Real-Time Urban Weather Observations for Urban Air Mobility

Abstract

It is estimated that more than 55% of the world’s population live in urban areas today; this proportion is expected to jump to almost 70% by 2050 (United Nations, 2019). Presently, in North America, the population in urban areas is already estimated at 82% (United Nations, 2019). As the size of the urban population grows, the urban environment will be increasingly tasked to sustain the activities of a larger portion of the world’s population. The urban boundary layer (UBL), the portion of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) whose climatic characteristics are modified by the presence of a city (Oke, 1976), is this environment. However, the UBL is one of the most complex and least understood microclimates due to the heterogeneity of the fabric underlying it and roughness elements composing it, omnipresent turbulence and anthropogenic heat sources, among other complex processes.