Bundle Project Urban Climate: Development of a Powerful Urban Climate Model (Module A), MOSAIK, SP 02: Urban Radiation and Building Parameterization

Within the joint research project MOSAIK a new urban climate model of unprecedented spatial resolution and computational performance will be developed. The core of this new model (working title: PACE), will be based on the modern, highly parallelized and optimized large-eddy simulation model PALM. PALM will be extended by Reynold-averaged-Navier-Stokes-type turbulence parameterizations for fine and coarse spatial resolution and further components required for urban modeling, like an energy balance solver for different urban surface types, an energy demand model for buildings, and an urban chemistry model. Additionally, PACE will be coupled to a multi-agent model in order to study environmental effects on large groups of people. PACE will have a nesting feature to allow forcing by larger-scale models. Also, self-nesting will allow to focus on specific areas of interest like small city quarters or single streets. These features will allow both simulations with very high spatial resolution (down to 1m) for large cities or long climate projections as well as more focused simulations with coarser resolution, and exemplary periods or specific areas (e.g. for city planners) with limited computer resources.