Month: September 2024

Daily News 25 Sep 2024

Battersea Heliport DCNN 5023 – A suitable climate measuring point?

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51.46958 0.17941 Met Office assessed as CIMO Class 5 AND “UNSATISFACTORY” Installed 18/5/2018

Obviously the above image is not of a Met Office weather station whose data is used to compile the historic temperature record – that would be totally absurd. It is in fact an image taken from a Met Office Station whose data is used to compile the historic temperature record………and shows its surroundings.

This is the location of Battersea Heliport Weather Station that was fully assessed for climate reporting purposes – it did not have to be assessed.

In such a precarious landing/take off site, even for highly trained helicopter pilots, it is clearly essential to have accurate site temperature, air pressure and wind readings continuously available from the site, not only for the safety of passengers and crew but also a significant part of central London. Nobody could have any problem with weather data recording at such a site. Surely though, everybody would consider such a site exceptionally unrepresentative of the natural environment, even asking the suitability for climate reporting would likely be met with “rolling eyes”.

A senior civil engineer who worked on elements of this site commented to me -“it’s surrounded on three sides by high rise and for about 10 km by hardstanding in every direction. It simply can’t be being used for climate purposes.” He also provided the site imagery below to emphasise his point.

Astonishingly the Met Office chose to assess this site for World Meteorological Organisation Standards rating it in the lowest Class 5 and prone to up to 5 degrees celsius error margin. From Freedom of Information request –

Additionally they graded it by their own unique rating system as “Unstaisfactory”. Their latest release of gradings I obtained by Freedom of Information request is below..

There is no obligation on the part of the Met Office to assess stations against either of the above standards. Many stations simply are not assessed at all because their data is only for site specific and immediate purposes for instance such as Helicopter take offs and landings. Many aviation and military sites are not assessed as there really is no intent of using site data for anything other than local needs. So why was Battersea Heliport put through such testing for no logical reasoning – surely nobody intended to use such data for climate data reporting – or did they?

These are the CEDA ARCHIVE notes for a military Heliport known as “Plymouth: Kinterbury Point”. It clearly states –

“No MIDAS Open data are available from this station”

Even though recently installed in 2020 no data is publicly archived nor are any readings used for the historic temperature record. No problem.

In contrast the Battersea Heliport Archive readily offers daily readings to freely download

https://data.ceda.ac.uk/badc/ukmo-midas-open/data/uk-daily-temperature-obs/dataset-version-202407/greater-london/62084_battersea-heliport

It appears the Met Office have installed (in 2018) an aviation site(Battersea Heliport) for a private company in a totally inappropriate site that no rational person could ever consider as representative of the natural environment to use its aviation purposed readings to contribute to the historical temperature record……..Weird or purposeful?

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September 25, 2024 at 05:50AM

Daily News 25 Sep 2024

Nuclear power: South Yorkshire chosen for proposed UK SMR factory

Everything nuclear is a slow process – more like decades than years. But something has to try to compensate for the intermittency of renewables, as fuel-burning power stations are pushed to the margins of the national grid system in pursuit of government net zero targets for electricity generation.
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USA-based Holtec International has selected South Yorkshire in England as the preferred site for its proposed UK small modular reactor factory, says World Nuclear News.

It has also signed memorandums of understanding with two British research centres to support SMR manufacturing and testing.

Holtec’s selection process involved evaluation of 13 locations that responded to a call for interest released by Holtec earlier this year, after which four locations – West Midlands, South Yorkshire, Cumbria and Tees Valley – were shortlisted.

Holtec’s UK subsidiary, Holtec Britain, has now selected South Yorkshire as the location for its new SMR factory to serve the UK, Europe and the Middle East.

According to the company, the factory is estimated to provide GBP1.5 billion (USD2 billion) in Gross Value Added to the economy and is set to create hundreds of well-paid, high-skilled jobs.

Holtec said that at least 70% of materials, components and services will be sourced from the UK, with significant supply chain opportunities, particularly in and around South Yorkshire.
. . .
Holtec has been developing its SMR unit since 2011. The SMR-300 is a pressurised water reactor producing around 300 MW of electrical power or 1050 MW of thermal power for process applications, and the company says it has undergone several design evolutions, the most recent of which is the incorporation of forced flow capability overlayed on gravity-driven flow in the plant’s primary system.

The SMR-300 is one of six SMR designs selected in October last year by Great British Nuclear on a shortlist for the UK’s SMR selection competition and one of the five vendors to submit a bid by the 8 July deadline. The aim is for a final investment decision on two or three of the designs to be taken in 2029.

Holtec proposes to deploy around 5 GWe of SMRs in serial production in the UK by 2050.

Full article here.
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Image: Two-unit SMR-300 plant (credit: Holtec)

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September 25, 2024 at 05:22AM

Daily News 25 Sep 2024

Arctic Sea Ice Volume

By Paul Homewood

There has been a suggestion that although Arctic sea ice extent has remained stable since 2007, it is getting thinner.

As the ice volume charts make clear, this is nonsense. Volume, and therefore thickness, have remained as stable as extent:

http://psc.apl.uw.edu/research/projects/arctic-sea-ice-volume-anomaly/

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September 25, 2024 at 04:16AM

Daily News 25 Sep 2024

Newsflash: Trees mitigate heatwaves in cities, film at 11.

From the “well, duhhh” science department and Liverpool University comes this bit of obvious science. It makes you wonder how many times public money is used to study the same thing over and over again.

Urban forests reduce heat-related mortality, study shows

A new study shows that among different types of vegetation, forests within walkable distance from residential areas are particularly crucial in mitigating heat-related health risks.

Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University

Across the globe, heat waves are becoming more frequent and more intense. Therefore, how to effectively combat the adverse effects of heat is an increasingly important topic of research.

Urban greening is a promising strategy to limit the negative health impacts of extreme heat; however, much remains to be learned about how best to promote and implement it. It is still unclear what types of greenspace matter most and how close greenspaces should be to living areas.

A new study published in Environment International shows that among different types of vegetation, forests within walkable distance from residential areas are particularly crucial in mitigating heat-related health risks.

The results add to previous studies conducted by the research team from universities and research institutes in China, the UK, and Spain that used big data to measure the positive effect of urban greenery on health.

Challenging common assumptions

Dr Jinglu Song is the first and corresponding author of the new study and an associate professor at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU)’s Department of Urban Planning and Design. She says that the findings can potentially reshape urban planning and public health strategies, particularly in densely populated cities with limited greenspace availability.

Dr Song explains: “By analysing data from Hong Kong, we found that compared with other types of vegetation like grasslands, nearby forests have a pronounced impact on reducing heat-related mortality risks, particularly those within 1 kilometre of residential areas.

“Our findings suggest that urban greening strategies should focus on tree planting within walkable distances to local residents, in addition to adding other types of vegetation in a specific area.”

Dr Song says that the study challenges some conventional assumptions about urban greening strategies and has the potential to significantly impact urban planners, designers, and public health initiatives.

“For example, it challenges the idea that small greenspaces close to where people live are the most effective for improving health, especially those within 300 or 500 metres.

“Instead, our research suggests that broader-scale greening strategies, particularly involving trees, are more effective up to 1km away from communities,” she adds.

New approach leads to more accurate results

The study uses an innovative way to measure the average amount of greenspace coverage within people’s nearby environment, also referred to as “distance-based greenspace exposure”. Rather than using the traditional indices that measure the ratio of greenspace within a planning unit, it considers how many people actually use greenspaces and how far away they are from these spaces.

“Our approach provides a more accurate representation of how urban residents interact with greenspaces and how these interactions influence health outcomes,” Dr Song says.

The motivation for the research team to continuously delve into this topic stems from the need for concrete evidence demonstrating the health benefits of specific types of greenspaces and actionable information for urban greening initiatives.

“We will further explore this topic through expanded research across diverse climatic regions and urban settings. Potential research directions could include examining the effects of different vegetation types on other health outcomes beyond mortality, looking into the mechanisms through which green spaces influence health, and applying emerging technologies to enhance assessments of urban greenery.”