Local cloud enhancement associated with urban morphology: evidence from observations and idealized large-eddy simulations.

Abstract

Previous studies have noted that cities enhance cloud cover, but the mechanisms of urban morphological types on cloud formation remain elusive. Observations of cloud climatology from 44 major U.S. cities show that cloud enhancement increases with the street-canyon aspect ratio and decreases with building density. Here, to explain these observations, we conducted numerical experiments using urban morphology-resolving large-eddy simulations. In these simulations, urban and rural surfaces retain their respective heat-flux differences, while the moisture sources and background atmospheric water vapor are prescribed to be identical, allowing us to isolate the morphological controls on moist convection. Results show that urban morphology influences cloud formation through two mechanisms: taller buildings intensify urban-breeze circulations at the urban-rural interface, while denser buildings, acting as momentum sinks, reduce vertical turbulent transport at the urban core. These vertical motions modify the transport of moisture in the urban atmospheric boundary layer, causing different cloud amounts across different urban morphology. This study highlights the mechanistic link between urban form, vertical motions, and cloud enhancement, thus providing a basis for city-specific boundary-layer convective parameterizations in large-scale weather and climate models.