NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF THE BUCHAREST URBAN HEAT ISLAND WITH THE WRF MODELLING SYSTEM USING DIFFERENT LAND-USE DATA

In this study we investigate the Bucharest Urban Heat Island using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) numerical weather prediction model coupled with two sets of land-use data. The WRF model was run at three high resolutions (4.5 km, 1.5 km and 500 m) using United States Geological Survey (USGS) or Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) land-use data. Initial and lateral boundary conditions were obtained from the COnsortium for Small-scale Modeling (COSMO) limited area model at 7 km horizontal resolution. Numerical simulations were performed for selected days in March 2014. Comparisons against 2 m temperature observations from an urban and a peri-urban station in the Bucharest Urban Area suggest that employing Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data leads to a better performance of the model in capturing the phenomenon for these specific days. Differences in the intensity of the predicted Bucharest Urban Heat Island are also influenced by the horizontal resolution of the model; better results are generally obtained for the 500 m horizontal resolution.