A Modeling Study of Boundary Layer Wind Flow Over Tehran Region During a High Pollution Episode
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Journal of Applied Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 299-313, 2014. Available online at www.jafmonline.net, ISSN 1735-3572, EISSN 1735-3645. DOI: 10.36884/jafm.7.02.19569 A Modeling Study of Boundary Layer Wind Flow over Tehran Region during a High Pollution Episode H. Malakooti1† and A. A. Bidokhti2 1 Atmospheric and Oceanic Environmental Modeling Laboratory [AOEML], Faculty of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science and Technology, University of Hormozgan, P.O. Box: 3995, Bandar Abbas, Iran 2 Institute of Geophysics, University of Tehran, P.O. Box: 14155-6466, Tehran, Iran †Corresponding Author Email: [email protected] (Received February 24, 2012; accepted June 27, 2013) ABSTRACT The influence of a mega-city on the atmospheric boundary layer wind field was examined in the complex-terrain, semi-arid Tehran region using the Pennsylvania State University/National Center for Atmospheric Research fifth-generation Mesoscale Model (MM5) during a high pollution period. In addition, model sensitivity studies were conducted to evaluate the performance of the urban canopy and urban soil model "SM2-U (3D)" parameterization on the wind field. The topographic flows and urban effects were found to play important roles in modulating the wind field, and the urbanized areas exerted important local effects on the boundary layer meteorology. An emission inventory of heat generation was developed and updated for 2005 in this work. By using a detailed methodology, we calculated spatial and temporal distributions of the anthropogenic heat flux (Qf) for Tehran during 2005. Wintertime Qf is found larger than summertime Qf, which reflects the importance of heating emissions from buildings and traffic during cold and warm periods respectively. Different urban parameterizations were used as a tool to investigate the modifications induced by the presence of an urban area in the area of interest. It is found that, for local meteorological simulations, the drag-force approach (DA) coupled with an urban soil model (SM2-U) is preferable to the roughness approach (RA) coupled with a slab soil model. The comparisons indicated that the most important features of the wind field, in urban areas are well reproduced by the DA-SM2-U configuration with the anthropogenic heat flux being taken into account. This modeling option showed that the suburban part of the city is dominated by topographic flows whereas the center and south of Tehran are more affected by urban heat island (UHI) forcing especially during the night in studied episodes. KEYWORDS: Heat island, Topographic flow, Urban canopy model, Urban soil model, Anthropogenic heat flux NOMENCLATURE < > Reynolds averaged variables the vegetation (K.kg. m-3.s-1) a ,b coefficients of Fourier series fitting E turbulence kinetic energy (m2.s-2) function f number of vehicles Ap canopy plan area density F(t) fractional consumption profile -1 Aθ heat source from the anthropogenic heat FE fuel economy (km.lit ) -3 -1 bui flux (K.kg. m .s ) FE shear production by the building horizontal DC daily consumption surfaces (m2.s-3) j 2 -3 DE E wake production term (m .s ) f fraction of the surface type bui Dq humidity sources from buildings and Fui momentum sources due to the presence of vegetation (kg.gr.m-4.gr-1) horizontal surfaces of buildings (kg. m-4s-2) j Dui momentum sources due to the presence of HE E buoyancy production by Dθ and Aθ the canopy vertical surfaces (kg.m-4.s-2) (m2.s3) Dθ sensible heat sources from buildings and Hes heat release in any sector by electricity H. Malakooti and A. A. Bidokhti / JAFM, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 299-313, 2014. consumption (J) t time (s) Hlink anthropogenic heat release in any link (J) Ts surface temperature (K) HPR heating production rate U simulated horizontal zonal wind i index of vehicle category component (m.s-1) -1 j index for number of vehicles ui horizontal wind speed component (m.s ) -1 i , j index for surface type UO observed zonal wind component (m.s ) k level above the ground inside canopy V simulated meridional wind component -1 kex radiation extinction coefficient (m.s ) -1 ktop level in top of canopy V traffic velocity (m.s ) l Turbulent length (m) VO observed meridional wind component -1 lBL boundary layer Turbulent length (m) (m.s ) -1 lcan canopy layer Turbulent length (m) VWD vector wind difference (m.s ) j 2 -3 n harmonic number of Fourier series fitting WE E accelerated cascade term (m .s ) function Ze zenith angle NHC net heat of combustion (J kg-1) α surface albedo p street canyon top level Δt time interval (s) -2 Qf anthropogenic heat flux (w.m ) Δz thickness of Layer (m) -1 qw total water content (gr.gr ) ε surface emissivity -2 RG direct and diffused solar radiation (w.m ) εa air emissivity -2 Rn net radiation flux (w.m ) θL liquid-water potential temperature (K) Rq general forcing terms in the total water ρ air density (kg.m-3) -4 -1 -1 content equation (kggr.m gr ) ρf fuel density (kg l ) Rui general forcing terms in the momentum σ Stefan-Boltzmann constant equation (kg. m-4s-2) Φ either the multiple fluxes (w.m-2) Rθ general forcing terms in the liquid-water Φ* flux has been modified to consider the heat potential temperature equation repartition inside the canyons (w.m-2) (Kkg. m-3s-1) Ψ sky view factor surf top area density T temperature (K) model of an idealized urban area configured to represent 1. INTRODUCTION London, England. Among the various possible The planetary boundary layer (PBL) structure and its contributors to UHI (albedo, anthropogenic heat, evolution play a major role in the physical and chemical emissivity, roughness length, sky view factor, surface processes related to air pollution formation and resistance to evaporation, and thermal inertia), surface dispersion in the atmosphere. Local thermally driven resistance to evaporation was the most important factor mesoscale circulations and flows such as sea breezes, controlling heat island strength during the day, while topographic flows and urban heat island (UHI) anthropogenic heating dominated at night. The circulation can have significant effects on local weather, magnitude of the urbanization impact on climate is the diurnal evolution of the boundary layer structure and sensitive to both the local climate regime and to various pollutant transport, particularly under synoptic urban parameters. It remains a major research challenge anticyclonic conditions. The effects and interactions of to determine how, in various situations, urbanization two local thermally driven processes, topographic flows interacts with other local forcing factors. and UHI under different meso-scale and synoptical Climate, terrain, and land-surface contrasts make Tehran conditions play an important role in the Tehran region's Mega-City (TMC) a unique laboratory for studying PBL weather. development in complex terrain. The principal highland In valley cities and during calm periods, meteorological regions of the Tehran province are the Alborz mountain conditions may lead to critical air quality problems due in the north and the Kavir desert in the south east. Tehran to low horizontal ventilation especially during transition lies in a valley, situated south of the Alborz mountain between slope flows in early morning and in the late range that crosses the north part of Iran (Fig. 1). It is afternoon (Whiteman, 2000) and due also to the located at 35.7 °N and 51.4 °E. The TMC is 45 km long combination of slope winds with the urban heat island, and 30 km wide with a valley bottom elevation of ~1050 especially during winter and night time, when vertical to 1800 m above mean sea level (MSL). It means that the diffusion is small (Atkinson, 1981). average slope is 0.026 in the north-south direction. The surrounding topography rises to as high as 3000-3700 m Urbanization is often associated with surface temperature MSL in ~7 km toward north and about 1800-2200 m anomalies such as the UHI and the oasis effect. Changes MSL in ~10 km toward east and south-east. Several deep in local and regional atmospheric processes associated and narrow valleys enter the TMC from the Alborz with urbanization are complex and difficult to generalize mountains to the south and wide narrow valleys to the (Oke, 1982), but we now have the computational and south-west. More than 10 million people live within and observational tools to explore how particular adjacent to the TMC in this valley, which includes with urbanization scenarios affect meteorology and climate. urban, residential, and agricultural land covers. These Atkinson (2003) ran sensitivity studies using a numerical topography and land-surface contrasts produce a great 300 H. Malakooti and A. A. Bidokhti / JAFM, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 299-313, 2014. variety of flows, although their characteristics vary with DA-SM2-U modifications have been implemented inside season and synoptic situation. The TMC has a semi-arid two main parts of MM5: climate with mean annual precipitation (MAP) of 230 . MM5 GSPBL scheme by modification of the mm. The prevailing synoptic wind is generally from the conservation equations and turbulence length (Eq. (1), west in TMC, but combination of high terrain, Eq. (2), Eq. (3), Eq. (4) and Eq. (5)). urbanization and weak synoptic forcing can lead to weak and variable winds with complex circulation patterns in Inside the canopy, the effects of buildings and vegetation this area. are represented by adding i) in the dynamic equation, a friction force induced by horizontal surfaces of According to this summary and routine measurements buildings, and a pressure and viscous drag force induced (see Fig. 2) and researches, topographic flows are by the presence of buildings and vegetation, ii) in the dominated over north and east of TMC and west and temperature equation, the sensible heat fluxes due to south of TMC show some lower frequency in the diurnal buildings and vegetation, and the anthropogenic heat flux cycling of wind direction (e.