Mesoscale modeling of the impact of anthropogenic heating on the urban climate of Houston—the role of spatial and temporal resolution

Fine scale hourly profiles of anthropogenic heating have been developed for Houston Texas and implemented in a mesoscale atmospheric model. The profile development employs aggregate data for energy consumption in the residential, commercial, industrial, and transportation sectors in a top-down population density formulation. Modifications have been made to the MM5 mesoscale atmospheric model to allow inclusion of anthropogenic heating as a source term in the energy balance for the near-surface air layer. This modification allows for different anthropogenic heating profiles to be associated with different classes of urban land use (e.g., residential, commercial, industrial). Hence, by introducing subclasses of urban land use associated with varying levels of anthropogenic heating we can approximate the actual fine scale spatial variability of anthropogenic heating. Using this approach we have conducted a series of nested grid simulations for a case study summer heat wave episode. The suite of simulations includes representations of anthropogenic heating at varying levels of spatial and temporal resolution as well as a control simulation with no anthropogenic heating. We will present the results from these simulations which suggest the importance of including anthropogenic heating in atmospheric modeling of large cities, and also the importance of prescribing this heating with a high spatial and temporal resolution.