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Atmosphere
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Atmospheric Effects on Humans—EMS 2017 Session
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Atmospheric Effects on Humans—EMS 2017 Session

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Biometeorology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 December 2017) | Viewed by 19594

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Andreas Matzarakis

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
1. Environmental Meteorology, University of Freiburg, D-79085 Freiburg, Germany
2. Research Centre Human Biometeorology, Deutscher Wetterdienst, D-79104 Freiburg, Germany
Interests: human biometeorology; urban bioclimatology; climate and tourism; climate impact research
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Stefan Muthers

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Research Center Human Biometeorology, German Meteorological Service, D-79104 Freiburg, Germany
Interests: human-biometeorology; climate change; climate system dynamics; climate modelling

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue deals with the interactions between atmospheric conditions, human beings and the environment (ecosystems, materials) in an interdisciplinary manner, as well as on how to warn, respond to and mitigate adverse effects resulting from human activities and climate change. The core questions are to assess how atmospheric conditions can impact the well-being and health of humans, how urban planning can improve atmospheric conditions (air quality, urban climate) and how to transfer such knowledge in a broadly understandable way in order to ensure the appropriate usage of such information. Atmospheric conditions include transient ones driven by weather patterns and long-term climatology, as well as how climate change trends, may affect these drivers.

In this context, the Special Issue will address issues concerning assessment approaches (including emission inventories) for urban climate (including heat load and cold stress), air quality and health, as well as warning systems and measures in place to mitigate adverse impacts. Modelling and experimental studies on how environmental management, urban planning and design or traffic regulation can improve living conditions and decrease emissions are particularly welcome.

The Special Issue will consider the impacts of weather processes with respect to air temperature, air quality and radiation on human well-being and health. Since several methods are in use to compile bio-weather and air quality forecasts, we are looking forward to discussing such approaches and the way to convey such information to end-users and the public, but particularly to special target cohorts. Another aim is to describe ways, how climate and air quality data and information should be transferred and addressed for issues on tourism and recreation but also for people living in urban areas.

The Special Issue will also address efforts to combine the different environmental impacts on humans into one single index, as it is well known that humans react to the whole mix of atmospheric stimuli. The aim is to improve the requested information and to look for more efficient ways of conveying the message on a regular basis in order to enable authorities and citizens to make the best use of such information in their everyday activities.

Prof. Dr. Andreas Matzarakis
Dr. Stefan Muthers
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Atmosphere is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 22139 KiB  
Article
Spatial Estimation of Thermal Indices in Urban Areas—Basics of the SkyHelios Model
by Dominik Fröhlich and Andreas Matzarakis
Atmosphere 2018, 9(6), 209; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos9060209 - 29 May 2018
Cited by 30 | Viewed by 6358
Abstract
Thermal perception and stress for humans can be best estimated based on appropriate indices. Sophisticated thermal indices, e.g., the Perceived Temperature (PT), the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI), or the Physiologically Equivalent Temperature (PET) do require the meteorological input parameters air temperature ( [...] Read more.
Thermal perception and stress for humans can be best estimated based on appropriate indices. Sophisticated thermal indices, e.g., the Perceived Temperature (PT), the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI), or the Physiologically Equivalent Temperature (PET) do require the meteorological input parameters air temperature ( T a ), vapour pressure ( V P ), wind speed (v), as well as the different short- and longtime radiation fluxes summarized as the mean radiant temperature ( T m r t ). However, in complex urban environments, especially v and T m r t are highly volatile in space. They can, thus, only be estimated by micro-scale models. One easy way to apply the model for the determination of thermal indices within urban environments is the advanced SkyHelios model. It is designed to estimate sky view factor ( S V F ), sunshine duration, global radiation, wind speed, wind direction, T m r t considering reflections, as well as the three thermal indices PT, UTCI, and PET spatially and temporarily resolved with low computation time. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Atmospheric Effects on Humans—EMS 2017 Session)
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21 pages, 33941 KiB  
Article
Development of an Urban High-Resolution Air Temperature Forecast System for Local Weather Information Services Based on Statistical Downscaling
by Chaeyeon Yi, Yire Shin and Joon-Woo Roh
Atmosphere 2018, 9(5), 164; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos9050164 - 26 Apr 2018
Cited by 27 | Viewed by 5222
Abstract
The Korean peninsula has complex and diverse weather phenomena, and the Korea Meteorological Administration has been working on various numerical models to produce better forecasting data. The Unified Model Local Data Assimilation and Prediction System is a limited-area working model with a horizontal [...] Read more.
The Korean peninsula has complex and diverse weather phenomena, and the Korea Meteorological Administration has been working on various numerical models to produce better forecasting data. The Unified Model Local Data Assimilation and Prediction System is a limited-area working model with a horizontal resolution of 1.5 km for estimating local-scale weather forecasts on the Korean peninsula. However, in order to numerically predict the detailed temperature characteristics of the urban space, in which surface characteristics change rapidly in a small spatial area, a city temperature prediction model with higher resolution spatial decomposition capabilities is required. As an alternative to this, a building-scale temperature model was developed, and a 25 m air temperature resolution was determined for the Seoul area. The spatial information was processed using statistical methods, such as linear regression models and machine learning. By comparing the accuracy of the estimated air temperatures with observational data during the summer, the machine learning was improved. In addition, horizontal and vertical characteristics of the urban space were better represented, and the air temperature was better resolved spatially. Air temperature information can be used to manage the response to heat-waves and tropical nights in administrative districts of urban areas. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Atmospheric Effects on Humans—EMS 2017 Session)
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24 pages, 24318 KiB  
Article
Megacity-Induced Mesoclimatic Effects in the Lower Atmosphere: A Modeling Study for Multiple Summers over Moscow, Russia
by Mikhail Varentsov, Hendrik Wouters, Vladimir Platonov and Pavel Konstantinov
Atmosphere 2018, 9(2), 50; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos9020050 - 04 Feb 2018
Cited by 68 | Viewed by 6993
Abstract
Urbanization leads to distinct meteorological features of urban environments, and one the best-known is the urban heat island (UHI) effect. For megacities, these features become mesoscale phenomena (scale ≥ 10 km) that are amplified by the tropospheric feedbacks, and have substantial implications on [...] Read more.
Urbanization leads to distinct meteorological features of urban environments, and one the best-known is the urban heat island (UHI) effect. For megacities, these features become mesoscale phenomena (scale ≥ 10 km) that are amplified by the tropospheric feedbacks, and have substantial implications on human well-being. For the first time, a three-dimensional statistical description of the megacity-induced meteorological effects extending towards the lower troposphere for summer is acquired on a quasi-climatological timescale (a decade) based on high-resolution (1 km) simulations for Moscow with the COSMO-CLM model with and without its urban canopy model TERRA_URB. Our results confirm the features from previous observational and modeling studies, including the UHI itself, the cooling effect above established by the cross-over effect, the urban dry/moist islands and the urban breeze circulation. Particularly, the UHI shows a strong diurnal variation in terms of intensity and vertical extent between daytime (≈0.5 K/≈1.5 km) and nighttime (>3 K/≈150 m). We have discovered a systematic veering in the downwind shift of the UHI spatial pattern established by the Coriolis effect, and an enhanced stable stratification of the rural surroundings established by the urban plumes further downwind. Finally, extending the analysis to multiple summers demonstrates a substantial increase in summer precipitation (up to +25%) over the city center and its leeward side. These urban-caused mesoclimatic effects need to be taken into account in weather and climate services, including the design of future megacities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Atmospheric Effects on Humans—EMS 2017 Session)
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