A Three-Dimensional Numerical Model of the Sea Breezes Over South Florida
TL;DR: In this paper, an eight-level three-dimensional primitive equation model was used to describe the initiation and evolution of sea-breeze convergence patterns over south Florida as a function of the surface heat and momentum fluxes and of the large-scale synoptic forcing.
Abstract: An eight-level three-dimensional primitive equation model which includes a detailed boundary layer parameterization scheme has been used to describe the initiation and evolution of sea-breeze convergence patterns over south Florida as a function of the surface heat and momentum fluxes and of the large-scale synoptic forcing. A minimum grid spacing of 11 km was used. Model results are presented for several different initial conditions and the results, when compared against cumulus cloud and shower patterns, demonstrate that the dry sea-breeze circulations are the dominant control on the locations of thunderstorm complexes over south Florida on undisturbed days. It is also shown that, in contrast to the differential roughness, the differential heating between land and water over south Florida is the primary determinant of the magnitudes of convergence. The values of surface roughness, however, indirectly influence convergence patterns by affecting the intensity of the vertical turbulent transport o...
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TL;DR: In this article, an analysis of temperature trends for the last 100 years in several large U.S. cities indicate that, since ∼1940, temperatures in urban areas have increased by about 0.5-3.0°C.
1,526 citations
Cites methods from "A Three-Dimensional Numerical Model..."
...3 depicts the overall methodology used in tion, three-dimensional Eulerian model that was analyzing the impact of heat-island mitigation originally developed by Pielke (1974)....
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TL;DR: In this paper, the impacts of surface albedo, evapotranspiration, and anthropogenic heating on the near-surface climate are discussed, and numerical simulations and field measurements indicate that increasing vegetation cover can be effective in reducing the surface and air temperatures near the ground.
1,282 citations
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Abstract: The increasing demand by the scientific community, policy makers, and the public for realistic projections of possible regional impacts of future climate changes has rendered the issue of regional climate simulation critically important. The problem of projecting regional climate changes can be identified as that of representing effects of atmospheric forcings on two different spatial scales: large-scale forcings, i.e., forcings which modify the general circulation and determine the sequence of weather events which characterize the climate regime of a given region (for example, greenhouse gas abundance), and mesoscale forcings, i.e., forcings which modify the local circulations, thereby regulating the regional distribution of climatic variables (for example, complex mountainous systems). General circulation models (GCMs) are the main tools available today for climate simulation. However, they are run and will likely be run for the next several years at resolutions which are too coarse to adequately describe mesoscale forcings and yield accurate regional climate detail. This paper presents a review of these approaches. They can be divided in three broad categories: (1) Purely empirical approaches, in which the forcings are not explicitly accounted for, but regional climate scenarios are constructed by using instrumental data records or paleoclimatic analogues; (2) semiempirical approaches, in which GCMs are used to describe the atmospheric response to large-scale forcings of relevance to climate changes, and empirical techniques account for the effect of mesoscale forcings; and (3) modeling approaches, in which mesoscale forcings are described by increasing the model resolution only over areas of interest. Since they are computationally inexpensive, empirical and semiempirical techniques have been so far more widely used. Their application to regional climate change projection is, however, limited by their own empiricism and by the availability of data sets of adequate quality. More recently, a nested GCM-limited area model methodology for regional climate simulation has been developed, with encouraging preliminary results. As it is physically, rather than empirically, based, the nested modeling framework has a wide range of applications.
826 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the Earth's surface role with respect to the surface energy and moisture budgets is examined, and changes in land surface properties are shown to influence the heat and moisture fluxes within the planetary boundary layer, convective available potential energy, and other measures of the deep cumulus cloud activity.
Abstract: This paper uses published work to demonstrate the link between surface moisture and heat fluxes and cumulus convective rainfall. The Earth's surface role with respect to the surface energy and moisture budgets is examined. Changes in land-surface properties are shown to influence the heat and moisture fluxes within the planetary boundary layer, convective available potential energy, and other measures of the deep cumulus cloud activity. The spatial structure of the surface heating, as influenced by landscape patterning, produces focused regions for deep cumulonimbus convection. In the tropics, and during midlatitude summers, deep cumulus convection has apparently been significantly altered as a result of landscape changes. These alterations in cumulus convection teleconnect to higher latitudes, which significantly alters the weather in those regions. The effect of tropical deforestation is most clearly defined in the winter hemisphere. In the context of climate, landscape processes are shown to be as much a part of the climate system as are atmospheric processes.
761 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors quantified the contribution through energy consumption, to the heat island phenomena and discussed how reductions in energy consumption could mitigate impacts on the urban thermal environment, where very detailed maps of anthropogenic heat were drawn with data from energy statistics and a very detailed digital geographic land use data set including the number of stories of building at each grid point.
529 citations
Cites methods from "A Three-Dimensional Numerical Model..."
...The numerical simulation model used in this study was based on the Colorado State University Mesoscale Model (CSU-MM) (Pielke, 1974) with the modi"cations of Ulrickson and Mass (1990) and Kessler and Douglas (1992) and with small changes to input values for several surface boundary conditions like albedo or anthropogenic heat in each grid cell....
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...The numerical simulation model used in this study was based on the Colorado State University Mesoscale Model (CSU-MM) (Pielke, 1974) with the modi"cations of Ulrickson and Mass (1990) and Kessler and Douglas (1992) and with small changes to input values for several surface boundary conditions like…...
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