A microscale three-dimensional urban energy balance model for studying surface temperatures

A microscale three-dimensional (3-D) urban energy balance model, Temperatures of Urban Facets in 3-D (TUF-3D), is developed to predict urban surface temperatures for a variety of surface geometries and properties, weather conditions, and solar angles. The surface is composed of plane-parallel facets: roofs, walls, and streets, which are further sub-divided into identical square patches, resulting in a 3-D raster-type model geometry. The model code is structured into radiation, conduction and convection sub-models. The radiation sub-model uses the radiosity approach and accounts for multiple reflections and shading of direct solar radiation. Conduction is solved by finite differencing of the heat conduction equation, and convection is modelled by empirically relating patch heat transfer coefficients to the momentum forcing and the building morphology. The radiation and conduction sub-models are tested individually against measurements, and the complete model is tested against full-scale urban surface temperature and energy balance observations. Modelled surface temperatures perform well at both the facet-average and the sub-facet scales given the precision of the observations and the uncertainties in the model inputs. The model has several potential applications, such as the calculation of radiative loads, and the investigation of effective thermal anisotropy (when combined with a sensor-view model).

[1]  Gerald Mills,et al.  An urban canopy-layer climate model , 1997 .

[2]  R. Macdonald,et al.  Modelling The Mean Velocity Profile In The Urban Canopy Layer , 2000 .

[3]  Joseph Andrew Clarke,et al.  Energy Simulation in Building Design , 1985 .

[4]  Ian Ashdown,et al.  Radiosity: A Programmer's Perspective , 1994 .

[5]  Valéry Masson,et al.  A Physically-Based Scheme For The Urban Energy Budget In Atmospheric Models , 2000 .

[6]  Gerald Mills,et al.  An analysis of the circulation characteristics and energy budget of a dry, asymmetric, east‐west urban canyon. II. Energy budget , 1994 .

[7]  T. Oke.  The urban energy balance , 1988 .

[8]  A. Arnfield,et al.  CANYON GEOMETRY, THE URBAN FABRIC AND NOCTURNAL COOLING: A SIMULATION APPROACH , 1990 .

[9]  M. Raupach.  Drag and drag partition on rough surfaces , 1992 .

[10]  U. Sievers,et al.  A numerical simulation scheme for the albedo of city street canyons , 1985 .

[11]  E. Sparrow,et al.  Radiation Heat Transfer , 1978 .

[12]  Hervé Giordani,et al.  A modified parameterization of flux-profile relationships in the surface layer using different roughness length values for heat and momentum , 1995 .

[13]  H. Kondo,et al.  A Simple Single-Layer Urban Canopy Model For Atmospheric Models: Comparison With Multi-Layer And Slab Models , 2001 .

[14]  R. Cole,et al.  The convective heat exchange at the external surface of buildings , 1977 .

[15]  Ronald M. Cionco,et al.  A Mathematical Model for Air Flow in a Vegetative Canopy , 1965 .

[16]  T. J. Lyons,et al.  Simulation of surface urban heat islands under ‘IDEAL’ conditions at night part 1: Theory and tests against field data , 1991 .

[17]  M. Bruse,et al.  Simulating surface–plant–air interactions inside urban environments with a three dimensional numerical model , 1998 .

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

[19]  Timothy R. Oke,et al.  Evaluation of the Town Energy Balance (TEB) Scheme with Direct Measurements from Dry Districts in Two Cities , 2002 .

[20]  A. Prata.  A new long‐wave formula for estimating downward clear‐sky radiation at the surface , 1996 .

[21]  M. Iqbal.  An introduction to solar radiation , 1983 .

[22]  T. Carlson,et al.  Satellite Estimation of the Surface Energy Balance, Moisture Availability and Thermal Inertia. , 1981 .

[23]  A. Clappier,et al.  An Urban Surface Exchange Parameterisation for Mesoscale Models , 2002 .

[24]  Gerald Mills,et al.  The radiative effects of building groups on single structures , 1997 .

[25]  Stephen E. Belcher,et al.  A canopy model of mean winds through urban areas , 2004 .

[26]  Aya Hagishima,et al.  A Simple Energy Balance Model for Regular Building Arrays , 2005 .

[27]  James A. Voogt,et al.  Modeling Surface Sensible Heat Flux Using Surface Radiative Temperatures in a Simple Urban Area , 2000 .

[28]  R. Griffiths,et al.  An improved method for the estimation of surface roughness of obstacle arrays , 1998 .

[29]  A. Christen,et al.  Energy and radiation balance of a central European city , 2004 .

[30]  M. Pinar Mengüç,et al.  Thermal Radiation Heat Transfer , 2020 .

[31]  J. Louis.  A parametric model of vertical eddy fluxes in the atmosphere , 1979 .

[32]  A. Arnfield.  VALIDATION OF AN ESTIMATION MODEL FOR URBAN SURFACE ALBEDO , 1988 .

[33]  Timothy R. Oke,et al.  A Model to Calculate what a Remote Sensor `Sees' of an Urban Surface , 2004 .

[34]  Valéry Masson,et al.  Modeling the Surface Energy Balance of the Core of an Old Mediterranean City: Marseille , 2004 .

[35]  M. Aida,et al.  Urban albedo as a function of the urban structure — A model experiment , 1982 .

[36]  Manabu Kanda,et al.  3-DIMENSIONAL RADIATION MODEL FOR URBAN CANOPY , 2003 .

[37]  Takashi Asaeda,et al.  Building canopy model for the analysis of urban climate , 1999 .

[38]  Ian N. Harman,et al.  Scalar Fluxes from Urban Street Canyons Part II: Model , 2004 .

[39]  Michael Schatzmann,et al.  BUBBLE – an Urban Boundary Layer Meteorology Project , 2005 .

[40]  Yukihiro Kikegawa,et al.  Temperature Variation in the Urban Canopy with Anthropogenic Energy Use , 2003 .

[41]  Robert E. Davis,et al.  Statistics for the evaluation and comparison of models , 1985 .

[42]  Timothy R. Oke,et al.  Effects of urban surface geometry on remotely-sensed surface temperature , 1998 .

[43]  R. Stull,et al.  Meteorology for Scientists and Engineers , 1999 .

[44]  T. Oke,et al.  The Energy Balance of an Urban Canyon , 1977 .

[45]  C. S. B. Grimmond,et al.  An urban canyon energy budget model and its application to urban storage heat flux modeling , 1998 .

[46]  Mathias W. Rotach,et al.  Turbulence close to a rough urban surface part I: Reynolds stress , 1993 .

[47]  Mark Z. Jacobson,et al.  Fundamentals of atmospheric modeling , 1998 .

[48]  T. Oke,et al.  Complete urban surface temperatures , 1997 .

[49]  M. Rotach.  Profiles of turbulence statistics in and above an urban street canyon , 1995 .

[50]  T. Oke,et al.  Wind, temperature and stability conditions in an east-west oriented urban canyon , 1988 .

[51]  Manabu Kanda,et al.  A Simple Theoretical Radiation Scheme for Regular Building Arrays , 2005 .