The Radiation Budget for Polluted Layers of the Urban Environment

Abstract

A radiation model is used to examine the possible effects that the presence of pollutants, particularly aerosols and nitrogen dioxide, have on the thermal structure of the urban atmosphere. Discontinuities in the lapse rate, which develop at successive iterations of the radiation model, are removed by use of a one-sided space finite difference at the lowest atmospheric grid level. The surface temperature is specified as a function of time and pollutant concentration is assumed constant with time. Pollutants are shown to be a possible cause for the formation of elevated inversions which occur over cities. Therefore, the radiative effects of pollutants should be included in a realistic simulation of urban meteorology.