Impact of Urbanization on the Predictions of Urban Meteorology and Air Pollutants over Four Major North American Cities
The sensitivities of meteorological and chemical predictions to urban effects over four major North American cities are investigated using the high-resolution (2.5-km) Environment and Climate Change Canada’s air quality model with the Town Energy Balance (TEB) scheme. Comparisons between the model s...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2020-09-01
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| Series: | Atmosphere |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/11/9/969 |
| _version_ | 1797554002028658688 |
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| author | Shuzhan Ren Craig A. Stroud Stephane Belair Sylvie Leroyer Rodrigo Munoz-Alpizar Michael D. Moran Junhua Zhang Ayodeji Akingunola Paul A. Makar |
| author_facet | Shuzhan Ren Craig A. Stroud Stephane Belair Sylvie Leroyer Rodrigo Munoz-Alpizar Michael D. Moran Junhua Zhang Ayodeji Akingunola Paul A. Makar |
| author_sort | Shuzhan Ren |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The sensitivities of meteorological and chemical predictions to urban effects over four major North American cities are investigated using the high-resolution (2.5-km) Environment and Climate Change Canada’s air quality model with the Town Energy Balance (TEB) scheme. Comparisons between the model simulation results with and without the TEB effect show that urbanization has great impacts on surface heat fluxes, vertical diffusivity, air temperature, humidity, atmospheric boundary layer height, land-lake circulation, air pollutants concentrations and Air Quality Health Index. The impacts have strong diurnal variabilities, and are very different in summer and winter. While the diurnal variations of the impacts share some similarities over each city, the magnitudes can be very different. The underlying mechanisms of the impacts are investigated. The TEB impacts on the predictions of meteorological and air pollutants over Toronto are evaluated against ground-based observations. The results show that the TEB scheme leads to a great improvement in biases and root-mean-square deviations in temperature and humidity predictions in downtown, uptown and suburban areas in the early morning and nighttime. The scheme also leads to a big improvement of predictions of NO<inline-formula><math display="inline"><semantics><msub><mrow></mrow><mi>x</mi></msub></semantics></math></inline-formula>, PM<inline-formula><math display="inline"><semantics><msub><mrow></mrow><mrow><mn>2.5</mn></mrow></msub></semantics></math></inline-formula> and ground-level ozone in the downtown, uptown and industrial areas in the early morning and nighttime. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T16:25:37Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9500d0d558fa44e7944692c20fd52d37 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2073-4433 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T16:25:37Z |
| publishDate | 2020-09-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Atmosphere |
| spelling | doaj.art-9500d0d558fa44e7944692c20fd52d372023-11-20T13:18:26ZengMDPI AGAtmosphere2073-44332020-09-0111996910.3390/atmos11090969Impact of Urbanization on the Predictions of Urban Meteorology and Air Pollutants over Four Major North American CitiesShuzhan Ren0Craig A. Stroud1Stephane Belair2Sylvie Leroyer3Rodrigo Munoz-Alpizar4Michael D. Moran5Junhua Zhang6Ayodeji Akingunola7Paul A. Makar8Air Quality Research Division, Science and Technology Branch, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, ON M3H 5T4, CanadaAir Quality Research Division, Science and Technology Branch, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, ON M3H 5T4, CanadaMeteorological Research Division, Science and Technology Branch, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Dorval, QC H9P 1J3, CanadaMeteorological Research Division, Science and Technology Branch, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Dorval, QC H9P 1J3, CanadaMeteorological Research Division, Science and Technology Branch, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Dorval, QC H9P 1J3, CanadaAir Quality Research Division, Science and Technology Branch, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, ON M3H 5T4, CanadaAir Quality Research Division, Science and Technology Branch, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, ON M3H 5T4, CanadaAir Quality Research Division, Science and Technology Branch, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, ON M3H 5T4, CanadaAir Quality Research Division, Science and Technology Branch, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, ON M3H 5T4, CanadaThe sensitivities of meteorological and chemical predictions to urban effects over four major North American cities are investigated using the high-resolution (2.5-km) Environment and Climate Change Canada’s air quality model with the Town Energy Balance (TEB) scheme. Comparisons between the model simulation results with and without the TEB effect show that urbanization has great impacts on surface heat fluxes, vertical diffusivity, air temperature, humidity, atmospheric boundary layer height, land-lake circulation, air pollutants concentrations and Air Quality Health Index. The impacts have strong diurnal variabilities, and are very different in summer and winter. While the diurnal variations of the impacts share some similarities over each city, the magnitudes can be very different. The underlying mechanisms of the impacts are investigated. The TEB impacts on the predictions of meteorological and air pollutants over Toronto are evaluated against ground-based observations. The results show that the TEB scheme leads to a great improvement in biases and root-mean-square deviations in temperature and humidity predictions in downtown, uptown and suburban areas in the early morning and nighttime. The scheme also leads to a big improvement of predictions of NO<inline-formula><math display="inline"><semantics><msub><mrow></mrow><mi>x</mi></msub></semantics></math></inline-formula>, PM<inline-formula><math display="inline"><semantics><msub><mrow></mrow><mrow><mn>2.5</mn></mrow></msub></semantics></math></inline-formula> and ground-level ozone in the downtown, uptown and industrial areas in the early morning and nighttime.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/11/9/969urbanization impacts on meteorological and chemical fieldshigh-resolution air quality forecast modeltown energy balance modelsurface heat fluxurban heat island effect |
| spellingShingle | Shuzhan Ren Craig A. Stroud Stephane Belair Sylvie Leroyer Rodrigo Munoz-Alpizar Michael D. Moran Junhua Zhang Ayodeji Akingunola Paul A. Makar Impact of Urbanization on the Predictions of Urban Meteorology and Air Pollutants over Four Major North American Cities Atmosphere urbanization impacts on meteorological and chemical fields high-resolution air quality forecast model town energy balance model surface heat flux urban heat island effect |
| title | Impact of Urbanization on the Predictions of Urban Meteorology and Air Pollutants over Four Major North American Cities |
| title_full | Impact of Urbanization on the Predictions of Urban Meteorology and Air Pollutants over Four Major North American Cities |
| title_fullStr | Impact of Urbanization on the Predictions of Urban Meteorology and Air Pollutants over Four Major North American Cities |
| title_full_unstemmed | Impact of Urbanization on the Predictions of Urban Meteorology and Air Pollutants over Four Major North American Cities |
| title_short | Impact of Urbanization on the Predictions of Urban Meteorology and Air Pollutants over Four Major North American Cities |
| title_sort | impact of urbanization on the predictions of urban meteorology and air pollutants over four major north american cities |
| topic | urbanization impacts on meteorological and chemical fields high-resolution air quality forecast model town energy balance model surface heat flux urban heat island effect |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/11/9/969 |
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