Journal
JOURNAL OF APPLIED METEOROLOGY AND CLIMATOLOGY
Volume 58, Issue 6, Pages 1325-1336Publisher
AMER METEOROLOGICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1175/JAMC-D-19-0037.1
Keywords
Atmosphere-land interaction; Mesoscale processes; Boundary layer; Land surface model; Urban meteorology
Categories
Funding
- FLAGG-MD project of University of Maryland - National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) [2016-NIST-MSE-01]
- National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) [2014CB441402]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
This paper examines the collective impacts of urban building complexes on the planetary boundary layer (PBL) winds using both observations and a mesoscale model. Horizontal winds measured on the rooftops of federal buildings over the regions of Washington, D.C., and a small city nearby (i.e., Reston, Virginia) show the blocking effects of urban building complexes on the downstream winds during the daytime of 9 July 2007. A modeling study of the case using a coupled version of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF)-multilayer urban canopy model in which the observed building height and density information is implemented to advance the calculations of momentum and heat, reproduces the rooftop-observed wind patterns and the related urban heat island effects, especially the wake flows on the downstream sides of the above-mentioned two cities. Results show that under daytime conditions the building complexes can collectively form a mesoscale wake on the downwind side of each city, about 2-10 km away, horizontally from the edge of the building complexes. The wake flow may extend to much higher levels than the building tops, depending on the incoming flow strength, the static stability in the PBL, the height of the building complexes, and the time of the day because of the strength of surface insolation.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available