Airborne Particulate Pollutants: PHYsicochemistry and TOXicity (PHYTOX) was a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Urban Regeneration and the Environment (URGENT) Air project (GST/02/2222 - Duration: 1/10/1998 - 30/9/2001) led by Prof Roy Richards, University of Wales, Cardiff. This dataset contains rat atmospheric pollution exposure measurements.

Universities Weather Research Network (UWERN) Urban Meteorology Programme (URBMET) was a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Urban Regeneration and the Environment (URGENT) Air project (GST/02/2231 - Duration: 1/01/1999 - 30/6/2002) led by Dr Stephen Belcher, University of Reading. This dataset contains wind LiDAR measurement from the University of Salford.

Universities Weather Research Network (UWERN) Urban Meteorology Programme (URBMET) was a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Urban Regeneration and the Environment (URGENT) Air project (GST/02/2231 - Duration: 1/01/1999 - 30/6/2002) led by Dr Stephen Belcher, University of Reading. This dataser includes wind tunnel model data from the University of Reading.

Universities Weather Research Network (UWERN) Urban Meteorology Programme (URBMET) was a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Urban Regeneration and the Environment (URGENT) Air project (GST/02/2231 - Duration: 1/01/1999 - 30/6/2002) led by Dr Stephen Belcher, University of Reading. This dataset contains wind tunnel model data from the University of Surrey.

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. Airborne Particulate Pollutants: PHYsicochemistry and TOXicity (PHYTOX) is a NERC Urban Regeneration and the Environment (URGENT) Air project (GST/02/2222 - Duration: 1/10/1998 - 30/9/2001) led by Prof Roy Richards, University of Wales, Cardiff. The objectives of this project were: -to collect and provide detailed physiochemical analysis of PM10 (defined as particulate matter which has an aerodynamic diameter of less than 10microns) from four sites (industrial, densely populated urban, open cast mining and rural) in the South Wales conurbation -to examine the ability of the characterised samples of PM10 to produce lung inflammation, increase lung permeability or initiate epithelial damage -to determine if the effects are transient or progressive. This project has a multi-disciplinary approach to collect, quantify, physicochemically characterise and determine the respiratory toxicology of different samples of airborne particles. The research is especially timely because of the increasing concerns by government, medical and environmental professionals about possible adverse health effects of particulate pollution. In addition, there is growing public concern, particularly amongst asthmatics and the healthy population, who live near traffic or other particle-generating sources, that airborne pollutants may be detrimental to health.

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. Universities Weather Research Network (UWERN) Urban Meteorology Programme (URBMET) was a NERC Urban Regeneration and the Environment (URGENT) Air project (GST/02/2231 - Duration: 1/01/1999 - 30/6/2002) led by Dr Stephen Belcher, University of Reading. The key issues of this project were: -how boundary-layer motions drive small-scale street-level circulations within the urban canopy -how street-level circulations feed back into the larger-scale boundary-layer above by mixing heat, moisture and momentum -how small-scale circulations within the streets mix pollutants from street-level into the boundary-layer above -how larger-scale motions above affect the mixing. This work brought together expertise from dynamical and observational meteorology, and theoretical and experimental fluid dynamics to make full-scale and laboratory measurements of the atmospheric boundary-layer over urban areas. The project developed a sound understanding of the processes of mixing and transport from the street-level into the boundary-layer. It also developed methods for parameterising these processes in urban-scale dispersion models and in numerical weather prediction models through an urban canopy model of urban areas.

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.

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.

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).

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.