Numerical Study of Winter Urban Boundary Layer Structure over Beijing Area

1. Introduction The urban canopy layer (UCL) (Roth, 2000) is defined as a layer in the vertical structure of urban boundary layer (UBL) ranging from the surface to the top of buildings. The urban infrastructures within UCL, such as buildings with different heights, the het- erogeneity of urban land cover and the anthropogenic activity, all directly influence the thermal and dynam- ical structures of atmosphere and net radiation budget at the surface, meanwhile, affect the structure of ur- …

Numerical Study of Winter Urban Boundary Layer Structure over Beijing Area

Based on the successful simulation of a typical winter urban boundary layer (UBL) process over Beijing area during the Beijing City Air Pollution Experiment (BECAPEX) in 2001 by the use of MM5 coupled with urban canopy parameterization, a series of simulation experiments are performed to investigate the effects of urban influence, surrounding terrain, and different extent of urbanization on urban boundary layer structures over Beijing area. The results of factor separation experiments of urban influence indicate that the total effect of urban influence, which is the synthetic effect of urban infrastructure on thermal and dynamic structures of atmosphere, is responsible for the formation of main UBL features over Beijing area. Meanwhile, the relative importance of thermal and mechanical factors of urban infrastructure and interaction between thermal and mechanical factors for the formation and evolution of UBL over the Beijing area are also explored. The results show that, during nighttime, mechanical factors are responsible for main characteristics of nocturnal urban boundary layer such as elevated inversion layer over downtown area, smaller wind speed and stronger turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) and its behavior with peak at the top of canopy layer, whereas in the daytime, thermal factors play dominant role in the structure of UBL, such as the intensity of mixed layer and temperature in the lower atmosphere in urban area. The interaction between mechanical and thermal factors plays an important role in the formation and evolution of UBL, but its specific characteristics of mechanisms are complex. The results of surrounding terrain experiment show that terrain surrounding Beijing area not only determines the characteristic of prevailing airflow over Beijing area, but also has obvious effect on thermal structure of UBL, such as the distribution of elevated inversion and urban heat island, and makes them with special localization feature. The results of different extent urbanization experiment show that with the increase in the density and height of buildings in Beijing area, wind speed would decrease and TKE increase. Meanwhile, the bottom of nocturnal elevated inversion would increase in downtown area, and the intensity of urban heat island would strengthen, and even probably is obvious in the daytime.