Urban and Boundary Layer Meso-Meteorological Modeling for Integrated Systems: In Memory of Prof. L. Gutman

Mesometeorology is an important and growing part of the atmospheric science. For a definition of the 'Mesometeorology' we can refer to a brilliant paper of Prof. Gutman (1975), where he described it and specified the role of mesometeorology in the field of dynamic meteorology. He suggested a cell-diagram representing the various processes of dynamic meteorology as a function of linear scale, with emphasis on mesometeorological processes. "The processes listed in the cell-diagram include precipitation, thermal processes, convection and circulation (cell one) and free-atmospheric mesometeorological processes (cell two). Major emphasis is placed on the definition of the mesometeorological boundary layer (cell four). On the basis of the cell-diagram, mesometeorology is defined as the meteorology of those atmospheric processes with a horizontal scale from several hundred meters to several hundred kilometers.”

I have had the honor to know Prof. Gutman for almost 45 years since my MS and PhD studies in the Novosibirsk State University and Novosibirsk Computing Center of USSR Academy of Sciences in 1978. That time was only through his scientific publications and the comments of my colleagues, because he left Novosibirsk just before my arrival. His book “Introduction to the Nonlinear Theory of Mesoscale Meteorological Processes” (Gutman, 1972), was very important for my M.S. and Ph.D. studies in meso-scale meteorological modeling. I still keep this book in my library and return to it from time to time.

In September 2008, thanks to the support of the COST Action EuMetChem and European MEGAPOLI project that I led, the international conference "Mesometeorology and Atmospheric Pollution," was held at the Odessa State Environmental University (OSENU), attended by more than 50 scientists from 16 countries of Europe, North America, Africa and neighboring countries (Baklanov, ed., 2009). The conference was dedicated to the memory of the outstanding graduate of the OSENU (former Odessa Hydro-Meteorological Institute), Prof. Gutman L. N., and it became the largest scientific event for Ukrainian meteorologists.

Further studies of the urban and boundary layer meso-meteorological processes are very important especially for integrated modelling of the Earth System.

In this presentation, dedicated to the memory of Prof. L. N. Gutman, I’d like to focus on the new generation of integrated atmospheric dynamics and composition models. They are based on the seamless Earth System Modelling (ESM) approach to evolve from separate model components to seamless meteorology-composition-environment models to address challenges in weather, climate, and atmospheric composition fields whose interests, applications, and challenges are now overlapping. This approach considers several dimensions of the seamless coupling, discussed and demonstrated in the presentation.

A modern seamless unified modelling system that allows a single platform to operate over the full scale (i.e., across-scale) will represent a substantial advancement in both the science and the computational efficiency.

Global challenges, such as rapid urbanization, pandemics, climate change, environmental degradation, require a review of the current understanding and revision of traditional methods. The New UN Urban Agenda and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) #11, focusing on urban resilience, climate and environment sustainability of smart cities, require joint multidisciplinary efforts, complex research studies, development of new integrated models and methods.

The presentation is considering the novel concept/strategy of climate and environment smart and sustainable cities and analyzing a modern evolution in research and development from specific urban air quality and weather prediction systems to multi-hazard and integrated urban weather, environment and climate systems and services. It provides an overview and analysis of results of a number of world-wide key international projects and demonstrate advantages of this approach on examples of specific urban studies and development of the Enviro-HIRLAM integrated modelling system. It discusses main gaps, challenges, applications and advances, main trends and research needs in further developments of integrated modeling systems for sustainable cities. The aim is to build urban integrated systems that meet the special needs of cities through a combination of dense observation networks, high-resolution forecasts, multi-hazard early warning systems, disaster management plans and climate services. This approach gives cities the tools they need to reduce emissions, build thriving and resilient communities and implement the SDGs.

References:

Gutman, L. N. (1972) Introduction to the Nonlinear Theory of Mesoscale Meteorological Processes. Published by Israel Program for Scientific Translations, Jerusalem, Israel, ISBN 10: 0706512480 ISBN 13: 9780706512489 (Translated from Russian).

Gutman, L. N. (1975) View of theoretical mesometeorology. In: Some problems of computational and applied mathematics. (A76-28676 12-59) Novosibirsk, Izdatel'stvo Nauka, p. 51-61. In Russian

Baklanov, A. (Ed.), (2009): "Mesometeorology and Air Pollution: selected papers from the International Conference in Odessa, Ukraine, 15-17 September 2008", Odessa: Ecologiya, Ukraine, 240 p. ISBN978-966-8740-53-4