Impact of urban canyons on atmospheric processes in Minsk, Belarus: observational and modelling study

This study is devoted to analysis of the impact of urban canyons and other features of urban morphology on formation of wind patterns and micrometeorological weather regimes in the urban area of Minsk, Belarus. For that purpose we combine urban morphology analysis with high-resolution mesoscale simulations with the WRF-BEP+BEM modelling system and observational data.

Urban morphology parameters for Minsk are first obtained on basis of OpenStreetMap (OSM) vector data processed with machine learning techniques. We then apply several algorithms of urban street canyon identification to this data to get an overall picture of main urban morphology features of Minsk and their possible role in wind patterns formation. Furthermore, OSM data is processed to form a representation of buildings data and other urban parameters for use in the WRF-BEP+BEM modelling system along with other sources of data for land use/land cover description. Modelling results are then analyzed along with observational data, which includes available satellite data, regular ground-based measurements, crowdsourced data from citizen weather stations and compact sensors, and our own street observations conducted with mobile instruments during several field campaigns in different parts of Minsk (including previously identified urban canyon zones.