Kyriakidis et al. (2026) A new Earth Observation–based WRF configuration for urban regional climate simulations over Paris

Identification

• Journal: Geoscientific model development
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-09-18
• Authors: Iraklis Kyriakidis, Vasileios Pavlidis, Maria Gkolemi, Zina Mitraka, Nektarios Chrysoulakis, Josipa Milovac, Jesús Fernández, Eleni Katragkou
• DOI: 10.5194/gmd-19-8709-2026

Research Groups

• Department of Meteorology and Climatology, School of Geology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
• Instituto de Fisica de Cantabria (IFCA), CSIC-Universidad de Cantabria, Spain
• Remote Sensing Lab, Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas, Greece

Short Summary

This study presents a new Earth Observation–based WRF configuration for urban regional climate simulations over Paris. The results show that the use of EO-derived data to tailor urban canopy parameters improves model performance compared to default values.

Objective

• Evaluate the impact of using Earth Observation (EO) data to configure the urban representation in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model.
• Assess the added value of coupling an urban canopy model to WRF for regional climate simulations over Paris.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Urban scale, focusing on the city of Paris and its surrounding area.
• Temporal Scale: Summer 2020, with a focus on the heatwave event in August.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model version 4.5.1.
• Data sources: Earth Observation (EO) data from various sources, including Theia Albedo product, ASTER GED product, Copernicus Land Monitoring Service Urban Atlas Building Block Height, and the Global Human Settlement Urban Database (GHS-UCDB).

Main Results

• The use of EO-derived data to tailor urban canopy parameters improves model performance compared to default values.
• The PAR simulation exhibits pronounced temperature overestimations in the city center due to the methodology adopted for EO data implementation and the selection of the area from which the EO data were derived.
• The simulated urban–rural temperature contrast for both BEP-BEM simulations is improved compared to BULK, resulting in a more realistic representation of the Urban Heat Island (UHI).

Contributions

• This study demonstrates the added value of using Earth Observation-derived data to configure urban canopy parameters and improve model performance.
• The results highlight the importance of tailoring urban canopy parameters to specific regions and cities.

Funding

• This research was funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. [insert grant number].
• Additional funding was provided by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.

Citation

@article{Kyriakidis2026new,
  author = {Kyriakidis, Iraklis and Pavlidis, Vasileios and Gkolemi, Maria and Mitraka, Zina and Chrysoulakis, Nektarios and Milovac, Josipa and Fernández, Jesús and Katragkou, Eleni},
  title = {A new Earth Observation–based WRF configuration for urban regional climate simulations over Paris},
  journal = {Geoscientific model development},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.5194/gmd-19-8709-2026},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-8709-2026}
}