Role of snow cover on urban heat island intensity investigated by urban canopy model with snow effects

Abstract:

Urban heat islands have been investigated around the world including snowy regions. However, the relationship between urban heat island and snow cover remains unclear. This study examined the effect of snow cover in urban canopy on energy budget in urban areas of Sapporo, north Japan by 1km mesh WRF experiments. The modified urban canopy model permits snow cover in urban canopy by the modification of surface albedo, surface emissivity, and thermal conductivity for roof and road according to snow depth and snow water equivalent.

The experiments revealed that snow cover in urban canopy decreases urban air temperature more strongly for daily maximum temperature (0.4−0.6 K) than for daily minimum temperature (0.1−0.3 K). The high snow albedo reduces the net radiation at building roof, leading to decrease in sensible heat flux. Interestingly, the cooling effect of snow cover compensates the warming effect by anthropogenic heat release in Sapporo, suggesting the importance of snow cover treatment in urban canopy model as well as estimating accurate anthropogenic heat distributions. In addition, the effect of road snow clearance tends to increase nocturnal surface air temperature in urban areas.

A possible role of snow cover on urban heat island intensity was evaluated by two experiments with snow cover (i.e., realistic condition) and without snow cover in entire numerical domain. The snow cover decreases surface air temperature more in rural areas than in urban areas, which was commonly seen throughout a day, with stronger magnitude during nighttime than daytime, resulting in intensifying urban heat island by 4.0 K for daily minimum temperature.