TY - JOUR
T1 - Application of high resolution land use and land cover data for atmospheric modeling in the Houston-Galveston metropolitan area, Part I
T2 - Meteorological simulation results
AU - Cheng, Fang Yi
AU - Byun, Daewon W.
N1 - Funding Information:
The research described in this article has been funded in part by the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) H17: Modeling Effects of Land Use/Land Cover Modifications on the Urban Heat Island Phenomena in Houston, Texas, Grant 077UHH2072A from the Texas Air Research Center (TARC), and the United States Environmental Protection Agency through Grant Agreement Number: EM-83330601-0 to the University of Houston. However, it has not been subjected to the Agency's required peer and policy review and therefore does not necessarily reflect the views of the Agency and no official endorsement should be inferred. Thanks are extended to Dr. Soontae Kim for processing the TFS-LULC data for the MM5 simulations and to Dr. Nielsen-Gammon for the assistance of the meteorological simulation setup.
PY - 2008/10
Y1 - 2008/10
N2 - To predict atmospheric conditions in an urban environment, the land surface processes must be accurately described through the use of detailed land use (LU) and land cover (LC) data. Use of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) 25-category data, currently in the Fifth-generation Mesoscale Model (MM5), with the Noah land surface model (LSM) and MRF (medium-range forecast) planetary boundary layer (PBL) schemes resulted in the over-prediction of daytime temperatures in the Houston downtown area due to the inaccurate representation as a completely impervious surface. This bias could be corrected with the addition of canopy water in the urban areas from the evapotranspiration effects of urban vegetation. A more fundamental approach would be to utilize an LULC dataset that represents land surface features accurately. The Texas Forest Service (TFS) LULC dataset established with the LANDSAT satellite imagery correctly represents the Houston-Galveston-Brazoria (HGB) area as mixtures of urban, residential, grass, and forest LULC types. This paper describes how the Noah LSM and PBL schemes in the MM5 were modified to accommodate the TFS-LULC data. Comparisons with various meteorological measurements show that the MM5 simulation made with the high resolution LULC data improves the boundary layer mixing conditions and local wind patterns in the Houston Ship Channel, which is a critically important anthropogenic emission area affecting the HGB air pollution problems. In particular, when the synoptic flows are weak, the improved LULC data simulates the asymmetrically elongated Houston heat island convergence zone influencing the location of the afternoon Gulf of Mexico sea-breeze front and the Galveston Bay breeze flows. This paper is part I of a two-part study and focuses on the meteorological simulation. In part II, effects of using the different meteorological inputs on air quality simulations are discussed.
AB - To predict atmospheric conditions in an urban environment, the land surface processes must be accurately described through the use of detailed land use (LU) and land cover (LC) data. Use of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) 25-category data, currently in the Fifth-generation Mesoscale Model (MM5), with the Noah land surface model (LSM) and MRF (medium-range forecast) planetary boundary layer (PBL) schemes resulted in the over-prediction of daytime temperatures in the Houston downtown area due to the inaccurate representation as a completely impervious surface. This bias could be corrected with the addition of canopy water in the urban areas from the evapotranspiration effects of urban vegetation. A more fundamental approach would be to utilize an LULC dataset that represents land surface features accurately. The Texas Forest Service (TFS) LULC dataset established with the LANDSAT satellite imagery correctly represents the Houston-Galveston-Brazoria (HGB) area as mixtures of urban, residential, grass, and forest LULC types. This paper describes how the Noah LSM and PBL schemes in the MM5 were modified to accommodate the TFS-LULC data. Comparisons with various meteorological measurements show that the MM5 simulation made with the high resolution LULC data improves the boundary layer mixing conditions and local wind patterns in the Houston Ship Channel, which is a critically important anthropogenic emission area affecting the HGB air pollution problems. In particular, when the synoptic flows are weak, the improved LULC data simulates the asymmetrically elongated Houston heat island convergence zone influencing the location of the afternoon Gulf of Mexico sea-breeze front and the Galveston Bay breeze flows. This paper is part I of a two-part study and focuses on the meteorological simulation. In part II, effects of using the different meteorological inputs on air quality simulations are discussed.
KW - Land surface model
KW - Land-sea breeze
KW - MM5
KW - Satellite-derived land use land cover data
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=53749085957&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2008.04.055
DO - 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2008.04.055
M3 - 期刊論文
AN - SCOPUS:53749085957
SN - 1352-2310
VL - 42
SP - 7795
EP - 7811
JO - Atmospheric Environment
JF - Atmospheric Environment
IS - 33
ER -
