Abstract
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As the numerical weather prediction community seeks deeper
understanding of multi-scale interactions among the atmosphere, human
systems and the overall earth system, more explicit representation of
surface terrain in these models has become necessary. While a great body
of work has examined the differences in error and uncertainty of
simulations at various horizontal grid resolution, no studies have been
performed that compare the results of running the models at the same
horizontal grid resolution but with different resolutions of surface
terrain. We examine the differences in meteorological output from the
Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model run at 270m horizontal
resolution using 10m resolution urban terrain (morphology) inputs and
100m resolution inputs. We find that differences in urban terrain
resolution may amplify or dampen the representation of shortwave
absorption by low albedo concrete and asphalt and the re-radiation of
this energy as heat to the neighborhood.