Abstract
AbstractUrban land surface processes need to be represented to inform future urban climate and building energy projections. Here, the single layer urban canopy model Town Energy Balance (TEB) is coupled to the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to create WRF‐TEB. The coupling method is described generically, implemented into software, and the code and data are released with a Singularity image to address issues of scientific reproducibility. The coupling is implemented modularly and verified by an integration test. Results show no detectable errors in the coupling. Separately, a meteorological evaluation is undertaken using observations from Toulouse, France. The latter evaluation, during an urban canopy layer heat island episode, shows reasonable ability to estimate turbulent heat flux densities and other meteorological quantities. We conclude that new model couplings should make use of integration tests as meteorological evaluations by themselves are insufficient, given that errors are difficult to attribute because of the interplay between observational errors and multiple parameterization schemes (e.g., radiation, microphysics, and boundary layer).
Highlights
The coupled Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF)‐Town Energy Balance (TEB) model enables a wide range of urban climate processes to be analyzed
We describe techniques to help with the coupling approach, implementation, verification, and scientific reproducibility
In implementing the coupling interface, we do not alter the current WRF framework but, instead, implement techniques to help with software modularity, clarity, and reliability, for example, treating TEB as an external library
Summary
With increasing urbanization (United Nations, 2019) and climate change (Collins et al, 2013), the study of urban atmospheric phenomena such as the spatial variation of temperature (Arnfield, 2003), or the impact of the urban environment on moisture (Unger, 1999), precipitation (Liu & Niyogi, 2019; Shepherd, 2005), wind fields (Martilli, 2002; Moonen et al, 2012), boundary layer (Chen et al, 2009; Lin et al, 2008; Masson, 2006), air conditioning (Salamanca et al, 2013, 2014; Takane et al, 2017), and heating energy demand (Santamouris et al, 2001), are increasingly relevant. To our knowledge, none have employed tests to verify the effects of coupling alone We both outline a technical approach to couple and verify model components and link TEB with WRF to add to other UCM options already available in WRF (UCAR, 2020). To date, these are: bulk urban parameterization within the Noah‐LSM (Chen & Dudhia, 2001; Ek et al, 2003), single layer Urban Canopy Model (SLUCM Chen et al, 2011), and the multi‐layer Building Effect Parameterization (BEP Martilli et al, 2002) with optional Building Energy Model (BEP+BEM Salamanca et al, 2010). We release the complete source code, data, and tools to make our results reproducible (section 5) and evaluate the model (section 6) with a technical integration test (section 6.3) and meteorological observations (section 6.4)
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