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Atmosphere
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Urban Meteorology
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Urban Meteorology

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2019) | Viewed by 17546

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Moon-Soo Park

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Research Center for Atmospheric Environment, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, 81 Oedae-ro, Mohyeon-myeon, Cheoin-gu, Yongin-si 17035, Gyeonggi-do, Korea

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The global urban population was over 55% in 2018 and is projected to grow to 68% by 2050, according to the 2018 Revision of World Urbanization Prospects. Urban areas with high population density are vulnerable not only to disastrous meteorological and environmental phenomena, such as heavy rain/snow fall, heat and cold waves, strong wind, and severe air pollution events, but also to manmade accidents such as explosions or the release of toxic gases and radioactive nuclides. Especially, several scales of high-rise buildings, block-scale inhomogeneity of local climate zones, horizontally and vertically inhomogeneous surface materials, and heat or pollutant sources in urban areas tend to complicate urban meteorological features, including the surface energy balance and the boundary-layer structure. Sometimes, impervious surfaces in urban areas amplify damages of property and human life by flash flooding under heavy rainfall conditions.

Urban meteorology plays a very important role in reducing possible damages from such extreme weather-related disasters in advance, to give the best timely guidance to citizens, and to optimize the efficiency of urban planning and reconstruction. Most countries and local governments do their best to attain resilience and sustainable cities by providing weather information in advance or on real-time through installation of the urban meteorological observation network and development of the urban meteorological and applied modeling.

This Special Issue aims to address the current state of available urban meteorology-related studies: Urban meteorological observation technology and/or networks (sensor networks, surface-based remote sensing instruments); urban-specific weather phenomena (heat islands, urban–rural circulation); surface energy balance and boundary-layer structure in urban areas; and meteorological modeling in urban areas.

Prof. Dr. Moon-Soo Park
Guest Editor

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.

Keywords

  • Urban
  • Resilience
  • Sustainability
  • Meteorological observation in urban areas
  • Heat island
  • Surface energy balance in urban areas
  • Surface-based remote sensing measurement in urban areas
  • Boundary-layer structure in urban areas
  • Meteorological modeling in urban areas
  • Disastrous weather phenomena in urban areas
  • Weather information service in urban areas

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 7655 KiB  
Article
A Building-Block Urban Meteorological Observation Experiment (BBMEX) Campaign in Central Commercial Area in Seoul
by Moon-Soo Park, Jae-Young Byon, Baek-Jo Kim, Woosuk Choi, Kwang-Min Myung, Sang-Hyun Lee, Tae-Il Cho, Jung-Hoon Chae, Jae-Sik Min, Minsoo Kang, Joon-Bum Jee, Sang-Heon Kim and Chang-Rae Cho
Atmosphere 2020, 11(3), 299; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11030299 - 19 Mar 2020
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3974
Abstract
High-resolution meteorological information is essential for attaining sustainable and resilient cities. To elucidate high-resolution features of surface and air temperatures in high-rise building blocks (BBs), a 3-dimensional BB meteorological observation experiment (BBMEX) campaign was designed. The campaign was carried out in a central [...] Read more.
High-resolution meteorological information is essential for attaining sustainable and resilient cities. To elucidate high-resolution features of surface and air temperatures in high-rise building blocks (BBs), a 3-dimensional BB meteorological observation experiment (BBMEX) campaign was designed. The campaign was carried out in a central commercial area in Seoul during a heat-wave event period (5−6 August) in 2019. Several types of fixed instrument were deployed, a mobile meteorological observation cart (MOCA) and a vehicle were operated periodically. The surface temperature was determined to be strongly dependent on the facial direction of a building, and sunlit or shade by surrounding obstacles. Considerable increases in surface temperature on the eastern facades of buildings before noon, on horizontal surfaces near noon, and on the western facades in the afternoon could provide more energy in BBs than over a flat surface. The air temperatures in the BB were higher than those at the Seoul station by 0.1−2.2 °C (1.1−1.9 °C) in daytime (night-time). The MOCA revealed that the surface and air temperatures in a BB could be affected by many complex factors, such as the structure of the BBs, shades, as well as the existence of facilities that mitigate heat stresses, such as ground fountains and waterways. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Meteorology)
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12 pages, 6493 KiB  
Article
Sensitivity Analysis of Surface Energy Budget to Albedo Parameters in Seoul Metropolitan Area Using the Unified Model
by Jieun Wie, Seon-Ok Hong, Jae-Young Byon, Jong-Chul Ha and Byung-Kwon Moon
Atmosphere 2020, 11(1), 120; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11010120 - 20 Jan 2020
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3100
Abstract
The large population growth has significantly altered the thermal characteristics of the atmosphere, including decreased albedo and increased heat capacity; thus, urban areas experience unique climatic phenomena. We conducted sensitivity experiments using Unified Model Local Data Assimilation and Prediction-Met-Office-Reading Urban Surface Exchange Scheme [...] Read more.
The large population growth has significantly altered the thermal characteristics of the atmosphere, including decreased albedo and increased heat capacity; thus, urban areas experience unique climatic phenomena. We conducted sensitivity experiments using Unified Model Local Data Assimilation and Prediction-Met-Office-Reading Urban Surface Exchange Scheme (LDAPS-MORUSES) to investigate the response of surface energy budget to albedo changes in the Seoul Metropolitan Area. We compared 1.5-m temperature at 56 automatic weather station (AWS) sites and showed underestimations of approximately 0.5–2 K, but the diurnal cycle was well simulated. We changed the wall and road albedo parameters by ±50% from the default values for sensitivity experiments. With increasing albedo, 1.5-m temperature decreased by approximately 0.06 °C and 0.01 °C in urban and suburban areas, respectively. These changes are responses to decreased net radiation and sensible heat during daytime, whereas sensible heat mainly contributes to the surface cooling during nighttime. Furthermore, the decrease in albedo leads to altered vertical structure of potential temperature and atmospheric circulations at altitudes of 300–1000 m. Results show that albedo modification can affect not only surface temperature but also the entire urban boundary layer. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Meteorology)
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19 pages, 7797 KiB  
Article
Development of a Building-Scale Meteorological Prediction System Including a Realistic Surface Heating
by Dong-Jin Kim, Doo-Il Lee, Jae-Jin Kim, Moon-Soo Park and Sang-Hyun Lee
Atmosphere 2020, 11(1), 67; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11010067 - 04 Jan 2020
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2721
Abstract
Microscale urban meteorological models have been widely used in interpreting atmospheric flow and thermal discomfort in urban environments, but most previous studies examined the urban flow and thermal environments for an idealized urban morphology with imposing neutral or homogeneous thermal forcing. This study [...] Read more.
Microscale urban meteorological models have been widely used in interpreting atmospheric flow and thermal discomfort in urban environments, but most previous studies examined the urban flow and thermal environments for an idealized urban morphology with imposing neutral or homogeneous thermal forcing. This study has developed a new building-scale meteorological prediction system that extends the ability to predict microscale meteorological fields in real urban environments. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model has been developed based on the non-hydrostatic incompressible Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations with a standard k-ε turbulence model, and the microscale urban surface energy (MUSE) model was coupled with the CFD model to provide realistic surface thermal boundary conditions in real urban environments. It is driven by the large scale wind and temperature fields predicted by the Korean operational weather prediction model. The validation results of the new building-scale meteorological prediction system were presented against wind tunnel data and field measurements, showing its ability to predict in-canyon flows and thermal environments in association with spatiotemporal variations of surface temperatures in real urban environments. The effects of realistic surface heating on pedestrian level wind and thermal environments have been investigated through sensitivity simulations of different surface heating conditions in the highly built-up urban area. The results implied that the inclusion of surface thermal forcing is important in interpreting urban flow and thermal environment of the urban area, highlighting a realistic urban surface heating that should be considered in predicting building-scale meteorology over real urban environments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Meteorology)
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22 pages, 4872 KiB  
Article
Diurnal Variations of Surface and Air Temperatures on the Urban Streets in Seoul, Korea: An Observational Analysis during BBMEX Campaign
by Yoo-Jun Kim, Joon-Bum Jee, Geon-Tae Kim, Hyoung-Gu Nam, Jeong-Sun Lee and Baek-Jo Kim
Atmosphere 2020, 11(1), 60; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11010060 - 02 Jan 2020
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3639
Abstract
In this study, we used an intensive observation dataset of a mobile observation vehicle (MOVE) to investigate the characteristics of thermal environments and diurnal variations of road surface temperature (RST) and air temperature, particularly at the urban street level, during the 2019 Building [...] Read more.
In this study, we used an intensive observation dataset of a mobile observation vehicle (MOVE) to investigate the characteristics of thermal environments and diurnal variations of road surface temperature (RST) and air temperature, particularly at the urban street level, during the 2019 Building Block 3-dimensional urban Meteorological Experiment (BBMEX) campaign in Seoul. For the purpose of comparing characteristics of RST and air temperature with different surrounding thermal environments, we divided the road into four sections (S1: Open Section, S2: High-Rise Buildings, S3: Low-Rise Buildings, S4: Street Trees). This study demonstrates that the greater sky view factors (SVFs) are generally coincident with the greater RSTs, with a significance at the 5% level. The diurnal variations indicated that the time lag between observed maximum air temperature and RST has about one hour, which is attributable to an increase air temperatures above artificial pavement through heat convection with some latency. The diurnal temperature ranges (DTRs) of RST in S2 and S4 were relatively smaller than those of S1 and S3, with differences ranging from 2.9 °C to 4.5 °C. The current results will assist planners and decision makers in determining policy priorities with regard to urban street design and planning. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Meteorology)
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18 pages, 9796 KiB  
Article
Statistical Downscaling of Urban-scale Air Temperatures Using an Analog Model Output Statistics Technique
by Yire Shin and Chaeyeon Yi
Atmosphere 2019, 10(8), 427; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos10080427 - 25 Jul 2019
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 3432
Abstract
This study was conducted to evaluate the suitability of an analog model output statistics (MOS) downscaling technique for urban-scale meteorology research and compares this MOS-Analog technique with the sliding window technique. We downscaled air temperatures forecasted for the Seoul metropolitan area from 1.5 [...] Read more.
This study was conducted to evaluate the suitability of an analog model output statistics (MOS) downscaling technique for urban-scale meteorology research and compares this MOS-Analog technique with the sliding window technique. We downscaled air temperatures forecasted for the Seoul metropolitan area from 1.5 km resolution (using data from the Unified Model-Local Data Assimilation and Prediction System, UM-LDAPS) to 25 m resolution using the analog MOS technique described in the paper. The support vector machine (SVM) technique was employed for empirical computational modeling, using urban surface parameters calculated using the Climate Analysis Seoul (CAS) workbench and automated weather station (AWS) observational data as training data. The comparison of the downscaled prediction results with the AWS observations for the periods of July/August 2016 and 2017 resulted in a lower root mean square error (RMSE) and higher correlation coefficients (CC) than those obtained for the LDAPS prediction results. The prediction performance was also stable for September, during which precipitation episodes and seasonal fluctuations occurred. The results of this study demonstrate that the proposed technique, which overcomes the limitations of the sliding window technique, is applicable to urban-scale meteorology research and potentially applicable other areas. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Meteorology)
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