BUCL Urban Meteorological Network Read Me Guide
Source: data.gov.uk (2018-06-19)

HiTemp: High Density Temperature and Meteorological measurements within the Urban Birmingham Conurbation.. The NERC-funded HiTemp project was conducted by the Birmingham Urban Climate Laboratory (BUCL) research team to examine Birmingham's Urban Heat Island (UHI). The project operated a high density air temperature-sensor network and has lead to a number of research projects examining Birmingham's UHI in more detail than ever-before possible.

This dataset collection  temperature, dew point, relative humidity, pressure, solar radiation, precipitation, wind and hail measurements from a high density network of meteorological sensors installed within the Birmingham conurbation. This includes 73 Aginova Sentinel Micro air temperature sensors and 25 Vaisala WXT520 weather transmitters between 2012-14.

These measurements have been made by the Birmingham Urban Climate Laboratory (BUCL) for the HiTemp (High Density Measurements within the Urban Environment) project in order to study the Birmingham Urban Heat Island (UHI)

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BUCL Urban Meteorological Network Read Me Guide 
Dataset Description 
 
The dataset has been provided by the Birmingham Urban Climate Laboratory (BUCL), from 
the University of Birmingham, through the completion of the HiTemp research project. It is 
comprised of 25 WXT520 automatic weather station and 74 Aginova Sentinel Micro (ASM) 
observation time series, spanning various lengths, in minute resolution, between June 2012 and 
June 2014.  
The data is divided into daily files; however the WXT data is complete from their commission 
date to June 2014, whereas daily files have been omitted from the ASM data where no observation 
was taken for that day, in order to reduce redundant memory storage.  All data files are in a Comma 
Separated Value format (CSV). 
Detailed metadata forms for every site are included, including sketch maps, horizons, 
photographs and maintenance logs (Muller et al., 2013). Compiled location and elevation data are 
provided in CSV files for both the WXTs and ASMs, along with an exported metadata file for the 
WXTs. Each time series has a unique, 4 character ID, with WXT and ASM IDs beginning with ‘W’ and 
‘S’ respectively, e.g. ‘W008’ for WXT number 8. 
 
Flag Explanation 
 
Flags have been assigned to each observation with a composite flag calculated for the 
observation period. These ‘numeric flag’ files are also divided daily, and are constructed so the 
location of each observation and its respective flag is the same. These have been created using a 
combination of automatic and manual quality assurance/quality control (QAQC) procedures, 
following what was outlined in Chapman et al., 2014. 
Flag
Description
0
Good
1
Suspect
2
Warning
5
Likely Good (BUCL input)
9
Missing data
 
 
Data with warning flags should be omitted from use. Suspect data is most likely erroneous 
but did not fail the QAQC tests to the same extent and, unless it is scrutinised further individually, 
should be omitted as well. As a final note, the number of flags in winter generally increases for the 
WXTs due to the lack of power and extra care should be taken. Flags marked with 5 were assigned 
suspect by the automatic QAQC but were overwritten after a manual check. Flags marked with 9 are 
missing with dummy values of ‘-999’ for the observations. Rain, rainfall rate and hail have all been 
intentionally omitted for the data upload and have been replaced by dummy values. 
 

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File Formats 
WXT520 – Minute Resolution 
Column 
Code 
Variable 
Units 
Type 
1 YEAR 
Year 
- 
TIME 
2 MONX 
Month 
- 
TIME 
3 DAYX 
Day 
- 
TIME 
4 HOUR 
Hour 
- 
TIME 
5 MINX 
Minute 
- 
TIME 
6 TAIR 
Air Temperature 
degC 
AVG 
7 TDEW 
Dew point Temperature 
degC 
CALC 
8 RELH 
Relative Humidity 
% 
AVG 
9 PRES 
Station Pressure 
hPa 
AVG 
10 PSML 
Mean Sea Level Pressure 
hPa 
CALC 
11 SRAD 
Solar Radiation 
W m-2 
AVG 
12 RTOT 
Rainfall Total 
mm 
TOT 
13 RRAT 
Rainfall Rate 
kg m-2 
CALC 
14 WSPD 
Wind Speed 
m s-1 
AVG 
15 WDIR 
Wind Direction 
deg 
AVG 
16 WMAX 
Maximum Wind Gust 
m s-1 
MAX 
17 HAIL 
Hail 
Hits cm2 
AVG 
18 FLAG 
Data Quality Control Flag  
- 
CALC 
 
ASM – Minute Resolution 
Column 
Code 
Variable 
Units 
Type 
1 YEAR 
Year 
- 
TIME 
2 MONX 
Month 
- 
TIME 
3 DAYX 
Day 
- 
TIME 
4 HOUR 
Hour 
- 
TIME 
5 MINX 
Minute 
- 
TIME 
6 TAIR 
Air Temperature 
degC 
AVG 
7 FLAG 
Data Quality Control Flag  
- 
CALC 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Explanation of Type Values
Type 
Explanation
AVG
Average
CALC
Calculated
MAX
Maximum
TOT
Total

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Bibliography 
Muller, C.L., Chapman, L. Young, D.T., Grimmond, C.S.B., Cai, X.-M. (2013) Towards a 
Standardised Metadata Protocol for Urban Meteorological Networks. Bulletin of the American 
Meteorological Society. 94, pp 1161–1185 
Chapman, L., Muller, C.L., Young, D.T., Warren, E.L., Grimmond C.S.B., Cai, X.-M., Ferranti, 
J.S. (N.D.) The Birmingham Urban Climate Laboratory: An open meteorological testbed and 
challenges of the smart city. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. Under Review 
Young, D.T, Chapman, L., Muller, C.L., Grimmond, C.S.B., Cai, X.-M. (2014) A low-cost 
wireless temperature sensor: evaluation for use in environmental applications. Journal of Oceanic 
and Atmospheric Technology. 31, pp.938.944 
Vaisala (2012) User’s Guide: Vaisala Weather Transmitter WXT520. [Online]. Available from: 
http://www.vaisala.com/Vaisala%20Documents/User%20Guides%20and%20Quick%20Ref%20Guide
s/M210906EN-C.pdf. [Accessed: 29th July 2014] 
Aginova (N.D.) Temperature Sentinel Micro. [online]. Available from: 
http://www.aginova.com/docs/Sentinel_Micro_Datasheet_rev3.pdf [Accessed: 29th July 2014]