Observation of the Urban Wind Island Effect
Sunil Baidar, Tim Bonin, Aditya Choukulkar, Alan Brewer, M. Hardesty
Abstract
Urban wind island effect (UWI) is defined as a phenomenon in which boundary layer mean wind speeds in an urban area are noticeably higher than its neighboring rural areas. Unlike urban heat island effect which has been extensively studied, the UWI was only recently observed in a modeling study. Here we study existence of the UWI over Indianapolis, Indiana using wind profile measurements from two Doppler wind lidars (DWL) that were deployed in climatologically upwind and downwind of the city. Under certain atmospheric conditions higher wind speeds and turbulence were observed at the downwind site over the entire urban boundary layer outside the urban canopy layer.
Topics & Concepts
Urban heat islandBoundary layerMeteorologyWind speedPlanetary boundary layerWind directionEnvironmental scienceGeographyUrban climatologyTurbulenceUrban areaAtmospheric sciencesClimatologyUrban climateGeologyUrban planningPhysicsMechanicsEngineeringCivil engineeringEconomicsEconomyWind and Air Flow StudiesUrban Heat Island MitigationAeolian processes and effects