Bicycle Urban Turbulent Measurements

Urban turbulent observations are lacking, as discussed at the centenary workshop “100 Years of Turbulence: Innsbruck 1922–2022” by Stiperski et al (2025). The study of turbulence is essential for understanding the exchange of momentum, heat, and other scalars. Yet urban turbulence remains observed in a very limited capacity due to: (a) the intense complexity of heterogeneity, (b) the costs of spatially distributing high-response sensors, and (c) the lack of validation and development of sensors and standards that operate deep within the urban canopy.
This research proposes a reproducible, affordable, accurate, and efficient method to obtain turbulence observations within complex and varied urban areas at the 2-meter height. This research demonstrates: (a) the capability of a moving observer to accurately reproduce turbulent statistics of a homogeneous field; (b) the application of this approach to an urban environment, showing the system’s ability to distinguish the impacts of urban obstructions, heat fluxes, and dispersive heat fluxes; and (c) instructions on how to reproduce the system, along with an outline of its limitations.