skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Title: Seasonal hysteresis of surface urban heat islands
Temporal dynamics of urban warming have been extensively studied at the diurnal scale, but the impact of background climate on the observed seasonality of surface urban heat islands (SUHIs) remains largely unexplored. On seasonal time scales, the intensity of urban–rural surface temperature differences ( Δ T s ) exhibits distinctive hysteretic cycles whose shape and looping direction vary across climatic zones. These observations highlight possible delays underlying the dynamics of the coupled urban–biosphere system. However, a general argument explaining the observed hysteretic patterns remains elusive. A coarse-grained model of SUHI coupled with a stochastic soil water balance is developed to demonstrate that the time lags between radiation forcing, air temperature, and rainfall generate a rate-dependent hysteresis, explaining the observed seasonal variations of Δ T s . If solar radiation is in phase with water availability, summer conditions cause strong SUHI intensities due to high rural evaporative cooling. Conversely, cities in seasonally dry regions where evapotranspiration is out of phase with radiation show a summertime oasis effect controlled by background climate and vegetation properties. These seasonal patterns of warming and cooling have significant implications for heat mitigation strategies as urban green spaces can reduce Δ T s during summertime, while potentially negative effects of albedo management during winter are mitigated by the seasonality of solar radiation.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1754893 1664021
PAR ID:
10139897
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Volume:
117
Issue:
13
ISSN:
0027-8424
Page Range / eLocation ID:
p. 7082-7089
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. Abstract The sensitivity of urban canopy air temperature ( T a ) to anthropogenic heat flux ( Q A H ) is known to vary with space and time, but the key factors controlling such spatiotemporal variabilities remain elusive. To quantify the contributions of different physical processes to the magnitude and variability of Δ T a / Δ Q A H (where Δ represents a change), we develop a forcing-feedback framework based on the energy budget of air within the urban canopy layer and apply it to diagnosing Δ T a / Δ Q A H simulated by the Community Land Model Urban over the contiguous United States (CONUS). In summer, the median Δ T a / Δ Q A H is around 0.01 K  W  m 2 1 over the CONUS. Besides the direct effect of Q A H on T a , there are important feedbacks through changes in the surface temperature, the atmosphere–canopy air heat conductance ( c a ), and the surface–canopy air heat conductance. The positive and negative feedbacks nearly cancel each other out and Δ T a / Δ Q A H is mostly controlled by the direct effect in summer. In winter, Δ T a / Δ Q A H becomes stronger, with the median value increased by about 20% due to weakened negative feedback associated with c a . The spatial and temporal (both seasonal and diurnal) variability of Δ T a / Δ Q A H as well as the nonlinear response of Δ T a to Δ Q A H are strongly related to the variability of c a , highlighting the importance of correctly parameterizing convective heat transfer in urban canopy models. 
    more » « less
  2. Assessment of the global budget of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide ( N 2 O) is limited by poor knowledge of the oceanic N 2 O flux to the atmosphere, of which the magnitude, spatial distribution, and temporal variability remain highly uncertain. Here, we reconstruct climatological N 2 O emissions from the ocean by training a supervised learning algorithm with over 158,000 N 2 O measurements from the surface ocean—the largest synthesis to date. The reconstruction captures observed latitudinal gradients and coastal hot spots of N 2 O flux and reveals a vigorous global seasonal cycle. We estimate an annual mean N 2 O flux of 4.2 ± 1.0 Tg N y 1 , 64% of which occurs in the tropics, and 20% in coastal upwelling systems that occupy less than 3% of the ocean area. This N 2 O flux ranges from a low of 3.3 ± 1.3 Tg N y 1 in the boreal spring to a high of 5.5 ± 2.0 Tg N y 1 in the boreal summer. Much of the seasonal variations in global N 2 O emissions can be traced to seasonal upwelling in the tropical ocean and winter mixing in the Southern Ocean. The dominant contribution to seasonality by productive, low-oxygen tropical upwelling systems (>75%) suggests a sensitivity of the global N 2 O flux to El Niño–Southern Oscillation and anthropogenic stratification of the low latitude ocean. This ocean flux estimate is consistent with the range adopted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, but reduces its uncertainty by more than fivefold, enabling more precise determination of other terms in the atmospheric N 2 O budget. 
    more » « less
  3. Abstract Fe 3 + δ GeTe 2 (FGT) has proved to be an interesting van der Waals (vdW) ferromagnetic compound with a tunable Curie temperature ( T C ). However, the underlying mechanism for varying T C remains elusive. Here, we systematically investigate and compare low-temperature magnetic properties of single crystalline FGT samples that exhibit T C s ranging from 160 K to 205 K. Spin stiffness (D) and spin excitation gap (Δ) are extracted using Bloch’s theory for crystals with varying Fe content. Compared to Cr-based vdW ferromagnets, FGT compounds have higher spin stiffness values but lower spin wave excitation gaps. We discuss the implication of these relationships in Fe–Fe ion magnetic interactions in FGT unit cells. The itinerancy of magnetic electrons is measured and discussed under the Rhodes–Wohlfarth ratio (RWR) and the Takahashi theory. 
    more » « less
  4. Abstract The polarization of the cosmic microwave background is rich in information but obscured by foreground emission from the Milky Way’s interstellar medium (ISM). To uncover relationships between the underlying turbulent ISM and the foreground power spectra, we simulated a suite of driven, magnetized, turbulent models of the ISM, varying the fluid properties via the sonic Mach number, M S , and magnetic (Alfvén) Mach number, M A . We measure the power spectra of density (ρ), velocity (v), magnetic field (H), total projected intensity (T), parity-even polarization (E), and parity-odd polarization (B). We find that the slopes of all six quantities increase with M S . Most increase with M A , while the magnetic field spectrum steepens with M A . By comparing spectral slopes ofEandBto those measured by Planck, we infer typical values of M S and M A for the ISM. As the fluid velocity increases, M S > 4 , the ratio of BB power to EE power increases to approach a constant value near the Planck-observed value of ∼0.5, regardless of the magnetic field strength. We also examine correlation coefficients between projected quantities, and find thatrTE≈ 0.3, in agreement with Planck, for appropriate combinations of M S and M A . Finally, we consider parity-violating correlationsrTBandrEB
    more » « less
  5. Abstract The family of transition-metal dipnictides has been of theoretical and experimental interest because this family hosts topological states and extremely large magnetoresistance (MR). Recently, T a A s 2 , a member of this family, has been predicted to support a topological crystalline insulating state. Here, by using high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), we reveal both closed and open pockets in the metallic Fermi surface (FS) and linearly dispersive bands on the ( 2 01 ) surface, along with the presence of extreme MR observed from magneto-transport measurements. A comparison of the ARPES results with first-principles computations shows that the linearly dispersive bands on the measured surface of T a A s 2 are trivial bulk bands. The absence of symmetry-protected surface state on the ( 2 01 ) surface indicates its topologically dark nature. The presence of open FS features suggests that the open-orbit fermiology could contribute to the extremely large MR of T a A s 2
    more » « less