Project MUSE (2025-2027)
Monitoring Urban Surface Exchange of gasses and energy
Cities account for a major share of global fossil-fuel carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions and therefore play a central role in pathways toward climate neutrality by 2050. Designing realistic mitigation strategies requires accurate, continuous observations of urban sink–source dynamics.
Project MUSE provides such observations for the city of Münster through continuous eddy covariance (EC) measurements of CO₂ and energy fluxes. These data resolve diurnal, intra-day, and seasonal variability in urban–atmosphere exchange.
The primary EC system is installed on a scaffolding tower mounted on the roof of the Institute of Landscape Ecology building, at a total height of 34 m above street level. At this elevation, the system captures fluxes from a large and heterogeneous urban source area (typically >1 km footprint), representing mixed residential, traffic, and vegetated surfaces.
To partition the integrated tower fluxes by surface type, two complementary setups are operated in parallel:
- Urban grassland EC system at 2.4 m height, capturing fluxes from low vegetation.
- Meteorological station at 3 m height over an impervious surface, characterizing local microclimate.
Together, these measurements allow us to better understand how different surface types contribute to the overall carbon and energy exchange of the city.
Our long-term goal is to establish the tower as a permanent urban observatory and to provide a robust scientific basis for Münster’s climate monitoring and climate-action planning over the next 5–10 years.