Thermal Structure of a Coastal–Urban Boundary Layer

Melecio-Vázquez, David; Ramamurthy, Prathap; Arend, Mark; González-Cruz, Jorge E.

doi:10.1007/s10546-018-0361-7

Cited by 25 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 37 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…High-resolution, spatially complete PRISM data reveals that coastal daily-maximum temperatures are suppressed by several degrees Celsius relative to nearby inland areas (figure 1), in agreement with previous studies over more limited domains in the eastern US (Meir et al 2013, Melecio-Vázquez et al 2018. These coastal-cooling intensities differ considerably across regions-median values range from around 2°C for the Southeast US to near 3.5°C for Texas and 4°C for Northern New England (figure 1).…”

Section: Characterization Of Observationssupporting

confidence: 88%

Assessing present and future coastal moderation of extreme heat in the Eastern United States

Raymond

Mankin

2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Climate models suggest a rapid increase of extremely hot days in coming decades. Cool marine air currently ventilates extreme heat in populous coastal regions, diminishing its impacts, but how well climate models capture this effect is uncertain. Here we conduct a comprehensive observational analysis of coastal extreme-heat ventilation-its length scale, magnitude, and regional patterns-and evaluate two ensembles of downscaled global climate models along the eastern US coast. We find that coastal areas are 2°C-4°C cooler than ∼60 km inland, resulting in reductions near 50% in population exposure to temperatures above 35°C. Large seasonal and inter-regional variations are closely linked with land-sea temperature contrasts. High-resolution models underestimate coastal cooling by 50%-75%, implying that substantial and spatiotemporally varying model bias correction is necessary to create accurate projections of coastal extreme heat, which is expected to rise considerably with anthropogenic forcing. Our results underline the importance of regionally-and observationally-based perspectives for assessing future extreme heat and its impacts, and for positioning effective heat-risk management for communities and jurisdictions that span coast-to-inland areas.

show abstract

Section: Characterization Of Observationssupporting

confidence: 88%

Assessing present and future coastal moderation of extreme heat in the Eastern United States

Raymond

Mankin

2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Another possible reason is that the vertical structure atmosphere over the Sahara desert is turned by the West Africa monsoon (Skonieczny et al ., 2019), while the Asian monsoon has little influence on the vertical atmosphere structure over the CTD because of the orographic blocking of the Qinghai‐Tibet Plateau. Superadiabatic and inversion in the CTD is much stronger than those observed in the nondesert conditions of urban (Day et al ., 2010; Melecio‐Vázquez et al ., 2018), flat terrain (Angevine et al ., 2001), Basin area (Feng et al ., 2020), inland Indochina Peninsula (Ogino et al ., 2010), Glacier (Van Den Broeke, 1997), and mountains (Das et al ., 2021).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An investigation into the vertical structures of low‐altitude atmosphere over the Central Taklimakan Desert in summer

Yin

Huang

et al. 2021

Atmospheric Science Letters

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this study, 1-month continuous radiosonde observational data were applied to present the low-altitude vertical structures and their evolutions over the Central Taklimakan Desert (CTD). The primary focus is to highlight the vertical structures near the ground with the high-resolution (10 m in height and 6 hr in time) radiosonde data. One of the unique features evident in our results is an obvious diurnal transition in lower layers near the ground due to strong surface heating or cooling. Unlike a traditional vertical structure in the boundary layer observed over a nondesert surface, both superadiabatic and inversion layers are distinct during the day. More specifically, the superadiabatic layer is obvious in the daytime because of strong solar radiation over the desert, and the superadiabatic can reach up to 0.2 km. In contrast, an apparent inversion layer forms in the nighttime due to the surface cooling. It is found that the surface forcing mainly dominates the structures in the boundary layer. At last, the vertical structures from the observations are compared with those from the ERA-Interim and MERRA2 reanalysis data sets. The results indicate that both reanalysis products can provide similar vertical profile patterns and diurnal variations. However, the diurnal transitions of temperature and wind profiles over the CTD are underestimated severely by both reanalysis data. Besides, the reanalysis data sets completely miss the superadiabatic near the ground in the daytime.

show abstract

“…By using the VVP technique in conjunction with forward dynamical models allows both inverse and forward modeling techniques to be implemented that can bring insight to the complexity of turbulent flows. This will advance previous observational studies focused on urban coastal regions where the forcings encompass complex thermodynamic and geographic effects 6 during major heat events 7 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 51%

Observations and Models of Turbulence During Heat Events in Complex Urban Coastal Regions Using Multiple Doppler Wind Lidars

et al. 2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Multiple Doppler Lidars have been co-operated in the NYC region during the summer of 2018 to provide detailed observations of the turbulent atmosphere especially during heat wave events. The co-operating Doppler Lidar observations allow for mean flows to be distinguished from complex flows so that a better understanding of the transport of air masses can be provided to investigate the fidelity of high resolution numerical weather prediction models that are being developed to interpret and model turbulence during such events.

show abstract

Thermal Structure of a Coastal–Urban Boundary Layer

Cited by 25 publications

References 37 publications

Assessing present and future coastal moderation of extreme heat in the Eastern United States

Assessing present and future coastal moderation of extreme heat in the Eastern United States

An investigation into the vertical structures of low‐altitude atmosphere over the Central Taklimakan Desert in summer

Observations and Models of Turbulence During Heat Events in Complex Urban Coastal Regions Using Multiple Doppler Wind Lidars

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About