Improving urban weather, climate and air quality

Under a warming climate intense heatwaves are expected that would stay for hours, days, weeks and months.  It becomes even worse under urbanization - the more cities grow , the  more natural land covers such as vegetation and soil are replaced by impervious surfaces such as concrete, asphalt roads and buildings. These impervious  urban surfaces can't retain water much longer like soil and vegetation and this would exacerbate the heating further.  Urban heat islands add more than 3 deg. C (Fig. 1) to the heatwaves. The combined effects of heatwaves and urban heat islands are heat-related illnesses and death - specifically affecting young toddlers and old people because their body regulation mechanism is lower. Figure 1. Urban heat island adds more than 3 deg. C to the heatwaves and increases the frequency or duration of the heat. Under a warming climate, it is only a matter of time before we start to seek for cooling mechanisms both for short term and long t...

My recent review paper "Review of urban surface parameterizations for numerical climate models"( https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212095517300858 ) presents the historical development of urban climate models, uncertainties and challenges  in obtaining representative urban weather and climate information. There are wide scale urban weather/climate models and the level of detail and complexity required for a particular study is oftentimes a challenge for the climate modeling communities. Weather/climate models are required for different purposes, such as understanding the teleconnections between different scale weather/climate phenomena, for weather forecasting and climate projections, and for policy purposes. Therefore, improving the performance of climate models is one of the top priorities in the climate modeling communities. On the other hand, obtaining accurate initial and boundary information is challenging. Observations data of high spatial density ...

A research conducted in 2014 during my internship at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. Presented at Atmospheric and Oceanic Science unit, IGSSA and Physics Department, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia Soil organic matter plays an important role in modulating weather/climate. Increase in greenhouse gas concentrations results in considerable rise in land temperatures as indicated by climate projections. The warming of soil facilitates the decomposition of soil organic matter which further adds carbon dioxide in to the atmosphere. The impact of warming of soil if drifts towards wet soil will increase methane gas release in to the atmosphere. Methane is radiatively more active than carbon dioxide, hence results in more warming. The impact of warming of soil does not stop there. It will increase microbial activity which releases nitrogen from the soil and prompt shrub growth resulting in positive albedo feedback. This study, therefore, is star...

Kids love to taste, even a snow. I really like eating snow too, but wait a moment. This winter, I thought a little and questioned my old behaviour. What if polluted air particulates mix with snow? the particles that cause cancer, for example. As far as I am aware of, there are carcinogenic particulates in the air and their life-time is long. So, is it really good to taste snow? and if not, when is it safe to eat snow? As snow falls from the sky, it traps and binds with air particles. The most common particles found out bound with snow are soot and other chemicals that are released by oil industries, coal and wood burning plants. Pesticides that have been in the air for a long period of time may also appear in the current snow. Researchers found out that, even 30, 40, 50 years old air particles, in several cities, are found in snow, even if the amounts are very low. When is it safe to eat snow? It is better to wait for two or three snow falls. The first fall is not a guarantee that...

It is awhile since it was found out that the air we breath can disrupt the  bodies ability to function properly. The studies confirmed that traffic fumes and cigarette smokes are the main problems. Other tiny and irritating particulate matters in the air trigger widespread inflammation and disruption  to the body's ability to burn energy efficiently leading to undesired weight gain.  Without any other changes in lifestyles or diet, polluted air may cause piled up weights. Even if the short term effects are minimal, in the long run, these would be high enough to affect the human metabolism. Besides the respiratory illnesses, it can suppresses our immune system and leaves us more vulnerable to diseases,  and it disrupts the energy burning mechanism and exposes us to obesity, diabetes and even triggers blood pressure.  In this regard, there has been studies conducted on mice, that would offer clues to the effects of air pollution  that may reach fa...

What would happen if nuclear war erupts? a silly question that anyone can answer right away, "nuclear war claims the lives of many people". However, the consequences are more than claiming lives. It worsens the already messy weather and climate, releases pollutants into the air which leaves generations struggle to remove from the air, and it can pollute water and the atmosphere. It could also alter the general circulation of the atmosphere and oceans, and worsens weather and climate. The already wet regions remain wet and the already dry regions remain dry, i.e., there will be an increase in frequency and magnitude of the climate extremes, such as floods, heat waves and other water and wind storms. What is really a nuclear war? A nuclear war is when the fighting parties are equipped with nuclear warheads and are capable of dropping the bomb at the intended battlefield and/or economically active region that would cripple the economy and power of the opposing side. So, gen...

People migrate to cities due to different reasons such as easy access to schools, health facilities, jobs and transportation . More people, therefore, live in urban areas than in rural. According to the  United Nations estimate, in 2014 more than 54% of the world population dwell in cities. It was 30% in 1950. Projections indicate that 66%  of the world's population will live in urban by 2050 . Most of urban people reside in relatively small areas with high number of inhabitants per square meter of land (UN, 2015): " Close to half of the world's urban dwellers reside in relatively small settlements of less than 500, 000 inhabitants, while only around one in eight live in the 28 mega-cities with more than 10 million inhabitants. " It is ages since people noticed that urban air was different from rural air. However, it was air pollution which is the hallmark of the urban atmosphere. In 1818 Luke Howard (1772-1864) published the first edition of a book deal...