Impacts of Changes in Soil Moisture on Urban Heat Islands and Urban Breeze Circulations: Idealized Ensemble Simulations

Abstract

Soil moisture plays important roles in land surface and hydrological processes, and its changes can greatly affect weather and climate. In this study, we examine how changes in soil moisture impact the urban heat island (UHI) and urban breeze circulation (UBC) through idealized ensemble simulations. As soil moisture increases, the latent heat flux increases considerably in the rural area. Hence, in the rural area, the sensible heat flux and surface temperature decrease, which decreases the rural air temperature. The decrease in rural air temperature leads to increases in UHI intensity and thus UBC intensity. The urban air temperature also decreases with increasing soil moisture since the cooler rural air is advected to the urban area by the enhanced low-level convergent flow of the UBC. However, the decrease in air temperature is smaller in the urban area than in the rural area. As the UBC intensity increases, the sensible heat flux in the urban area increases. The increase in sensible heat flux in the urban area further increases the UHI intensity. The positive feedback between the UHI intensity and the UBC intensity is revealed when soil moisture increases. The decrease in air temperature in both the urban and rural areas leads to the decrease in planetary boundary layer (PBL) height. As a result, the vertical size of the UBC decreases with increasing soil moisture. As the UBC intensity increases with increasing soil moisture, the advection of water vapor from the rural area to the urban area increases. Combined with the decrease in PBL height, this reduces the water vapor deficit or even leads to the water vapor excess in the urban area depending on soil moisture content.