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Numerical simulation of the influence of aerosol radiation effect on urban boundary layer

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Abstract

With the intensification of pollution and urbanization, the aerosol radiation effect continues to play an important role in the urban boundary layer. In this paper, a winter pollution process in Beijing has been taken as an example, and a new aerosol vertical profile in the radiative parameterization scheme within the Weather Forecast Research and Forecasting (WRF) model has been updated to study the effect of aerosols on radiation and the boundary layer. Furthermore, the interactions among aerosols, urbanization, and planetary boundary layer (PBL) meteorology were discussed through a series of numerical experiments. The results show the following: (1) The optimization improves the performance of the model in simulating the distribution features of air temperature, humidity, and wind in Beijing. (2) The aerosols reduce the surface temperature by reducing solar radiation and increasing the temperature in the upper layer by absorbing or backscattering solar radiation. The changes in the PBL temperature lead to more stable atmospheric stratification, reducing the energy transfer from the surface and the height of the boundary layer. (3) With the increase in the aerosol optical depth, the atmospheric stratification most likely becomes stable over rural areas, most likely becomes stable over suburb areas, and has great difficultly becoming stable over urban areas. Aerosol radiative forcing, underlying urban surfaces, and the interaction between them are the main factors that affect the changes in the meteorological elements in the PBL.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to Quan Jiannong, Sun Zhaobin, Gao Hua, Zhang Yizhou, Dou Jingjing from Beijing Meteorological Institute of China Meteorological Administration, and Michael Barlage from the National Center for Atmospheric Research for their assistance in data collection and processing. This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (Grant No. 2015DFA20870) and the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission (Grant Nos. D171100000717003, Z161100001116065 & Z151100002115045).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. China Institute of Atomic Energy, Beijing, 102413, China

    Xinran Wang

  2. Institute of Urban Meteorology, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing, 100089, China

    Xinran Wang, Xiaodong He, Shiguang Miao & Youjun Dou

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  1. Xinran Wang
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  2. Xiaodong He
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  3. Shiguang Miao
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Correspondence to Shiguang Miao.

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Wang, X., He, X., Miao, S. et al. Numerical simulation of the influence of aerosol radiation effect on urban boundary layer. Sci. China Earth Sci. 61, 1844–1858 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-018-9260-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-018-9260-0

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