Formation of horizontal convective rolls in urban areas

The formation of horizontal convective rolls (HCRs) in urban areas is investigated in this paper using observations and fine-scale numerical simulations. Cloud streets organized parallel to the mean boundary-layer wind (a manifestation of HCRs) are seen in the Fengyun-2C satellite imagery around local noon in Beijing. Observed vertical velocity and horizontal wind fields from an urban wind profiler suggest that the time scale for alternating updraft and downdraft in the boundary layer is about 30 min, and the length of the updraft/downdraft is about 9 km. Numerical simulations show that most HCRs occur in the urban areas with -z(i)/L<25 (z(i): the boundary-layer depth, L the Monin-Obukhov length). Sensitivity tests reveal that HCRs are common in urban boundary layers, while rural areas are more conducive to forming cellular convection; the aspect ratio of HCRs in urban areas is smaller than the typical value over natural landscapes. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.