Urban Observation Campaigns as part of the Southwest Integrated Field Laboratory: Assessing the performance of urban cooling strategies in a hot desert city

The Southwest Integrated Field Laboratory (SW-IFL) is one of four urban integrated field laboratories in the US aimed at advancing the understanding and predictability of complex urban environmental systems. The SW-IFL focuses on urban areas in the state of Arizona, integrating stakeholder engagement, high-resolution urban environmental modeling, and intensive observational campaigns to understand the drivers and potential solutions to extreme heat in hot desert cities. A cornerstone of the project is the summer intensive observational periods during which we deploy numerous platforms and techniques including mobile observatories, vehicle-based traverse instruments, fixed weather stations, eddy covariance flux towers, and weather balloons. The campaign includes citywide measurements as well as observations focused on neighborhood-scale testbed areas. The measurements are used to explore multiple urban science questions including questions focused on the temporal and spatial extent of cooling associated with various land covers and urban cooling strategies such as green and blue infrastructure and cool paving. 

This presentation will provide a detailed overview of the scope of the Intensive Observation Period (IOP) measurements conducted in Phoenix Arizona, US during summer 2024 and discuss findings for some of our testbed sites. As the SW-IFL is in year 3 of a 5-year funding period, we will also discuss opportunities for collaborators to get involved in upcoming summer IOPs.