Simulations of a Heat-Wave Event in New York City Using a Multilayer Urban Parameterization

Gutiérrez, Estatio; González, Jorge E.; Martilli, Alberto; Bornstein, Robert D.; Arend, Mark

doi:10.1175/jamc-d-14-0028.1

Cited by 60 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…While we present the mean thermal characteristics of the coastal-urban environment here, additional work is necessary to study the turbulent transport of heat, momentum and moisture within the coastal-urban boundary layer. Current numerical weather prediction models used in the study of the urban boundary layer (e.g., Leroyer et al 2014;Gutiérrez et al 2015b;Ortiz et al 2016;Ramamurthy et al 2017b) lack a realistic representation of urban-coastal interactions, since boundary-layer parametrizations are unable to reproduce the thermal internal boundary layers observed. More effort and sustained observations are necessary to improve the predictability of the thermal conditions in the coastal-urban environment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermal Structure of a Coastal–Urban Boundary Layer

Melecio-Vázquez

Ramamurthy

Arend

et al. 2018

Boundary-Layer Meteorol

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We use various temperature profilers located in and around New York City to observe the structure and evolution of the thermal boundary layer. The primary focus is to highlight the spatial variability of potential-temperature profiles due to heterogeneous surface forcing in an urban environment during different flow conditions. Overall, the observations during the summer period reveal the presence of thermal internal boundary layers due to the interaction between the marine atmospheric boundary layer and the convective urban environment. The summer daytime potential-temperature profiles within the city indicate a superadiabatic layer is present near the surface beneath a mildly stable layer. Large spatial variability in the near-surface (0-300 m) potential temperature is detected, with the thermal profile in the lower atmosphere uniquely determined by the underlying surface forcing and the distance from the coast. The summer and winter average night-time potential-temperature profiles show that the atmosphere is still convective near the surface. The seasonal averages of mixing ratio show large variability in the vertical direction.Keywords Coastal boundary layer · Microwave radiometer · Moisture boundary layer · Thermal boundary layer · Urban boundary layer

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermal Structure of a Coastal–Urban Boundary Layer

Melecio-Vázquez

Ramamurthy

Arend

et al. 2018

Boundary-Layer Meteorol

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“…Some other studies applied the BEP with more eta levels (up to 51) as compared to our setup (28) (e.g. Salamanca et al , , ; Gutierrez et al , ; Heaviside et al , ). Comparisons between model performances with different numbers of eta levels are to our knowledge not published.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban–rural differences in near‐surface air temperature as resolved by the Central Europe Refined analysis (CER): sensitivity to planetary boundary layer schemes and urban canopy models

Jänicke

Meier

Fenner

et al. 2016

Intl Journal of Climatology

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Model‐based studies on urban heat islands can be seriously affected by errors in near‐surface air temperature (T2), especially if errors differ between cities and their rural surroundings. Furthermore, errors in T2 strongly depend on selected parameterisation schemes, in particular on the planetary boundary layer (PBL) scheme and the urban canopy model (UCM). We developed the Central Europe Refined analysis (CER), a dataset generated by dynamically downscaling a global atmospheric reanalysis with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model for Central Europe (30 km), Germany (10 km), and the region of Berlin‐Brandenburg (2 km). CER data were analysed to study urban–rural and intra‐urban differences in T2 for Berlin as well as to test the sensitivity of T2 against two different PBL schemes, a mosaic approach, and three UCMs with different levels of complexity. Results were evaluated using data from 22 weather stations. All tested configurations simulated T2 with small deviations from observations. The PBL schemes predominantly control the deviation of T2. From the tested PBL schemes, the Bougeault–Lacarrére scheme performed better than the Mellor–Yamada–Janjić scheme. The application of different UCMs and the mosaic approach also influenced the deviations, but not as strongly as the PBL schemes. The performance of the UCMs regarding the representation of intra‐urban and urban–rural differences showed that differences were largest when using a complex multi‐layer UCM. Overall, the simplest model showed lowest deviations. We conclude that more research on UCMs is required because complex UCMs showed potentials but did not outperform the simple slab model.

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“…During the night, the model overestimates the air temperature in the urban sites, perhaps because the heat load and anthropogenic heat setting (air conditioning switched on for 24 h a day) in the BEM model are larger than the real case, as noted by Gutiérrez et al . []. The model can capture the nighttime UHI phenomenon, although overestimates the UHI magnitude due to the overestimation of the urban air temperature.…”

Section: Wrf‐bep‐bem Simulation Evaluationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of land surface heterogeneity on urban heat island circulation and sea‐land breeze circulation in Hong Kong

et al. 2017

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Hong Kong is one of the most high‐rise and highly compact cities in the world. The urban land surface is highly heterogeneous, which creates low‐level convergence zones in urban areas, particularly the Kowloon Peninsula. The low‐level convergence zone is due to the combined effect of urban heat island circulation (UHIC) and sea‐land breeze circulation (SLBC) under weak northeasterly synoptic flow. To study the impacts of anthropogenic fluxes and built‐up areas on the local circulation, the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) mesoscale model is combined with the multilayer urban canopy building effect parameterization/building energy model (BEP/BEM) parameterization to produce a 3 day simulation of an air pollution episode in Hong Kong in September 2012. To better represent the city land surface features, building information is assimilated in the central part of the Kowloon Peninsula. The WRF‐BEP‐BEM model captures the 2 m temperature distribution and local wind rotation reasonably well but overestimates the 10 m wind speed with a mean bias error of 0.70 m/s. A dome‐shaped feature with a high level of moisture is captured in the convergence zones due to intensified UHIC and inflowing SLBC. The anthropogenic heat increases the air temperature by around 0.3°C up to 250 m, which in turn modifies the SLBC. A new drag coefficient based on λP, plan area per unit ground area, is tested. Besides the basic physical characteristics captured by the WRF‐BEP‐BEM model, the stagnation of wind in the lower level convergence zone is better captured by this approach than by the traditional constant value coefficient.

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Simulations of a Heat-Wave Event in New York City Using a Multilayer Urban Parameterization

Cited by 60 publications

References 45 publications

Thermal Structure of a Coastal–Urban Boundary Layer

Thermal Structure of a Coastal–Urban Boundary Layer

Urban–rural differences in near‐surface air temperature as resolved by the Central Europe Refined analysis (CER): sensitivity to planetary boundary layer schemes and urban canopy models

Impact of land surface heterogeneity on urban heat island circulation and sea‐land breeze circulation in Hong Kong

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