An urban neighborhood temperature and energy study from the CAPITOUL experiment with the Solene model

• Published in: Theoretical and applied climatology Vol. 110; no. 1-2; p. 197
• Main Authors: Hénon, Aurélien, Mestayer, Patrice G, Lagouarde, Jean-pierre, Voogt, James A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wien Springer Nature B.V 01-10-2012
• Subjects: Atmospheric models; Meteorology; Neighborhoods; Temperature; Ultraviolet radiation; Urban areas
• ISSN: 0177-798X; 1434-4483
• DOI: 10.1007/s00704-012-0616-z

Surface brightness temperatures modeled using the Solene model with effective model parameters derived from Part 1 Hénon et al. (2012) are compared to temperatures obtained from an airborne thermal camera at the facet and pixel scales. The measurements were made during both summer and winter intense observation periods over the center of Toulouse, France. Because the model typically omits subfacet scale features (glazing, balconies and roof structures) and there is a lack of information on the spatial variation of some model parameters, the comparison can be used to identify where these simplifications result in differences from observations. A detailed image comparison shows that two-thirds of pixels are simulated to within 5°C and one-third to within 2.5°C. Differences are attributed to: omission of some surface types from the model that could be represented, variability arising due to the method of comparison or from very small-scale features below the resolution of the simulation and recognized small-scale variability that is present but not explicitly simulated.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]