Abstract
The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) mesoscale model is used to study the effect of urban heating on the local climate of the largest urban agglomeration of Malaysia, Greater Kuala Lumpur (GKL) during a period of weak synoptic forcing. Urbanization has induced a modelled daily mean urban heat island (UHI) intensity of 0.9°C with a more severe heating (1.9°C) at night. The diurnal wind field of GKL is greatly affected by the circulation of land/sea breeze. The immense heat generated in the city accelerates the moisture-bearing sea breeze during the day and the induced vertical lifting simultaneously creates a conducive environment for convective precipitation on the upwind region. The urban heating effect and surface roughness weakens the evening flow circulations in the region and potentially inhibits dispersion of heat and atmospheric pollutants. Simulation of UHI phenomenon is especially sensitive to the characterization of urban grids through sensitivity evaluation of numerous land use maps and urban canopy model (UCM) settings. When compared to observations, the WRF model best captures the urban heating phenomenon with updated land use map and calibrated single layer UCM, while the simple bulk UCM setting performs better than the default complex single layer UCM.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.