Urban boundary layer analysis in the complex coastal terrain of Bilbao using Enviro-HIRLAM

This study analyses the atmospheric boundary layer over the Bilbao metropolitan area during summer (13–18 Jul 2009) and winter (20–29 Jan 2010) episodes using the Environment–High Resolution Limited Area Model (Enviro-HIRLAM) coupled with the building effect parameterisation (BEP). The main objectives of this study are: to evaluate the performance of the model to simulate the land–sea breezes over this complex terrain; to assess the simulations with the integration of an urban parameterisation in Enviro-HIRLAM and finally; and to analyse the urban–atmosphere interactions. Even if the hydrostraticity of the model is a limitation to simulate atmospheric flows over complex terrain, sensibility tests demonstrate that 2.4 km is the optimal horizontal resolution over Bilbao that allows at the same time: to obtain satisfactory reproducibility of the large-scale processes and to explore the urban effects at local scale. During the summer episode, a typical regime of diurnal sea breeze from the NW-N-NE direction and nocturnal valley breezes from the SE direction are observed over Bilbao. The urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon is developed in the city centre expanding to the suburbs from 22 to 10 local time (LT), covering an area of 130 km2. The maximum UHI intensity, 1 °C, is reached at the end of the night (5 LT), and it is advected 12 km towards the sea by the land breezes. The urban boundary layer (UBL) height amplitude varies from 100 (night time) to 1,360 m (at 14 LT). During the winter episode, the land breeze dominates the atmospheric diffusion during the day and night time. The maximum UHI intensity, 1.7 °C, is observed at 01 LT. It is spread and remained over the city covering an area of 160 km2, with a vertical extension of 33 m. The UBL reaches 780 m height at 16 LT the following day.