Multi-scale atmospheric environment modelling for urban areas

Abstract. Modern supercomputers allow realising multi-scale systems for assessment and forecasting of urban meteorology, air pollution and emergency preparedness and considering nesting with obstacle-resolved models. A multi-scale modelling system with downscaling from regional to city-scale with the Environment – HIgh Resolution Limited Area Model (Enviro-HIRLAM) and to micro-scale with the obstacle-resolved Micro-scale Model for Urban Environment (M2UE) is suggested and demonstrated. The M2UE validation results versus the Mock Urban Setting Trial (MUST) experiment indicate satisfactory quality of the model. Necessary conditions for the choice of nested models, building descriptions, areas and resolutions of nested models are analysed. Two-way nesting (up- and down-scaling), when scale effects both directions (from the meso-scale on the micro-scale and from the micro-scale on the meso-scale), is also discussed.