Publication Abstracts
Iguchi et al. 2025
Iguchi, T., Z. Tao, J. Yoo, E.C. Bruning, E.R. Mansell, T. Matsui, , M. Chin, P. Lawston-Parker, J.A. Santanello, and J.M. Shepherd, 2025: Impact of urbanization on convection, lightning, and precipitation over the Houston metropolitan area: Case study simulation from the TRACER campaign. J. Adv. Model. Earth Syst., 17, no. 11, e2025MS005327, doi:10.1029/2025MS005327.
This study investigates the effects of urbanization, specifically land use change and anthropogenic emissions (AE), on convection, lightning, and surface precipitation for a case of summertime sea-breeze convection observed over the Houston metropolitan area. The unique capabilities of the NASA-Unified Weather Research and Forecasting model allows us to conduct a series of sensitivity experiments with complex configurations, in particular including multi-year land model spin-up simulations, treatment of aerosols and their precursors, and explicit cloud charging and lightning. The simulation results show that urban land use primarily alters the temporal evolution of convection, lightning, and surface precipitation, leading to late afternoon thunderstorm development. The decrease in latent heat flux from the land surface caused by urbanization weakens convection in the early afternoon, while a condition suitable for convection development is maintained in the late afternoon due to less stabilization of the lower troposphere by the weaker convection development and high sensible heat flux from the surface. On the other hand, anthropogenic aerosols directly enhance convection, lightning, and surface precipitation by increasing convective updrafts due to the aerosol-induced convective invigoration. The combined effects of urban land use and AE lead to even stronger thunderstorms in the late afternoon, mostly consistent with observations. These results indicate that urbanization increases the probability of late afternoon thunderstorms over the Houston area during the summer season. Advanced weather forecasting models that incorporate these urbanization effects might support sustainable urban planning to better mitigate the impacts of urbanization on local weather and public safety.
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BibTeX Citation
@article{ig05000f,
author={Iguchi, T. and Tao, Z. and Yoo, J. and Bruning, E. C. and Mansell, E. R. and Matsui, T. and van Lier-Walqui, M. and Chin, M. and Lawston-Parker, P. and Santanello, J. A. and Shepherd, J. M.},
title={Impact of urbanization on convection, lightning, and precipitation over the Houston metropolitan area: Case study simulation from the TRACER campaign},
year={2025},
journal={Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems},
volume={17},
number={11},
pages={e2025MS005327},
doi={10.1029/2025MS005327},
}
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RIS Citation
TY - JOUR ID - ig05000f AU - Iguchi, T. AU - Tao, Z. AU - Yoo, J. AU - Bruning, E. C. AU - Mansell, E. R. AU - Matsui, T. AU - van Lier-Walqui, M. AU - Chin, M. AU - Lawston-Parker, P. AU - Santanello, J. A. AU - Shepherd, J. M. PY - 2025 TI - Impact of urbanization on convection, lightning, and precipitation over the Houston metropolitan area: Case study simulation from the TRACER campaign JA - J. Adv. Model. Earth Syst. JO - Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems VL - 17 IS - 11 SP - e2025MS005327 DO - 10.1029/2025MS005327 ER -
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