Urban heat islands in China enhanced by haze pollution

The urban heat island (UHI), the phenomenon of higher temperatures in urban land than the surrounding rural land, is commonly attributed to changes in biophysical properties of the land surface associated with urbanization. Here we provide evidence for a long-held hypothesis that the biogeochemical effect of urban aerosol or haze pollution is also a contributor to the UHI. Our results are based on satellite observations and urban climate model calculations. We find that a significant factor controlling the nighttime surface UHI across China is the urban–rural difference in the haze pollution level. The average haze contribution to the nighttime surface UHI is 0.7±0.3 K (mean±1 s.e.) for semi-arid cities, which is stronger than that in the humid climate due to a stronger longwave radiative forcing of coarser aerosols. Mitigation of haze pollution therefore provides a co-benefit of reducing heat stress on urban residents.

[1]  J. Monteith,et al.  Boundary Layer Climates. , 1979 .

[2]  M. Aida,et al.  Observations of Atmospheric Downward Radiation in the Tokyo Area , 1979 .

[3]  M. Aida,et al.  Observations of atmospheric downward radiation in the Tokyo area , 1979 .

[4]  Jeff Dozier,et al.  A generalized split-window algorithm for retrieving land-surface temperature from space , 1996, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[5]  T. Oke,et al.  The Surface Climates of Canada , 1997 .

[6]  H. Taha.  Urban climates and heat islands: albedo, evapotranspiration, and anthropogenic heat , 1997 .

[7]  M. Jacobson.  Studying the effects of aerosols on vertical photolysis rate coefficient and temperature profiles over an urban airshed , 1998 .

[8]  W. C. Snyder,et al.  Classification-based emissivity for land surface temperature measurement from space , 1998 .

[9]  I. Eliasson,et al.  Spatial variations of incoming longwave radiationin Göteborg, Sweden , 2000 .

[10]  J. Dufresne,et al.  Longwave Scattering Effects of Mineral Aerosols , 2002 .

[11]  P. Quinn,et al.  Clear‐sky infrared aerosol radiative forcing at the surface and the top of the atmosphere , 2003 .

[12]  A. Arnfield.  Two decades of urban climate research: a review of turbulence, exchanges of energy and water, and the urban heat island , 2003 .

[13]  J. A. Voogta,et al.  Thermal remote sensing of urban climates , 2003 .

[14]  E. Kalnay,et al.  Impact of urbanization and land-use change on climate , 2003, Nature.

[15]  Daniel Rosenfeld,et al.  Quantifying Precipitation Suppression Due to Air Pollution , 2004 .

[16]  Paul J. Crutzen,et al.  New Directions: The growing urban heat and pollution "island" effect - impact on chemistry and climate , 2004 .

[17]  Keith W. Oleson,et al.  Simulation of Global Land Surface Conditions from 1948 to 2004. Part I: Forcing Data and Evaluations , 2006 .

[18]  X. Lee,et al.  Overview of ChinaFLUX and evaluation of its eddy covariance measurement , 2006 .

[19]  Y. Yasuoka,et al.  Assessment with satellite data of the urban heat island effects in Asian mega cities , 2006 .

[20]  B. Holmer,et al.  Longwave incoming radiation in the Tropics: results from field work in three African cities , 2006 .

[21]  A. Fall,et al.  Urbanization and global environmental change : local effects of urban warming , 2007 .

[22]  Yinon Rudich,et al.  Aging of organic aerosol: bridging the gap between laboratory and field studies. , 2007, Annual review of physical chemistry.

[23]  Masson-Delmotte,et al.  The Physical Science Basis , 2007 .

[24]  M. V. Ramana,et al.  Warming trends in Asia amplified by brown cloud solar absorption , 2007, Nature.

[25]  Remote Sensing for Agriculture, Ecosystems, and Hydrology XI , 2008 .

[26]  N. Grimm,et al.  Global Change and the Ecology of Cities , 2008, Science.

[27]  A. Panicker,et al.  Observations of enhanced aerosol longwave radiative forcing over an urban environment , 2008 .

[28]  Shunlin Liang,et al.  Evaluation of ASTER and MODIS land surface temperature and emissivity products using long-term surface longwave radiation observations at SURFRAD sites , 2009 .

[29]  Ranz,et al.  Observed and projected climate shifts 1901 – 2100 depicted by world maps of the Köppen-Geiger climate classification , 2010 .

[30]  Rita Pongrácz,et al.  Application of remotely sensed thermal information to urban climatology of Central European cities , 2010 .

[31]  L. Bounoua,et al.  Remote sensing of the urban heat island effect across biomes in the continental USA , 2010 .

[32]  Jeffrey S. Reid,et al.  An Assessment of the Surface Longwave Direct Radiative Effect of Airborne Saharan Dust During the NAMMA Field Campaign , 2010 .

[33]  Y. Q. Wang,et al.  Spatial distribution and interannual variation of surface PM 10 concentrations over eighty-six Chinese cities , 2010 .

[34]  Mingguo Ma,et al.  Validation of MODIS land surface temperature products using ground measurements in the Heihe River Basin, China , 2011, Remote Sensing.

[35]  K. Oleson,et al.  An examination of urban heat island characteristics in a global climate model , 2011 .

[36]  T. A. Black,et al.  Observed increase in local cooling effect of deforestation at higher latitudes , 2011, Nature.

[37]  P. Ciais,et al.  Response to Comment on ``Surface Urban Heat Island Across 419 Global Big Cities'' , 2012 .

[38]  Paul W. Stackhouse,et al.  The Global Character of the Flux of Downward Longwave Radiation , 2012 .

[39]  G. Folberth,et al.  Global radiative forcing and megacities , 2012 .

[40]  Green Growth of the Primary Industry , 2012 .

[41]  K. Oleson.  Contrasts between Urban and Rural Climate in CCSM4 CMIP5 Climate Change Scenarios , 2012 .

[42]  Xiaoxi Li,et al.  China Green Development Index Report 2011 , 2013 .

[43]  Elie Bou-Zeid,et al.  Synergistic Interactions between Urban Heat Islands and Heat Waves: The Impact in Cities Is Larger than the Sum of Its Parts* , 2013 .

[44]  P. Gong,et al.  MODIS detected surface urban heat islands and sinks: Global locations and controls , 2013 .

[45]  W. Collins,et al.  The Community Earth System Model: A Framework for Collaborative Research , 2013 .

[46]  Lorraine A. Remer,et al.  MODIS 3 km aerosol product: algorithm and global perspective , 2013 .

[47]  M. Sitnov,et al.  Enhanced radial transport and energization of radiation belt electrons due to drift orbit bifurcations , 2014, Journal of geophysical research. Space physics.

[48]  Qi Ying,et al.  Spatial and temporal variations of six criteria air pollutants in 31 provincial capital cities in China during 2013-2014. , 2014, Environment international.

[49]  Yinghua Jin,et al.  Spatiotemporal change of diurnal temperature range and its relationship with sunshine duration and precipitation in China , 2014 .

[50]  Decheng Zhou,et al.  Surface urban heat island in China's 32 major cities: Spatial patterns and drivers , 2014 .

[51]  Zhanqing Li,et al.  Climate effects of dust aerosols over East Asian arid and semiarid regions , 2014 .

[52]  K. Oleson,et al.  Strong contributions of local background climate to urban heat islands , 2014, Nature.

[53]  Yan-lin Zhang,et al.  Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in China at a city level , 2015, Scientific Reports.

[54]  C. S. B. Grimmond,et al.  Key Conclusions of the First International Urban Land Surface Model Comparison Project , 2015 .

[55]  Xiangao Xia,et al.  Ground-based aerosol climatology of China: aerosol optical depths from the China Aerosol Remote Sensing Network (CARSNET) 2002–2013 , 2015 .

[56]  Zhiqiu Gao,et al.  Contrasting characteristics of the surface energy balance between the urban and rural areas of Beijing , 2015, Advances in Atmospheric Sciences.

[57]  Shuguang Liu,et al.  Data concurrency is required for estimating urban heat island intensity. , 2016, Environmental pollution.

[58]  Corinne Le Quéré,et al.  Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis , 2013 .