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  • The NERC URGENT thematic programme was set up to integrate urban environmental research across the geological, ecological, freshwater and atmospheric sciences. It worked in partnership with city authorities, industry and regulatory bodies. Deliverables from URGENT funded projects, that belong to Soil, Water, Ecology or Air Sciences, are archived at the BADC. There were 13 air science projects within the URGENT Programme. The largest of these is the PUMA (Pollution in Urban Midlands Atmospheres) Consortium, which is the core of a group of five closely interrelated projects forming the PUMA Consortia. Its geographical scope is the West Midlands County (UK) and Birmingham City but its aim is to provide general insights into urban atmospheric problems. The URGENT "Air" data are mainly in situ ground based measurements in urban and suburban areas but also include observations from aircraft, lab measurements and model results. Retrieved variables include atmospheric chemical species and aerosols, photolysis rates and meteorological/radiative parameters. Software, reports and recommendations to urban planners have also been issued. The thematic programme began in 1998 and lasted for 7 years. URGENT - Observation, Modelling And Management Of Urban Air Pollution (PUMA COnsortium - PUMACO) was a NERC Urban Regeneration and the Environment (URGENT) Air project (GST/02/1981 - Duration: 1/01/1998 - 30/09/2001) led by Prof. Roy M. Harrison, University of Birmingham. The objectives of this project were: -To apply a high spatial resolution meso-scale meteorological model to the West Midlands. This was the first of its kind in the UK. -To add a coupled dispersion and atmospheric chemistry model, capable of predicting both primary and secondary air pollutant concentrations at urban background locations across the conurbation with a horizontal resolution of about 2km and a vertical resolution as low as 25m. The model were validated against high quality measurements of primary pollutants such as carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide and NOX, as well as secondary pollutants including nitrogen dioxide, ozone and secondary inorganic particulate matter. It was compared with an existing model (UAM). -To make measurements of concentrations of a wide range of both long-lived and transient chemical species including hydrocarbons, carbonyl compounds, oxyacids of nitrogen and the free radical species OH, HO2, RO2 and NO3, which play a key role in atmospheric chemistry. -To validate the atmospheric chemical reaction mechanisms within the model in a depth not previously attempted. -To gain insights into the chemical processes controlling the composition of the urban atmosphere at a very fundamental level. -To produce a management model applicable for national and local government to predict the impact on air quality of specific control strategies for a wide range of criteria pollutants and on a range of timescales (minutes to years). This project was seeking to apply and validate a well accepted meso-scale meteorological model (the Colorado State University RAMS model) coupled with a very detailed chemical scheme within a Lagrangian particle dispersion model. A dozen of urban and suburban sites in and around the West Midlands County (UK) were chosen for the project. The principal urban site was Pritchatts Road, Birmingham City. Peripheric sites included Halfpenny Green Airport (West of Birmingham) and Withybrook Equestrian Centre (East of Birmingham). The field campaigns ran from 11 June - 13 July 1999 and 17 January - 17 February 2000. A variety of observation platforms were used. They included two ambulant laboratories (Birmingham and Leeds teams), a pollution monitoring van and a 10 m high tower allowing measurements to be made at a height of 5 or 10 metres. Most observations were made when the platform was stationary but some data were collected while driving (peripheric sites).

  • The NERC URGENT thematic programme was set up to integrate urban environmental research across the geological, ecological, freshwater and atmospheric sciences. It worked in partnership with city authorities, industry and regulatory bodies. The thematic programme began in 1998 and lasted for 7 years. This project provided facilities in the form of a low cost, highly instrumented aircraft designed for probing the turbulent and aerosol-cloud microphysical structure of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL). Priority use was given to the PUMA (Pollution of the Urban Midlands) consortia during the field trials planned for June 1999 and January / February 2000. The main objectives were: -to provide high resolution 3-D wind turbulence, temperature and trace-gas variances of the urban ABL -to provide measurements of the vertical and horizontal profile of aerosol concentration and volumetric size distribution over the Birmingham conurbation -to provide a database of aircraft urban ABL case studies, which will be available to the PUMA and ASURE modelling communities via the appropriate NERC database committee -to provide, where current UMIST instrumentation and facilities allow, the aircraft as a measurement platform for specific URGENT user measurement requests -to measure the vertical entrainment and venting rates of trace-gas and aerosol between the urban ABL and the lower troposphere -to measure the net aerosol / condensation nucleus flux downwind over an urban environment -to construct and install a low cost aerosol collection sampling system to provide complementary aerosol chemical composition data to the PUMA measurement campaigns and to the PUMA modelling efforts. A flight programme of ten flight days / case studies was designated solely to the PUMA consortia. Five additional flights were made available for either (a) instrument testing required by PUMA, which required the removal of the base-line instruments due to space and weight limitations, or (b) specific flights to accommodate other URGENT requirements.

  • Observation, Modelling And Management Of Urban Air Pollution (PUMA COnsortium - PUMACO) was a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Urban Regeneration and the Environment (URGENT) Air project (GST/02/1981 - Duration: 1/01/1998 - 30/09/2001) led by Prof. Roy M. Harrison, University of Birmingham. This dataset contains measurements of nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, ozone, halo-carbons, PAN and PM 2.5, temperature, wind, pressure and humidity.

  • Tracer and Dispersion of Gaseous Pollutants (GASPOL) was a NERC Urban Regeneration and the Environment (URGENT) Air project (GST/02/1974 - Duration: 2/9/1998 - 31/8/2001) led by Prof Peter Simmonds, University of Bristol. This project aims at characterising the dispersion of gaseous pollutants within and from cities. The methodology followed includes the determination of an effective experimental technology based on tracers release and monitoring (by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry). This dataset contains atmospheric perfluoromethylcyclohexane (PMCH) measurements from several sites around Birmingham, UK.

  • Observation, Modelling And Management Of Urban Air Pollution (PUMA COnsortium - PUMACO) was a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Urban Regeneration and the Environment (URGENT) Air project (GST/02/1981 - Duration: 1/01/1998 - 30/09/2001) led by Prof. Roy M. Harrison, University of Birmingham. This dataset contains measurements of nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, ozone, halo-carbons, PAN and PM 2.5, temperature, wind, pressure and humidity.

  • Observation, Modelling And Management Of Urban Air Pollution (PUMA COnsortium - PUMACO) was a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Urban Regeneration and the Environment (URGENT) Air project (GST/02/1981 - Duration: 1/01/1998 - 30/09/2001) led by Prof. Roy M. Harrison, University of Birmingham. This dataset contains measurements from the Automatic Urban Network of nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, ozone and PM 2.5.

  • Observation, Modelling And Management Of Urban Air Pollution (PUMA COnsortium - PUMACO) was a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Urban Regeneration and the Environment (URGENT) Air project (GST/02/1981 - Duration: 1/01/1998 - 30/09/2001) led by Prof. Roy M. Harrison, University of Birmingham. This dataset contains measurements from the Local Authorities of nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and PM 2.5.

  • Observation, Modelling And Management Of Urban Air Pollution (PUMA COnsortium - PUMACO) was a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Urban Regeneration and the Environment (URGENT) Air project (GST/02/1981 - Duration: 1/01/1998 - 30/09/2001) led by Prof. Roy M. Harrison, University of Birmingham. This dataset contains measurements from the Local Authorities of nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and PM 2.5.

  • Observation, Modelling And Management Of Urban Air Pollution (PUMA COnsortium - PUMACO) was a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Urban Regeneration and the Environment (URGENT) Air project (GST/02/1981 - Duration: 1/01/1998 - 30/09/2001) led by Prof. Roy M. Harrison, University of Birmingham. This dataset contains measurements from the Automatic Urban Network of nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, ozone and PM 2.5.

  • The NERC URGENT thematic programme was set up to integrate urban environmental research across the geological, ecological, freshwater and atmospheric sciences. It worked in partnership with city authorities, industry and regulatory bodies. The URGENT "Air" data were mainly in situ ground based measurements in urban and suburban areas but also include observations from aircraft, lab measurements and model results. Retrieved variables include atmospheric chemical species and aerosols, photolysis rates and meteorological/radiative parameters. The thematic programme began in 1998 and lasted for 7 years. Tracer and Dispersion of Gaseous Pollutants (GASPOL) was a NERC Urban Regeneration and the Environment (URGENT) Air project (GST/02/1974 - Duration: 2/9/1998 - 31/8/2001) led by Prof Peter Simmonds, University of Bristol. The transport and dispersion of pollutants, within and from a large urban area, are important processes due to their potential environmental impact on city inhabitants and those living in nearby communities. The release of atmospheric Tracers is a powerful technique to simulate the dispersion of pollutants and to enable direct measurement of the transport path and concentrations along the trajectory. Successful Tracers a inert, non-toxic, non-depositing, with low atmospheric background concentrations, long atmospheric lifetimes, and limited commercial use. This research project developed the Tracer technology necessary to characterise atmospheric dispersion within the urban environment. Bristol University were exploiting the many years of experience in Tracer technology coupled with recent advances in gas chromatography/mass spectrometry techniques. There were several components to developing an effective experimental Tracer technology and this project was addressing each of these in turn: -Selection of Tracers -Analytical instrumentation for their quantitative determination in the femtolitre/litre range -Design and construction of automated sequential samplers -Tracer release apparatus -The preparation of accurate perfluorocarbon standards.