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In mesoscale Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, several urban‐modeling options exist, such as Single‐layer Urban Canopy Model, Building Effect Parameterization, and Building Energy Model. However, these models have limitations in terms of the choice of land surface models (LSMs) and planetary boundary layer (PBL) schemes, the associated computational expenses, and other constraints. Recently, Dy et al. (2019, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JD029333) included the urban‐momentum drag effect for wind‐speed modeling by developing a new multilayer model based on a modified nonlocal Asymmetric Convective Model version‐2 (ACM2) PBL scheme. This urban‐based ACM2 (UACM) has demonstrated a significantly improved ability over the base‐ACM2 (BACM) to predict wind speed near the urban ground surface and shown an inflection point at roof level in the vertical profile of horizontal wind. In this study, urban thermal and moisture components are introduced into the Pleim‐Xiu (PX) LSM and coupled with UACM. The diurnal variation in street, walls, and roof‐surface temperatures is modeled using the two‐layer force‐restore algorithm. Simple radiation treatment is considered to account for shadowing on streets based on the solar zenith angle and building morphology. Heat and moisture flux evolution are considered explicitly on all urban surfaces. The advantages of this novel UACM are simple formulation, more efficient execution, and its requirement for only a few fundamental urban morphological parameters. The idealized and real urban data case WRF simulations are performed over the Pearl River Delta region in southern China to test the new UACM. The computationally efficient UACM is expected to perform faster for operational forecasting runs. Key Points: Urban thermal and moisture effects are included in the Pleim‐Xiu land surface model, and connected to the Urban Asymmetric Convective ModelAbility of new UACM is confirmed by performing idealized simulations to analyze model sensitivity to various urban morphological parametersImprovement in the urban wind, temperature, and moisture‐prediction is demonstrated with the new UACM by conducting real‐data case studies [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modeling of the eddy diffusion coefficients (also known as eddy diffusivity) in the first-order turbulence closure schemes is important for the typhoon simulations, since the coefficients control the magnitude of the sensible heat flux and the latent heat flux, which are energy sources for the typhoon intensification. Profiles of the eddy diffusion coefficients in the YSU planetary boundary layer (PBL) scheme are evaluated in the advanced research WRF (ARW) system. Three versions of the YSU scheme (original, K025, and K200) are included in this study. The simulation results are compared with the observational data from track, center sea-level pressure (CSLP), and maximum surface wind speed (MWSP). Comparing with the original version, the K200 improves the averaged mean absolute errors (MAE) of track, CSLP, and MWSP by 6.0%, 3.7%, and 23.1%, respectively, while the K025 deteriorates the averaged MAEs of track, CSLP, and MWSP by 25.1%, 19.0%, and 95.0%, respectively. Our results suggest that the enlarged eddy diffusion coefficients may be more suitable for super typhoon simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this work we investigated an air pollution episode during the landfall process of a tropical cyclone (TC) in Hong Kong. TCs affect air condition and account for most air pollution episodes in summer of this region. In August 2008, TC Nuri made direct landfall in Hong Kong. Before its landfall, an air pollution episode occurred, where major pollutants like SO2 and PM10 increased eight and six times higher respectively. Rather than using single measurement method, we combined ground air sampling, lidar, sunphotometer and satellite lidar CALIPSO with focus on aerosol to study the episode mechanism, and some new phenomena were found. During the episode, it was found that heavy inland aerosol plumes existed in areas larger than urbanized regions and were elevated vertically and transported southward. During episode, planetary boundary layer (PBL) expansion and height increase were observed, which is different from previous reported PBL compression and height decrease. While vertical subsidence and horizontal stagnation and consequently local aerosol accumulation were attributed as the main episode cause in previous cases, our observation showed that transported aerosols dominated in this TC landfall event. This can be further confirmed by examining aerosol chemical composition, size distribution and single scattering albedo, where transported related species showed significantly change and local indicators remained relatively stable. Invigorated cloud droplets were found on the boundary layer top upon aerosol elevation. The results indicate that site difference and TC tracks should be considered for analyzing episode formation mechanism. They can cause difference in the strength of vertical subsidence and horizontal advection and affect pollution flow direction, which subsequently results in different pollution formation processes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]