Mesoscale and meso-urban modeling of heat islands and control: Evaluation of potential ozone air-quality impacts in California (Formerly 2.1)

The research and regulatory communities' increased interest in the air-quality impacts of urban heat islands and in the potential for their mitigation has led to interest in more accurately simulating the urban canopy layer and the response of the fine-resolution boundary-layer meteorological fields to perturbations in surface properties.

This paper presents recent efforts in improving models and modeling techniques, as well as their adaptation to heat island studies. Examples from recent mesoscale, meso-urban (UCP or “urbanized”), emissions, and episodic photochemical modeling of California to evaluate the impacts of heat islands and their mitigation on ozone air quality are discussed. Impacts, especially in the larger urbanized regions are evaluated and the difference in models' (mesoscale versus meso-urban) abilities to capture phenomena of interest is discussed. Examples from Southern and Central California will be provided.