ALBERT

Description: Urban areas are an important part of the climate system and many aspects of urban climate have a direct effect on human health and living conditions. This implies the need for a reliable tool for climatology studies that supports urban planning and development strategies. However, a realistic implementation of urban canopy processes still poses a serious challenge for weather and climate modelling for the current generation of numerical models. To address this demand, a new model of energy processes for urban environments was developed as an Urban Surface Model (USM) and integrated as a module into the large-eddy simulation (LES) model PALM. The USM contains a multi-reflection radiation model for short and long wave radiation, calculation of the energy balance on horizontal and vertical impervious surfaces, thermal diffusion in ground, wall and roof materials and anthropogenic heat from transportation. The module also models absorption of radiation by resolved plant canopy (i.e. trees, shrubs). The USM was parallelized using MPI and performance testing demonstrates that the computational costs of the USM are reasonable and the model scales well on typical cluster configurations. The module was fully integrated into PALM and is available via its online repository under GNU General Public License (GPL). The implementation was tested on a summer heat wave episode in the real conditions of a selected Prague crossroad. General patterns of temperature of various surface types (walls, pavement) are in good agreement with observations. The coupled LES-USM system appears to correct the bias found between observations and mesoscale model predictions for the near-surface air temperature. The results, however, show a strong dependence on the prescribed surface and wall material properties. Their exact knowledge is thus essential for the correct prediction of the flow in the urban canopy layer.

Description: The regional climate model RegCM4.2 was coupled to the chemistry transport model CAMx, including two-way interactions, to evaluate the regional impact of urban emission from Central European cities on climate for present (2001–2010) and future (2046–2055). Short-lived non-CO2 emissions are considered, and, for the future impact, only the emission changes are accounted for (the climate is kept 'fixed'). The urban impact on climate is calculated with the annihilation approach, when two experiments are performed: one with all emissions included and one without considering urban emissions. The radiative impacts of non-CO2 primary and secondary formed pollutants are considered: namely ozone (O3), sulfates (PSO4), nitrates (PNO3), primary organic and elementary carbon (POA and PEC). The validation of the modeling system is limited to key climate parameters, near surface and precipitation. It shows that the model, in general, under-estimates temperature and overestimates precipitation. We attribute this behavior to too much cloudiness/water vapor present in the model atmosphere as a consequence of over-predicted evaporation from the surface. The impact on climate is characterized by a statistically significant cooling up to −0.02 K and −0.04 K in winter (DJF) and summer (JJA) season, mainly over cities. We found that the main contributor to the cooling is the aerosols direct and indirect effects, while the ozone titration, calculated especially for DJF, plays rather a minor role. In accordance with the vertical extent of the urban emission induced aerosol perturbation, cooling dominates the first few model layers up to about 150 m in DJF and 1000 m in JJA. We found a clear diurnal cycle of the radiative impacts with maximum cooling just after noon (JJA) or later in afternoon (DJF). Furthermore, statistically significant decreases of surface radiation are modeled, in accordance with the temperature decrease. The impact on the boundary later height is small but statistically significant and reaches −1 m and −6 m decreases in DJF and JJA, respectively. We did not find any statistically significant impact on precipitation and wind speed. Considering future emissions, the impacts are, in general, smaller – as a consequence of smaller emissions resulting in smaller urban induced chemical perturbations. In overall, the study suggest that the non-CO2 emissions play rather a minor role in modulating regional climate over central Europe. Much more important is the direct climate impact of urban surfaces trough urban canopy meteorological effects as we showed earlier.

Description: Urban surfaces due to specific geometry and physical properties bring modified transport of momentum, moisture and heat between them and the air above and perturb the radiative, thermal and mechanical balance resulting in changed meteorological condition (e.g. the UHI – urban heat island phenomenon). From an air quality perspective, many studies argue that one of the most important changes is the increased turbulence enhancing vertical mixing of pollutants above cities, although increased temperatures and wind stilling play an important role too. Using the regional climate model RegCM4 coupled to chemistry transport model CAMx over central Europe we study how urban surfaces affect the vertical turbulent transport of selected pollutants through modifications of the vertical eddy diffusion coefficient (Kv). For the period of 2007–2011 and over central Europe numerous experiments are carried out in order to evaluate the impact of six different methods for Kv calculation on the surface concentrations as well as vertical profiles of ozone and PM2.5 over selected cities (Prague and Berlin). Three cascading domains are set up at 27 km, 9 km and 3 km resolutions, which further enables to analyze the sensitivity to model grid resolution. Numerous experiments are performed where urban surfaces are considered or replaced by rural ones in order to isolate the urban canopy meteorological forcing. Apart from the well pronounced and expected impact on temperature (increases up to 2 °C) and wind (decreases up to −2 m s−1) there is strong impact on vertical eddy diffusion in all of the six Kv methods. The Kv enhancement ranges from a few 0.5 up to 30 m2 s−1 at the surface and from 1 to 100 m2 s−1 at higher levels depending on the methods, while the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) based methods produce the largest impact. The range of impact on the vertical eddy diffusion coefficient propagates to a range of ozone (O3) increase of 0.4 to 4 ppbv near the surface in both summer and winter, while at higher levels, decreases occur from a few −0.4 ppbv to as much as −2 ppbv. In case of PM2.5, enhanced vertical eddy diffusion leads to decrease of near surface concentrations ranging from almost zero to −1 μg m−3 in summer and to decreases from −0.5 to −2 μg m−3 in winter. Comparing these results to the total-impact, i.e. to the impact of all considered urban meteorological changes, we can conclude that much of the overall urban meteorological forcing is explained by acting of the enhanced vertical eddy diffusion, which counterweights the opposing effects of other components of this forcing (temperature, humidity and wind impact). The results further show that this conclusion holds regardless of the resolution chosen and in both the warm and cold part of the year. Our study demonstrates the dominant role of turbulent transport of pollutants above urban areas and stresses the need for further investigation how variation of urban land-use influence the pollutant transport from the urban canopy.

Description: The regional climate model RegCM4 extended with the land-surface model CLM4.5 was coupled to the chemistry transport model CAMx to analyze the impact of urban meteorological forcing on the surface fine aerosol (PM2.5) concentrations for summer conditions over the 2001–2005 period focusing on the area of Europe. Starting with the analysis of the meteorological modifications caused by urban canopy forcing we found significant increases of urban surface temperatures (up to 2–3K), decrease of specific humidity (by up to 0.4–0.6g/kg) reduction of wind speed (up to −1m/s) and enhancement of vertical turbulent diffusion coefficient (up to 60–70m2/s). These modifications translated into significant changes in surface aerosol concentrations that were calculated by cascading experimental approach. First, none of the urban meteorological effects were considered. Than, the temperature effect was added, than the humidity, the wind and finally, the enhanced turbulence was considered in the chemical runs. This facilitated the understanding of the underlying processes acting to modify urban aerosol concentrations. Moreover, we looked at the impact of the individual aerosol components as well. The urban induced temperature changes resulted in decreases of PM2.5 by −1.5 to −2μg/m3, while decreased urban winds resulted in increases by 1–2μg/m3. The enhanced turbulence over urban areas results in decreases of PM2.5 by −2μg/m3. The combined effect of all individual impact depends on the competition between the partial impacts and can reach up to −3μg/m3 for some cities, especially were the temperature impact was stronger in magnitude than the wind impact. The effect of changed humidity was found to be minor. The main contributor to the temperature impact is the modification of secondary inorganic aerosols, mainly nitrates, while the wind and turbulence impact is most pronounced in case of primary aerosol (primary black and organic carbon and other fine particle matter). The overall as well as individual impacts on secondary organic aerosol is very small with the increased turbulence acting as the main driver. The analysis of the vertical extend of the aerosol changes showed that the perturbations caused by urban canopy forcing, besides being large near the surface, have a secondary maximum for turbulence and wind impact over higher model levels, which is attributed to the vertical extend of the changes in turbulence over urban areas. The validation of model data with measurements showed good agreement and we could detect a clear model improvement at some areas when including the urban canopy meteorological effects in our chemistry simulations.

Description: Cities are characterized by different physical properties of surface compared to their rural counterparts, resulting in specific regime of the meteorological phenomenon. Our study aims to evaluate the impact of typical urban surfaces on the central-European urban climate in several model simulations, performed with the WRF and RegCM models. The specific processes occurring in the typical urban environment are described in the models by various types of urban parametrizations, greatly differing in complexity. Our results show that all models and urban parametrizations are able to reproduce the most typical urban effect, the summer evening and nocturnal Urban Heat Island, with the average magnitude of 2–3 °C. The impact of cities on the wind is clearly dependent on the urban parametrization employed, with more simple ones unable to fully capture the wind speed reduction induced by the city. In the summer, a significant difference in the boundary layer height (about 25 %) between models is detected. The urban induced changes of temperature and wind speed are propagated into higher altitudes up to 2 km, with a decreasing tendency of their magnitudes. With the exception of the summer daytime, the urban environment improves the weather conditions a little with regard to the pollutant dispersion, which could lead to the partly decreased concentration of the primary pollutants.

Description: The regional climate model RegCM4.2 was coupled to the chemistry transport model CAMx, including two-way interactions, to evaluate the regional impact of urban emission from central European cities on climate for present-day (2001–2010) and future (2046–2055) periods, and for the future one only emission changes are considered. Short-lived non-CO2 emissions are considered and, for the future impact, only the emission changes are accounted for (the climate is kept “fixed”). The urban impact on climate is calculated with the annihilation approach in which two experiments are performed: one with all emissions included and one without urban emissions. The radiative impacts of non-CO2 primary and secondary formed pollutants are considered, namely ozone (O3), sulfates (PSO4), nitrates (PNO3), primary organic aerosol and primary elementary carbon (POA and PEC).The validation of the modelling system is limited to key climate parameters, near-surface temperature and precipitation. It shows that the model, in general, underestimates temperature and overestimates precipitation. We attribute this behaviour to an excess of cloudiness/water vapour present in the model atmosphere as a consequence of overpredicted evaporation from the surface.The impact on climate is characterised by statistically significant cooling of up to −0.02 and −0.04 K in winter (DJF) and summer (JJA), mainly over cities. We found that the main contributors to the cooling are the direct and indirect effects of the aerosols, while the ozone titration, calculated especially for DJF, plays rather a minor role. In accordance with the vertical extent of the urban-emission-induced aerosol perturbation, cooling dominates the first few model layers up to about 150 m in DJF and 1000 m in JJA. We found a clear diurnal cycle of the radiative impacts with maximum cooling just after noon (JJA) or later in afternoon (DJF). Furthermore, statistically significant decreases of surface radiation are modelled in accordance with the temperature decrease. The impact on the boundary layer height is small but statistically significant and decreases by 1 and 6 m in DJF and JJA respectively. We did not find any statistically significant impact on precipitation and wind speed. Regarding future emissions, the impacts are, in general, smaller as a consequence of smaller emissions, resulting in smaller urban-induced chemical perturbations.In overall, the study suggest that the non-CO2 emissions play rather a minor role in modulating regional climate over central Europe. Much more important is the direct climate impact of urban surfaces via the urban canopy meteorological effects as we showed earlier.

Description: It is well known that the urban canopy (UC) layer, i.e., the layer of air corresponding to the assemblage of the buildings, roads, park, trees and other objects typical to cities, is characterized by specific meteorological conditions at city scales generally differing from those over rural surroundings. We refer to the forcing that acts on the meteorological variables over urbanized areas as the urban canopy meteorological forcing (UCMF). UCMF has multiple aspects, while one of the most studied is the generation of the urban heat island (UHI) as an excess of heat due to increased absorption and trapping of radiation in street canyons. However, enhanced drag plays important role too, reducing mean wind speeds and increasing vertical eddy mixing of pollutants. As air quality is strongly tied to meteorological conditions, the UCMF leads to modifications of air chemistry and transport of pollutants. Although it has been recognized in the last decade that the enhanced vertical mixing has a dominant role in the impact of the UCMF on air quality, very little is known about the uncertainty of vertical eddy diffusion arising from different representation in numerical models and how this uncertainty propagates to the final species concentrations as well as to the changes due to the UCMF. To bridge this knowledge gap, we set up the Regional Climate Model version 4 (RegCM4) coupled to the Comprehensive Air Quality Model with Extensions (CAMx) chemistry transport model over central Europe and designed a series of simulations to study how UC affects the vertical turbulent transport of selected pollutants through modifications of the vertical eddy diffusion coefficient (Kv) using six different methods for Kv calculation. The mean concentrations of ozone and PM2.5 in selected city canopies are analyzed. These are secondary pollutants or having secondary components, upon which turbulence acts in a much more complicated way than in the case of primary pollutants by influencing their concentrations not only directly but indirectly via precursors too. Calculations are performed over cascading domains (of 27, 9, and 3 km horizontal resolutions), which further enables to analyze the sensitivity of the numerical model to grid resolution. A number of model simulations are carried out where either urban canopies are considered or replaced by rural ones in order to isolate the UC meteorological forcing. Apart from the well-pronounced and expected impact on temperature (increases up to 2 ∘C) and wind (decreases by up to 2 ms−1), there is a strong impact on vertical eddy diffusion in all of the six Kv methods. The Kv enhancement ranges from less than 1 up to 30 m2 s−1 at the surface and from 1 to 100 m2 s−1 at higher levels depending on the methods. The largest impact is obtained for the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE)-based methods. The range of impact on the vertical eddy diffusion coefficient propagates to a range of ozone (O3) increase of 0.4 to 4 ppbv in both summer and winter (5 %–10 % relative change). In the case of PM2.5, we obtained decreases of up to 1 µg m−3 in summer and up to 2 µg m−3 in winter (up to 30 %–40 % relative change). Comparing these results to the “total-impact”, i.e., to the impact of all meteorological modifications due to UCMF, we can conclude that much of UCMF is explained by the enhanced vertical eddy diffusion, which counterbalances the opposing effects of other components of this forcing (temperature, humidity and wind). The results further show that this conclusion holds regardless of the resolution chosen and in both the warm and cold parts of the year.

Description: Cities and urban areas are well-known for their impact on meteorological variables and thereby modification of the local climate. Our study aims to generalize the urban-induced changes in specific meteorological variables by introducing a single phenomenon – the urban meteorology island (UMI). A wide ensemble of 24 model simulations with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) regional climate model and the Regional Climate Model (RegCM) on a European domain with 9 km horizontal resolution were performed to investigate various urban-induced modifications as individual components of the UMI. The results show that such an approach is meaningful, because in nearly all meteorological variables considered, statistically significant changes occur in cities. Besides previously documented urban-induced changes in temperature, wind speed and boundary-layer height, the study is also focused on changes in cloud cover, precipitation and humidity. An increase in cloud cover in cities, together with a higher amount of sub-grid-scale precipitation, is detected on summer afternoons. Specific humidity is significantly lower in cities. Further, the study shows that different models and parameterizations can have a strong impact on discussed components of the UMI. Multi-layer urban schemes with anthropogenic heat considered increase winter temperatures by more than 2 ∘C and reduce wind speed more strongly than other urban models. The selection of the planetary-boundary-layer scheme also influences the urban wind speed reduction, as well as the boundary-layer height, to the greatest extent. Finally, urban changes in cloud cover and precipitation are mostly sensitive to the parameterization of convection.