
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1127/metz/2017/0861
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