Identification

Title

Urban effects on local cloud patterns

Abstract

Urbanization extensively modifies surface roughness and properties, impacting regional climate and hydrological cycles. Urban effects on temperature and precipitation have drawn considerable attention. These associated physical processes are also closely linked to clouds' formation and dynamics. Cloud is one of the critical components in regulating urban hydrometeorological cycles but remains less understood in urban-atmospheric systems. We analyzed satellite-derived cloud patterns spanning two decades over 447 US cities and quantified the urban-influenced cloud patterns diurnally and seasonally. The systematic assessment suggests that most cities experience enhanced daytime cloud cover in both summer and winter; nocturnal cloud enhancement prevails in summer by 5.8%, while there is modest cloud suppression in winter nights. Statistically linking the cloud patterns with city properties, geographic locations, and climate backgrounds, we found that larger city size and stronger surface heating are primarily responsible for summer local cloud enhancement diurnally. Moisture and energy background control the urban cloud cover anomalies seasonally. Under strong mesoscale circulations induced by terrains and land-water contrasts, urban clouds exhibit considerable nighttime enhancement during warm seasons, which is relevant to strong urban surface heating interacting with these circulations, but other local and climate impacts remain complicated and inconclusive. Our research unveils extensive urban influences on local cloud patterns, but the effects are diverse depending on time, location, and city properties. The comprehensive observational study on urban-cloud interactions calls for more in-depth research on urban cloud life cycles and their radiative and hydrologic implications under the urban warming context.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7sf315j

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2023-05-23T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact