A Double-Canyon Radiation Scheme for Multi-Layer Urban Canopy Models

We develop a double-canyon radiation scheme (DCEP) for urban canopy models embedded in mesoscale numerical models based on the Building Effect Parametrization (BEP). The new scheme calculates the incoming and outgoing longwave and shortwave radiation for roof, wall and ground surfaces for an urban street canyon characterized by its street and building width, canyon length, and the building height distribution. The scheme introduces the radiative interaction of two neighbouring urban canyons allowing the full inclusion of roofs into the radiation exchange both inside the canyon and with the sky. In contrast to BEP, we also treat direct and diffuse shortwave radiation from the sky independently, thus allowing calculation of the effective parameters representing the urban diffuse and direct shortwave radiation budget inside the mesoscale model. Furthermore, we close the energy balance of incoming longwave and diffuse shortwave radiation from the sky, so that the new scheme is physically more consistent than the BEP scheme. Sensitivity tests show that these modifications are important for urban regions with a large variety of building heights. The evaluation against data from the Basel Urban Boundary Layer Experiment indicates a good performance of the DCEP when coupled with the regional weather and climate model COSMO-CLM.     

Urban albedo as a function of the urban structure — A two-dimensional numerical simulation

Urban albedo change as a function of urban geometrical structure has been examined by using a two-dimensional urban block-canyon array model. The complex multiple reflections of incident photons in the urban canyon are simulated by using a Monte-Carlo method. The photons are tracked until they leave the canyon or are completely absorbed. In the model, the direct and diffuse components of incident solar radiation are introduced and the specular and isotropic reflection characteristics are considered for the relevant urban surfaces. The result shows that the urban albedo decreases as the urban irregularity increases as indicated by the model experiment of Aida (1982). The dependence of albedo on the incident solar zenith angle observed in the experiment is also confirmed for various urban models.As an application, some actual urban structures in the Marunouchi area in Tokyo are examined. Urban planning for absorption and reflection of solar radiation in urban areas is also discussed based on the analysis of the change in albedo with canyon dimensions and solar zenith angle.     

An Urban Surface Exchange Parameterisation for Mesoscale Models

A scheme to represent the impact of urban buildings on airflow in mesoscale atmospheric models is presented. In the scheme, the buildings are not explicitly resolved, but their effects on the grid-averaged variables are parameterised. An urban quarter is characterised by a horizontal building size, a street canyon width and a building density as a function of height. The module computes the impact of the horizontal (roof and canyon floor) and vertical (walls) surfaces on the wind speed, temperature and turbulent kinetic energy. The computation of the shortwave and longwave radiation, needed to compute the temperature of the urban surfaces, takes into account the shadowing and radiation trapping effects induced by the urban canyons. The computation of the turbulent length scales in the TKE equation is also modified to take into account the presence of the buildings.The parameterisation is introduced into a mesoscale model and tested in a bidimensional case of a city over flat terrain. The new parameterisation is shown to be able to reproduce the most important features observed in urban areas better than the traditional approach which is based only on the modification of the roughness length, thereby retaining the Monin–Obukhov similarity theory. The new surface exchange parameterisation is furthermore shown to have a strong impact on the dispersion characteristics of air pollutants in urban areas.     

Radiative Exchange in an Urban Street Canyon

The influence of building geometry on the radiation terms ofthe surface energy balance is a principal reason for surfacetemperature differences between rural and urban areas.Methods exist to calculate the radiation balance in an urban area,but their validity across the range of urban geometries andmaterials has not been carefully considered.Here the exchange of diffuse radiation in an urban street canyon isinvestigated using a method incorporating all reflections of radiation.This exact solution is compared to two commonly used approximationsthat retain either no reflections, or just one reflection of radiation.The area-averaged net radiative flux density from the facets of the canyondecreases in magnitude monotonically as the canyon aspect ratio increases.The two approximate solutions possess unphysical differences from thismonotonic decrease for high canyon aspect ratios or low materialemissivities/high material albedos.The errors of the two approximate solutions are small for near blackbodymaterials and small canyon aspect ratios but can be an order ofmagnitude for intermediate material properties and deep street canyons.Urban street canyon models need to consider at least one reflectionof radiation and multiple reflections are desirable for full applicability.     

A Vegetated Urban Canopy Model for Meteorological and Environmental Modelling

An urban canopy model is developed for use in mesoscale meteorological and environmental modelling. The urban geometry is composed of simple homogeneous buildings characterized by the canyon aspect ratio (h/w) as well as the canyon vegetation characterized by the leaf aspect ratio (σ _l ) and leaf area density profile. Five energy exchanging surfaces (roof, wall, road, leaf, soil) are considered in the model, and energy conservation relations are applied to each component. In addition, the temperature and specific humidity of canopy air are predicted without the assumption of thermal equilibrium. For radiative transfer within the canyon, multiple reflections for shortwave radiation and one reflection for longwave radiation are considered, while the shadowing and absorption of radiation due to the canyon vegetation are computed by using the transmissivity and the leaf area density profile function. The model is evaluated using field measurements in Vancouver, British Columbia and Marseille, France. Results show that the model quite well simulates the observations of surface temperatures, canopy air temperature and specific humidity, momentum flux, net radiation, and energy partitioning into turbulent fluxes and storage heat flux. Sensitivity tests show that the canyon vegetation has a large influence not only on surface temperatures but also on the partitioning of sensible and latent heat fluxes. In addition, the surface energy balance can be affected by soil moisture content and leaf area index as well as the fraction of vegetation. These results suggest that a proper parameterization of the canyon vegetation is prerequisite for urban modelling.     

Long-wave radiative flux divergence and nocturnal cooling of the urban atmosphere

Results from measurements of long-wave radiative flux divergence on calm, cloudless nights from within an urban canyon are presented. Results show the existence of three-dimensional (volume) radiative divergence in the canyon-air system. The results are compared with air temperature cooling rates (energy storage change) in the canyon. With calm, cloudless conditions, radiative divergence is the dominant mechanism controlling air temperature changes. In the early part of the night this results in air cooling, but radiative warming was commonly observed after midnight. Canyon-air volume radiative divergence is found to be considerably less than that observed previously above roof-level, and in rural areas. Measured cooling rates in the canyon are poorly predicted by a surface-oriented cooling approach. This again points to the importance of the atmospheric radiation balance.     

Upward longwave radiation from a non-black urban canopy

The longwave upward radiation was calculated for an urban canopy by using a Monte Carlo model. The effects of the urban geometry were examined in terms of the fractional roof area, the height of the buildings and the emissivity. The urban canopy consists of identically sized buildings and the ground surfaces. The model allows for the temperature differences between the buildings and the ground surface and for multiple reflections in the canyon.The Monte Carlo results show that neglect of the geometric effects causes significant errors in calculated upward radiation: calculations with area-weighting of the radiation emitted from flat homogeneous surfaces are not appropriate. The upward flux is a nonlinear function of the fractional roof area, which may be approximated by a function of the square or cube of the fractional roof area. Neglect of the reflections by non-black surfaces (emissivity<1) underestimates the upward flux by a few percent for a canopy of emissivity=0.9. Radiation effects due to multiple reflections in the canyon are parameterized by use of the view factor and the fractional roof area. The parameterization scheme yields accurate results.     

A Physically-Based Scheme For The Urban Energy Budget In Atmospheric Models

An urban surface scheme for atmospheric mesoscale models ispresented. A generalization of local canyon geometry isdefined instead of the usual bare soil formulation currently usedto represent cities in atmospheric models. This allows refinement ofthe radiative budgets as well as momentum, turbulent heat and ground fluxes.The scheme is aimed to be as general as possible, in order to representany city in the world, for any time or weather condition(heat island cooling by night, urban wake, water evaporation after rainfalland snow effects).Two main parts of the scheme are validated against published data.Firstly, it is shown that the evolution of the model-predictedfluxes during a night with calm winds is satisfactory, considering both the longwave budget and the surface temperatures. Secondly, the original shortwave scheme is tested off-line and compared to the effective albedoof a canyon scale model. These two validations show that the radiative energy input to the urban surface model is realistic.Sensitivity tests of the model are performed for one-yearsimulation periods, for both oceanic and continental climates. The scheme has the ability to retrieve, without ad hoc assumptions, the diurnal hysteresis between the turbulent heat flux and ground heat flux. It reproduces the damping of the daytime turbulent heat flux by the heat storage flux observed in city centres. The latent heat flux is negligible on average,but can be large when short time scales are considered (especially afterrainfall). It also suggests that in densely built areas, domesticheating can overwhelm the net radiation, and supply a continuous turbulentheat flux towards the atmosphere. This becomes very important inwinter for continental climates. Finally, a comparison with a vegetation scheme shows that the suburban environment can be represented with a bare soil formulation for large temporal or spatial averages (typical of globalclimatic studies), but that a surface scheme dedicated to the urban surface is necessary when smaller scales are considered: town meteorological forecasts, mesoscale or local studies.     

Urban albedo as a function of the urban structure — A model experiment

A model experiment has been carried out in order to examine the effect of surface irregularity of an urban structure on the anomalous absorption of incident solar radiation. Several models of an urban structure resembling buildings and canyons were constructed by using concrete blocks in cubic form. By building and dismantling the urban models, the albedo change as a function of solar zenith angle was observed throughout the year. The result shows that the absorption increment originating from the irregular urban structure amounts to about 20% as compared with the absorption by a flat surface of the same material. The amount of additional absorption depends on the relative area occupied by canyons in the model.     

A numerical simulation scheme for the albedo of city street canyons

A numerical scheme is described for the calculation of effective albedo values of long city street canyons. The method is based on a generalization of the radiation model for inclined surfaces recently presented by Brühl and Zdunkowski (1983). Calculated albedo values are compared with Aida's (1982) experimentally determined results. It is found that experiment and theory are in reasonable and in some cases in excellent agreement. Additional results obtained by varying the geometry of the street canyon as well as the surface reflectivities are shown to demonstrate the versatility of the calculation scheme.     

The Influence Of Urban Canopy Configuration On Urban Albedo

We propose a calculation method for shortwave radiation flux and longwave radiation flux within the urban canopy and investigate the influence of urban canopy configuration on net radiation flux. In the assumed urban configuration, buildings of equal size are arranged in a regular lattice within the urban canopy. The net shortwave radiation flux and longwave radiation flux within the urban canopy were calculated by the photon tracking method based on the Monte Carlo method. The albedo value obtained by this method shows close agreement with experimental data, and the average sky view factor shows almost perfect agreement with the theoretical value. Moreover, we calculated the urban albedo for the urban canopy configuration including roads and building height distribution.%Moreover, we calculated net radiation within the urban canopy in %consideration of roads and building height distribution.We found that the sky view factor of the ground surface is high when building coverage is low, building height is low, open space by roads exists, and building height is non-uniform. Moreover, we found that the albedo value is high when building height is small, open space by roads is wide, and building height is uniform. The albedo value was found to vary in a complicated manner with change in building coverage.     

Radiative effect of black carbon aerosol on seasonal variation in snow depth in the Northern-Hemisphere

In this research, we studied the effects of black carbon (BC) aerosol radiative forcing on seasonal variation in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) using numerical simulations with the NASA finite-volume General Circulation Model (fvGCM) forced with monthly varying three-dimensional aerosol distributions from the Goddard Ozone Chemistry Aerosol Radiation and Transport Model (GOCART). The results show that atmospheric warming due to black carbon aerosols subsequently warm the atmosphere and land surfaces, especially those over Eurasia. As a result, the snow depth in Eurasia was greatly reduced in late winter and spring, and the reduction in snow cover decreased the surface albedo. Our surface energy balance analysis shows that the surface warming due to aerosol absorption causes early snow melting and further increases surface-atmosphere warming through snow/ice albedo feedback. Therefore, BC aerosol forcing may be an important factor affecting the snow/ice albedo in the NH.     

Albedo enhancement over land to counteract global warming: impacts on hydrological cycle

A recent modelling study has shown that precipitation and runoff over land would increase when the reflectivity of marine clouds is increased to counter global warming. This implies that large scale albedo enhancement over land could lead to a decrease in runoff over land. In this study, we perform simulations using NCAR CAM3.1 that have implications for Solar Radiation Management geoengineering schemes that increase the albedo over land. We find that an increase in reflectivity over land that mitigates the global mean warming from a doubling of CO₂ leads to a large residual warming in the southern hemisphere and cooling in the northern hemisphere since most of the land is located in northern hemisphere. Precipitation and runoff over land decrease by 13.4 and 22.3%, respectively, because of a large residual sinking motion over land triggered by albedo enhancement over land. Soil water content also declines when albedo over land is enhanced. The simulated magnitude of hydrological changes over land are much larger when compared to changes over oceans in the recent marine cloud albedo enhancement study since the radiative forcing over land needed (?8.2?W?m^?2) to counter global mean radiative forcing from a doubling of CO₂ (3.3?W?m^?2) is approximately twice the forcing needed over the oceans (?4.2?W?m^?2). Our results imply that albedo enhancement over oceans produce climates closer to the unperturbed climate state than do albedo changes on land when the consequences on land hydrology are considered. Our study also has important implications for any intentional or unintentional large scale changes in land surface albedo such as deforestation/afforestation/reforestation, air pollution, and desert and urban albedo modification.     

The impact of different cooling strategies on urban air temperatures: the cases of Campinas,Brazil and Mendoza,Argentina

This paper describes different ways of reducing urban air temperature and their results in two cities: Campinas, Brazil—a warm temperate climate with a dry winter and hot summer (Cwa), and Mendoza, Argentina—a desert climate with cold steppe (BWk). A high-resolution microclimate modeling system—ENVI-met 3.1—was used to evaluate the thermal performance of an urban canyon in each city. A total of 18 scenarios were simulated including changes in the surface albedo, vegetation percentage, and the H/W aspect ratio of the urban canyons. These results revealed the same trend in behavior for each of the combinations of strategies evaluated in both cities. Nevertheless, these strategies produce a greater temperature reduction in the warm temperate climate (Cwa). Increasing the vegetation percentage reduces air temperatures and mean radiant temperatures in all scenarios. In addition, there is a greater decrease of urban temperature with the vegetation increase when the H/W aspect ratio is lower. Also, applying low albedo on vertical surfaces and high albedo on horizontal surfaces is successful in reducing air temperatures without raising the mean radiant temperature. The best combination of strategies—60 % of vegetation, low albedos on walls and high albedos on pavements and roofs, and 1.5 H/W—could reduce air temperatures up to 6.4 °C in Campinas and 3.5 °C in Mendoza.     

A Multi-layer Radiation Model for Urban Neighbourhoods with Trees

A neighbourhood-scale multi-layer urban canopy model of shortwave and longwave radiation exchange that explicitly includes the radiative effects of tall vegetation (trees) is presented. Tree foliage is permitted both between and above buildings, and mutual shading, emission and reflection between buildings and trees are included. The basic geometry is a two-dimensional canyon with leaf area density profiles and probabilistic variation of building height. Furthermore, the model accounts for three-dimensional path lengths through the foliage. Ray tracing determines the receipt of direct shortwave irradiance by building and foliage elements. View factors for longwave and shortwave diffuse radiation exchange are computed once at the start of the simulation using a Monte Carlo ray tracing approach; for subsequent model timesteps, matrix inversion rapidly solves infinite reflections and interception of emitted longwave between all elements. The model is designed to simulate any combination of shortwave and longwave radiation frequency bands, and to be portable to any neighbourhood-scale urban canopy geometry based on the urban canyon. Additionally, the model is sufficiently flexible to represent forest and forest-clearing scenarios. Model sensitivity tests demonstrate the model is robust and computationally feasible, and highlight the importance of vertical resolution to the performance of urban canopy radiation models. Full model evaluation is limited by the paucity of within-canyon radiation measurements in urban neighbourhoods with trees. Where appropriate model components are tested against analytic relations and results from an independent urban radiation transfer model. Furthermore, system response tests demonstrate the ability of the model to realistically distribute shortwave radiation among urban elements as a function of built form, solar angle and tree foliage height, density and clumping. Separate modelling of photosynthetically-active and near-infrared shortwave bands is shown to be important in some cases. Increased canyon height-to-width ratio and/or tree cover diminishes the net longwave radiation loss of individual canyon elements (e.g., floor, walls), but, notably, has little effect on the net longwave loss of the whole urban canopy. When combined with parametrizations for the impacts of trees on airflow and hydrological processes in the urban surface layer, the new radiation model extends the applicability of urban canopy models and permits more robust assessment of trees as tools to manage urban climate, air quality, human comfort and building energy loads.     

Comparative Analysis of the Mechanisms of Intensified Summer Warming over Europe-West Asia and Northeast Asia since the Mid-1990s through a Process-based Decomposition Method

Previous studies have found amplified warming over Europe-West Asia and Northeast Asia in summer since the mid-1990s relative to elsewhere on the Eurasian continent, but the cause of the amplification in these two regions remains unclear. In this study, we compared the individual contributions of influential factors for amplified warming over these two regions through a quantitative diagnostic analysis based on CFRAM (climate feedback-response analysis method). The changes in surface air temperature are decomposed into the partial changes due to radiative processes (including CO2concentration, incident solar radiation at the top of the atmosphere, surface albedo, water vapor content, ozone concentration, and clouds) and non-radiative processes (including surface sensible heat flux, surface latent heat flux, and dynamical processes). Our results suggest that the enhanced warming over these two regions is primarily attributable to changes in the radiative processes, which contributed 0.62 and 0.98 K to the region-averaged warming over Europe-West Asia (1.00 K) and Northeast Asia (1.02 K), respectively. Among the radiative processes, the main drivers were clouds, CO2concentration, and water vapor content. The cloud term alone contributed to the mean amplitude of warming by 0.40 and0.85 K in Europe-West Asia and Northeast Asia, respectively. In comparison, the non-radiative processes made a much weaker contribution due to the combined impact of surface sensible heat flux, surface latent heat flux, and dynamical processes, accounting for only 0.38 K for the warming in Europe-West Asia and 0.05 K for the warming in Northeast Asia.The resemblance between the influential factors for the amplified warming in these two separate regions implies a common dynamical origin. Thus, this validates the possibility that they originate from the Silk Road pattern.     

Dependence of climate forcing and response on the altitude of black carbon aerosols

Black carbon aerosols absorb solar radiation and decrease planetary albedo, and thus can contribute to climate warming. In this paper, the dependence of equilibrium climate response on the altitude of black carbon is explored using an atmospheric general circulation model coupled to a mixed layer ocean model. The simulations model aerosol direct and semi-direct effects, but not indirect effects. Aerosol concentrations are prescribed and not interactive. It is shown that climate response of black carbon is highly dependent on the altitude of the aerosol. As the altitude of black carbon increases, surface temperatures decrease; black carbon near the surface causes surface warming, whereas black carbon near the tropopause and in the stratosphere causes surface cooling. This cooling occurs despite increasing planetary absorption of sunlight (i.e. decreasing planetary albedo). We find that the trend in surface air temperature response versus the altitude of black carbon is consistent with our calculations of radiative forcing after the troposphere, stratosphere, and land surface have undergone rapid adjustment, calculated as “regressed” radiative forcing. The variation in climate response from black carbon at different altitudes occurs largely from different fast climate responses; temperature dependent feedbacks are not statistically distinguishable. Impacts of black carbon at various altitudes on the hydrological cycle are also discussed; black carbon in the lowest atmospheric layer increases precipitation despite reductions in solar radiation reaching the surface, whereas black carbon at higher altitudes decreases precipitation.     

Impacts of Realistic Urban Heating. Part II: Air Quality and City Breathability

Urban morphology and inter-building shadowing result in a non-uniform distribution of surface heating in urban areas, which can significantly modify the urban flow and thermal field. In Part I, we found that in an idealized three-dimensional urban array, the spatial distribution of the thermal field is correlated with the orientation of surface heating with respect to the wind direction (i.e. leeward or windward heating), while the dispersion field changes more strongly with the vertical temperature gradient in the street canyon. Here, we evaluate these results more closely and translate them into metrics of “city breathability,” with large-eddy simulations coupled with an urban energy-balance model employed for this purpose. First, we quantify breathability by, (i) calculating the pollutant concentration at the pedestrian level (horizontal plane at \(z\approx 1.5\)–2 m) and averaged over the canopy, and (ii) examining the air exchange rate at the horizontal and vertical ventilating faces of the canyon, such that the in-canopy pollutant advection is distinguished from the vertical removal of pollution. Next, we quantify the change in breathability metrics as a function of previously defined buoyancy parameters, horizontal and vertical Richardson numbers (\(Ri_\text {h}\) and \(Ri_\text {v}\), respectively), which characterize realistic surface heating. We find that, unlike the analysis of airflow and thermal fields, consideration of the realistic heating distribution is not crucial in the analysis of city breathability, as the pollutant concentration is mainly correlated with the vertical temperature gradient (\(Ri_\text {v}\)) as opposed to the horizontal (\(Ri_\text {h}\)) or bulk (\(Ri_\text {b}\)) thermal forcing. Additionally, we observe that, due to the formation of the primary vortex, the air exchange rate at the roof level (the horizontal ventilating faces of the building canyon) is dominated by the mean flow. Lastly, since \(Ri_\text {h}\) and \(Ri_\text {v}\) depend on the meteorological factors (ambient air temperature, wind speed, and wind direction) as well as urban design parameters (such as surface albedo), we propose a methodology for mapping overall outdoor ventilation and city breathability using this characterization method. This methodology helps identify the effects of design on urban microclimate, and ultimately informs urban designers and architects of the impact of their design on air quality, human health, and comfort.     

A new snow cover fraction parametrization for the ECHAM4 GCM

 Snow cover fraction (SCF) has a significant influence on the surface albedo and thus on the radiation balance and surface climate. Long-term three dimensional simulations with general circulation models (GCMs) show that the SCF greatly affects the climate in the Northern Hemisphere. By means of both ground observations and remotely sensed data, several deficiencies in the SCF simulated by the current ECHAM4 GCM were identified: over mountainous areas a substantial overestimation in the SCF was found whereas flat areas showed a distinctly underestimated SCF. This work proposes a new parametrization of the SCF for use in GCMs. Evaluations illustrate that it is beneficial to distinguish between the following three terrains: (1) flat, non-forested areas, (2) mountainous regions and (3) forests. The modified SCF parametrization for flat, non-forested areas was derived by using global datasets of ground-based snow depth and remote sensing observations of snow cover data. A 3-dimensional ECHAM4 simulation showed that this modification raises the SCF by up to approximately 20%, mainly in areas with a relatively thin snow cover. The comparison between remotely sensed and simulated mean monthly surface albedo revealed a significant overestimation of the surface albedo in snow-covered mountainous areas. An extension of the current SCF parametrization in ECHAM4 to take into account mountain effects, based on the French climate model Arpège, yielded a close agreement with satellite-derived surface albedo. The adoption of the submodel for snow albedo, as used in the Canadian Land Surface Scheme (CLASS), combined with a newly developed simple snow interception model, demonstrated the ability to capture the main physical processes of snow-covered canopies, including the albedo. The validation of the new parametrization with Boreal Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study (BOREAS) field data showed that the modification is appropriate to capture the main features of the albedo over snow-covered forests during and after heavy snowfall events. Furthermore, the proposed modification has a beneficial impact on the delayed snow melt in spring, a well-known problem in many current GCMs: The simulated surface albedo over the boreal forests decreases by approximately 0.1 during winter and spring, which is in better agreement with ground-based observations. This induces a significant rise in the surface temperature over extended parts of Eurasia and North America in late spring, which subsequently yields a faster snowmelt and an accelerated retreat of the snow line. Received: 28 April 2000 / Accepted: 18 December 2000     

Numerical estimation of the effective albedo of an urban canyon

Summary The paper focuses on the absorption of shortwave radiation in an urban street canyon. To test the effective albedo of the canyon an analytic solution of the multiple reflection problem is applied. The infinitesimally long canyon is divided into slices and a matrix of view factors for the slices is defined. Incoming shortwave radiation includes direct and diffuse parts and shadowing effects are included in the analysis. The model is validated against Aida’s (1982) scale model data and measurements in a real canyon. The results demonstrate a rapid decrease of the effective albedo as the canyon aspect ratio (its height to width, H/W) are increased. It is also shown that diurnal changes of the effective albedo can be very complex depending on the particular combination of H/W ratio, surface reflectivity and canyon orientation. Author’s address: Krzysztof Fortuniak, Department of Meteorology and Climatology, University of Łódź, Narutowicza 88, 09-139 Łódź, Poland.