Numerical experiment of localized heavy rainfall over urban area using resolved urban buldings

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26820251
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Architectural environment/Equipment
• Research Institution: Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology
• Principal Investigator: Baba Yuya 国立研究開発法人海洋研究開発機構, アプリケーションラボ, 研究員 (60512861)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 局地豪雨

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Idealized numerical experiment was performed to simulate localized heavy rainfall over urban area. The experiment is aimed at investigating how the localized heavy rainfall is caused by urban buildings. The results showed that lower urban building tends to increase atmospheric instability before convection occur due to slow and small forcing to the atmosphere. The increased instability enhanced vertical structure of convection which transports lower humidity to upper atmosphere, leading to increase of ice water content that eventually causes heavy rainfall over urban area. Additional numerical experiment that employed bulk parameterization for urban building also showed that localized heavy rainfall occurred through similar process, and resulted in similar rainfall trends.

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