The mixing height in urban areas: comparative study for Copenhagen

Abstract. The urban boundary layer (UBL), in comparison with "rural" homogeneous atmospheric boundary layers, is characterised by greatly enhanced mixing, resulting from both the large surface roughness and increased surface heating, and by horizontal heterogeneity of the mixing height (MH) and other meteorological fields due to variations in surface roughness and heating from rural to central city areas. So, the UBL is considered as a specific case of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) over a non-homogeneous terrain. Therefore it is important to study how much the MH characteristics differ in urban and rural, marine or other more homogeneous areas. Most of the parameterisations of MH were developed for the conditions of a homogeneous terrain, so their applicability for urban conditions should be verified. Just a few authors suggested specific methods for MH determination in urban areas. In this paper the MH over urban, semi-urban, rural and marine areas of the Copenhagen metropolitan area is considered. Proceeding from the data from the Jægersborg radiosounding station measurement and analysis of different methods of the MH estimation, the peculiarities of the UBL and intercomparison of different MH estimation methods for urban and rural conditions are discussed. It is shown that the urban MH is considerably bigger for stably stratified (nocturnal) boundary layer cases in comparison with the "non-urban" MH. Daytime (usually the convective boundary layer) MH does not differ significatly in urban and "non-urban" sectors.