Applications of Remote Sensing and Modeling to Study Urban Energy Systems and Processes

Urban energy processes are governed by interdependent systems that are concerned with the energy balance and fluxes between the complex urban surface and the atmosphere while considering the demand for urban energy use which is dominated mainly by the building energy sector and the transportation sector.  These interdependent processes and systems have been studied by use of a network of atmospheric ground based remote sensing instruments including a Doppler radar wind profiler, a coherent Doppler wind lidar (for profiling wind fields), a set of direct detection back scatter lidars (for probing the vertical structure of the aerosols) and other atmospheric profilers including a ceilometer for monitoring the cloud height and a microwave radiometer for monitoring the vertical profiles of temperature, humidity and liquid water content.  This suite of instruments is supplemented by a network of ground based surface station data, a satellite receiving station and a real time numerical weather mesoscale prediction system based on the Weather Research and Forecasting model (tailored specifically according to microscale urban parameterizations) to form an urban observatory located in the NY/NJ area.  A particular focus on summer time diurnal cycles during the summer of 2015 and 2016 demonstrates the utility of this observatory for the study of urban meteorology especially as it relates to predicting the demand for urban energy.