scholarly journals Trade-offs and responsiveness of the single-layer urban canopy parametrization in WRF: An offline evaluation using the MOSCEM optimization algorithm and field observations

2010 ◽  
Vol 136 (649) ◽  
pp. 997-1019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Loridan ◽  
C. S. B. Grimmond ◽  
Susanne Grossman-Clarke ◽  
Fei Chen ◽  
Mukul Tewari ◽  
...  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Xu ◽  
Michel Ramonet ◽  
Thomas Lauvaux ◽  
Jinghui Lian ◽  
Francois-Marie Bréon ◽  
...  

<p>The French-Mexican project Mexico City’s Regional Carbon Impacts (MERCI-CO<sub>2</sub>) is building a CO<sub>2</sub> observation network in the Metropolitan Zone of the Valley of Mexico (ZMVM). The project investigates the atmospheric signals generated by the city's emissions on total column and surface measurements, aiming at reducing the uncertainties of CO<sub>2</sub> emissions in ZMVM and evaluating the effects of policies that had been implemented by the city authorities. </p><p>A nested high-resolution atmospheric transport simulation based on the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) is performed to analyze the observed CO<sub>2</sub> mixing ratios during dry and wet seasons over Mexico City and its vicinity. Both anthropogenic emissions (UNAM 1-km fossil fuel emissions) and biogenic fluxes (CASA 5-km simulations) are taken into account. The model configuration, with a horizontal resolution of 1km and using the Single-Layer urban canopy Model (SLUCM), has been evaluated over two weeks in January 2018 using meteorological measurements from 26 stations set by the Air Quality Agency of Mexico City (Secretary of the Environment of Mexico City - SEDEMA). The reconstruction of meteorological conditions in the urban area shows better performances than suburban and mountainous areas. Due to the complex topography, wind speeds in mountain areas are 2-3 m/s over estimated and wind direction simulations in some stations are 90° deflected, especially in southern mountains. </p><p>Two high-precision CO<sub>2</sub> analyzers deployed in urban and rural areas of Mexico City are used to evaluate the WRF CO<sub>2</sub> 1-km simulations. The model reproduced the diurnal cycle of CO<sub>2</sub> mixing ratios at the background station but under-estimates the nighttime accumulation at the urban station. Mean absolute errors of CO<sub>2</sub> concentrations range from 6.5 ppm (background station) to 27.1 ppm (urban station), mostly driven by the elevated nocturnal enhancements (up to 500 ppm at UNAM station). Based on this analysis, we demonstrate the challenges and potential of mesoscale modeling over complex topography, and the potential use of mid-cost sensors to constrain the urban GHG emissions of Mexico City.</p>


Author(s):  
Michael Devin ◽  
Bryony DuPont ◽  
Spencer Hallowell ◽  
Sanjay Arwade

Abstract Commercial floating offshore wind projects are expected to emerge in the United States by the end of this decade. Currently, however, high costs for the technology limit its commercial viability, and a lack of data regarding system reliability heightens project risk. This work presents an optimization algorithm to examine the trade-offs between cost and reliability for a floating offshore wind array that uses shared anchoring. Combining a multivariable genetic algorithm with elements of Bayesian optimization, the optimization algorithm selectively increases anchor strengths to minimize the added costs of failure for a large floating wind farm in the Gulf of Maine under survival load conditions. The algorithm uses an evaluation function that computes the probability of mooring system failure, then calculates the expected maintenance costs of a failure via a Monte Carlo method. A cost sensitivity analysis is also performed to compare results for a range of maintenance cost profiles. The results indicate that virtually all of the farm's anchors are strengthened in the minimum cost solution. Anchor strength is in- creased between 5-35% depending on farm location, with anchor strength nearest the export cable being increased the most. The optimal solutions maintain a failure probability of 1.25%, demonstrating the trade-off point between cost and reliability. System reliability was found to be particularly sensitive to changes in turbine costs and downtime, suggest- ing further research into floating offshore wind turbine failure modes in extreme loading conditions could be particularly impactful in reducing project uncertainty.


Author(s):  
Andy Dong ◽  
Alice M. Agogino

Abstract In design synthesis, engineering prototypes make an ideal representation medium for preliminary designs. Unlike parametric design wherein a pre-specified design is parametrically varied, design synthesis demands artistic creativity and engineering experience to transform the previously known components, relationships and designs into a new form. The process compels the designer to ascertain which prototypes will, in some sense, best satisfy the design task. The challenge in this assignment lies in selecting the “right” design prototype. This selection process typically entails an objective evaluation of different designs that perform the same functions or have similar intended behavior and comparing trade-offs between alternate designs. This paper introduces a multi-objective spectral optimization algorithm for the selection of design prototypes based upon their functional representations. The optimization algorithm returns an index of rank, scoring the functional similarity of the proposed design to the goal design. Two illustrative examples apply the algorithm to the selection of a heat fin and beam.


2017 ◽  
Vol 56 (8) ◽  
pp. 2173-2187 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Brownlee ◽  
Pallav Ray ◽  
Mukul Tewari ◽  
Haochen Tan

AbstractNumerical simulations without hydrological processes tend to overestimate the near-surface temperatures over urban areas. This is presumably due to underestimation of surface latent heat flux. To test this hypothesis, the existing single-layer urban canopy model (SLUCM) within the Weather Research and Forecasting Model is evaluated over Houston, Texas. Three simulations were conducted during 24–26 August 2000. The simulations include the use of the default “BULK” urban scheme, the SLUCM without hydrological processes, and the SLUCM with hydrological processes. The results show that the BULK scheme was least accurate, and it overestimated the near-surface temperatures and winds over the urban regions. In the presence of urban hydrological processes, the SLUCM underestimates these parameters. An analysis of the surface heat fluxes suggests that the error in the BULK scheme is due to a lack of moisture at the urban surface, whereas the error in the SLUCM with hydrological processes is due to increases in moisture at the urban surface. These results confirm earlier studies in which changes in near-surface temperature were primarily due to the changes in the turbulent (latent and sensible heat) fluxes in the presence of hydrological processes. The contribution from radiative flux was about one-third of that from turbulent flux. In the absence of hydrological processes, however, the results indicate that the changes in radiative flux contribute more to the near-surface temperature changes than the turbulent heat flux. The implications of these results are discussed.


2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 233-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiago H. S Pires ◽  
Fernando Z Gibran

The clingfish Gobiesox barbatulus shows nocturnal feeding activity, spending most part of the day stationary and adhered to the inferior part of stones. To feed, this species uses the sit-and-wait and particulate feeding tactics. It shows a carnivorous feeding habit mostly consuming small benthic crustaceans. It can move in two ways: (1) "stone-by-stone", sliding its ventral sucker disc across each stone and (2) "surf", when it takes advantage of the energy of the ebbing tide to quickly cross a distance up to four times its body length. Its reproductive season occurs between the end of spring and the beginning of summer, during which time it lays about 2,000 adhesive eggs of 1 mm each in a single layer under stones. It has more than one egg-laying session per reproductive season, therefore showing several different developmental stages. It performs fanning, mouthing and guarding of the eggs as forms of parental care. Data shown here also indicates that G. barbatulus has some shelter fidelity, being probably territorial.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaomen Han ◽  
Jianning Sun

<p>Urbanization, one of the extreme cases of land-use change, plays an important role in modifying precipitation and urban hydrology. In this study, urbanization effect on cloud and precipitation in the Yangtze River Delta of China is simulated using Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model coupled with a single-layer Urban Canopy Model(SLUCM). Based on the 4-summer simulation results from 2011 to 2014, we find that the influence of cities on clouds and precipitation is obviously affected by wind field. During the day, more cloud on higher level and precipitation occurs in urban area and downwind region of urban, induced by more unstable urban air transported downstream, which enhances vertical mixing and updraft moisture transport. At night, the urban dry island become the dominant factor, resulting in the decrease of cloud occurrence in the urban and downstream areas. The downstream effects of urbanization on cloud and precipitation turn out to be strongly related to the moisture and convective conditions.</p><p> </p>


2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 1078-1090 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenjing Zhao ◽  
Ning Zhang ◽  
Jianning Sun ◽  
Jun Zou

Abstract An offline single-layer urban canopy model (SLUCM) was driven by the surface energy balance observations in winter in Nanjing, China, to evaluate the capability of the model to simulate the urban surface energy balance. The results of the evaluation suggest that the simulated daytime net radiation is approximately 20% lower than the observed and display relatively high systematic error, which is due to the relatively poor capacity of the model to simulate the daytime longwave radiation (which is underestimated by approximately 35%). By contrast, the simulated sensible heat flux shows mainly unsystematic error. Moreover, the one-at-a-time method is used to conduct a sensitivity analysis of the model parameters. The sensitivity analysis demonstrates that the major factors affecting the surface energy balance are the albedo, the thermal conductivity, and the roof and wall volumetric heat capacity. The influences of the shape of the street canyon and the average height of buildings are relatively weaker. The effects of the albedo on the fluxes are nearly linear. The effects of the thermal parameters are approximately logarithmic. Furthermore, the simulated sensible heat flux in the SLUCM is insensitive to the morphological parameters of the buildings.


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