Urban Heat Island with Urban Size

Data

Seabreeze Data

Case that allows modification of surface conditions

Initialization for Ideal Cases

The program 'ideal.exe' is the program in the WRF system that allows a user to run a controlled scenario. Typically this program requires no input except for the 'namelist.input' and the 'input_sounding' files -except for the b_wave case which uses a 2-D binary sounding file-. The program outputs the 'wrfinput_d01' file that is read by the WRF model executable 'wrf.exe'.

namelist

The namelist can control the size of the domain, number of vertical levels, model top height, grid size, time step, diffusion and damping properties, boundary conditions, and physics options.

Input_sounding

The input_sounding file can be any set of levels that goes at least up to the model top height (ztop) in the namelist. The first line includes the surface pressure (hPa), potential temperature (K) and moisture mixing ratio (g/kg). Each subsequent line has five input values: height (meters above sea-level), potential temperature (K), vapor mixing ratio (g/kg), x-direction wind component (m/s), and y-direction wind component (m/s). The “ideal.exe” program interpolates the data from the input_sounding file, and will extrapolate if not enough data is provided.

2-D seabreeze (em_seabreeze_x)

The selection of the type of forecast is made when issuing the ./compile statement. To observe the changes in the urban heat island effect due to variations in urban size(surface condition), the ideal case em_seabreeze2d_x was selected among several cases.

[2D seabreeze]

2-km grid size, 20-km top, land/water
Can be run with full physics, radiation, surface, boundary layer, and land options.