Articles | Volume 9, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-9-547-2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-9-547-2016
Methods for assessment of models
 | 
09 Feb 2016
Methods for assessment of models |  | 09 Feb 2016

Accounting for anthropic energy flux of traffic in winter urban road surface temperature simulations with the TEB model

A. Khalifa, M. Marchetti, L. Bouilloud, E. Martin, M. Bues, and K. Chancibaut

Abstract. Snowfall forecasts help winter maintenance of road networks, ensure better coordination between services, cost control, and a reduction in environmental impacts caused by an inappropriate use of de-icers. In order to determine the possible accumulation of snow on pavements, forecasting the road surface temperature (RST) is mandatory. Weather outstations are used along these networks to identify changes in pavement status, and to make forecasts by analyzing the data they provide. Physical numerical models provide such forecasts, and require an accurate description of the infrastructure along with meteorological parameters. The objective of this study was to build a reliable urban RST forecast with a detailed integration of traffic in the Town Energy Balance (TEB) numerical model for winter maintenance. The study first consisted in generating a physical and consistent description of traffic in the model with two approaches to evaluate traffic incidence on RST. Experiments were then conducted to measure the effect of traffic on RST increase with respect to non-circulated areas. These field data were then used for comparison with the forecast provided by this traffic-implemented TEB version.

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Short summary
An experimental study was conducted to quantify the anthropic energy flux of traffic impact on RST in the winter season. It indicated an RST increase by 1 °C to 3 °C with respect to the absence of traffic. Additional work was undertaken so as to evaluate to which extent an accurate description of traffic might improve the TEB numerical model when dedicated to RST simulations. Two approaches to traffic integration in this model were detailed and tested.