A numerical study of the urban boundary layer over Madrid during the DESIREX (2008) campaign with WRF

Nowadays, mesoscale meteorological models coupled to Urban Canopy Parameterizations (UCP) can be used to complement and interpret the information gathered from intensive meteorological campaigns on the behavior of the Urban Boundary Layer (UBL). . Moreover, the impact of the air conditioning (AC) systems on the air temperature, the relationships existing between the energy consumption (EC) and the meteorological conditions, and the evaluation of strategies to mitigate the Urban Heat Island (UHI) phenomenon can be evaluated using complex UCP. In this work, a new UCP implemented in the Weather and Research Forecasting model (WRF, version 3.2) has been tested over the city of Madrid during the DESIREX (Dual-use European Security IR Experiment) campaign that took place in summer of 2008 and focused on Urban Heat Islands (UHI) and Urban Thermography (UT) monitoring and assessment. Two selected days were simulated, and numerical results of various physical variables were compared against measurements showing a good performance of the model. The impact of the AC systems on the air temperature, and the EC were evaluated for the simulated period. Effects of modifications in the urban albedo and building material properties on the air temperature, wind speed, UHI patterns and EC were also analyzed.