Impacts of lateral boundary condition resolution in tropical urban climate modelling for Kuala Lumpur

• Main Authors: Chan, A. (Author), Isa, N.A (Author), Islam, M.A (Author), Mohd, W.M.N.W (Author), Ooi, M.C.G (Author), Salleh, S.A (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chulalongkorn University, Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts 2021
• Series: Engineering Journal
• Subjects: Kuala Lumpur; Lateral boundary condition; Resolution; Tropical urban; WRF
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher; View in Scopus

 Choosing the best LBCs is still debated among researchers due to the errors resulted. However, several recommendations have been documented to control the errors propagated by LBCs. One of the recommendations is employing higher resolutions LBCs. In the present, many LBCs are developed with various resolutions; spatially and temporally, for many applications but no claims regarding the best LBCs for tropical climate modelling have yet been documented. Therefore, this study intends to analyse the impacts of lateral boundary condition resolution during numerical downscaling within a tropical city. This study serves as a site-specific investigation to determine the suitable LBCs for the focused study area. Two widely used LBCs with different resolutions were utilized to initiate the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) simulation model. The performances of the two LBCs were compared using statistical tests and analyses. The study has found that the LBC with higher resolutions excels the other LBC during inter-monsoon season. Nevertheless, it was identified that both LBCs were able to provide reliable reconstruction of the tropical climate condition of the Kuala Lumpur City as portrayed by similar results obtained. Thus, it is concluded that both LBCs can be employed in numerical downscaling for tropical urban regions similar to the Kuala Lumpur City. © 2021, Chulalongkorn University, Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts. All rights reserved.