Balruddery Farm in Angus will host the UK’s first purpose-built tall tower for directly measuring greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere.

The free-standing mast will stand at more than 320 feet (100 metres) and will collect data from across Scotland from prevailing winds.

Instruments and sensors at ground level will then measure concentrations of the gases responsible for climate change, and changes in the levels of these gases will be interpreted by scientists across the UK.

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A small building at the base of the tower will house instrumentation for measuring pollutants in the

atmosphere. The instruments are designed to be automated with data accessed via a remote data

connection. After initial installation of the facility the additional activity in the area will be minimal.

The project is set to cost £1 million financed through UK Research and Innovation’s Natural Environment Research Council and construction is expected to be complete September this year.

Balruddery’s location in eastern Scotland and dominant westerly winds means that measuring gases in the atmosphere there allows emissions from right across Scotland to be tracked, including emissions from agriculture.

The current UK greenhouse gases monitoring network, which only has stations in England, is not sensitive to emissions in Scotland, which means scientists cannot monitor Scottish emissions accurately.

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The farm is the site of The James Hutton Institute’s Centre for Sustainable Cropping, established in 2009 to test the long-term impacts of an integrated cropping system on whole-system sustainability.

By enhancing soil quality and reducing dependence on fertiliser inputs, researchers are looking at how to minimise pollution and losses through run-off, leaching, erosion and greenhouse gas emissions.

The project is a collaboration between the University of Edinburgh and The James Hutton Institute, with policy support from the Scottish Government and additional backing from the Met Office, the National Physical Laboratory and the universities of Bristol and Strathclyde.