Experimental study of temperature inversions above urban area using unmanned aerial vehicle

Abstract

Vertical temperature profiles represent a very important factor for various analytical and numerical studies, such as weather forecasts, air pollution models and CFD simulations. These temperature profiles are especially important during the winter periods, when temperature inversions occur. The cities in the natural valleys, such as the city of Sarajevo, B&H, are strongly affected by this phenomenon. In this paper, a method for quantitative characterization of vertical temperature profiles, which is based on the in-house developed data acquisition system and the unmanned aerial vehicle, is presented. Comprehensive calibration and verification procedure was performed and explained in details. Field measurements were focused on the winter period and extreme temperature inversion scenarios. The correlation with the air pollution in the city, for the same period, was discussed as well.