Improvements in Land-Use Classification for Estimating Daytime Surface Temperatures and Sea-Breeze Flows in Southern California

Abstract

Abstract Understanding the interactions between large-scale atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns and changes in land cover and land use (LCLU) due to urbanization is a relevant subject in many coastal climates. Recent studies by Lebassi et al. found that the average maximum air temperatures during the summer in two populated California coastal areas decreased at low-elevation areas open to marine air penetration during the period of 1970–2005. This coastal cooling was attributed to an increase in sea-breeze activity. The aims of this work are to better understand the coastal flow patterns and sea–land thermal gradient by improving the land-cover classification scheme in the region using updated airborne remote sensing data and to assess the suitability of the updated regional atmospheric modeling system for representing maritime flows in this region. This study uses high-resolution airborne data from the NASA Hyperspectral Infrared Imager (HyspIRI) mission preparatory flight campaign over Southern California and surface ground stations to compare observations against model estimations. Five new urban land classes were created using broadband albedo derived from the Airborne Visible and Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) sensor and then assimilated into the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model. The updated model captures the diurnal spatial and temporal sea-breeze patterns in the region. Results show notable improvements of simulated daytime surface temperature and coastal winds using the HyspIRI-derived products in the model against the default land classification, reaffirming the importance of accounting for heterogeneity of urban surface properties.