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Study of the Extreme Thermal Conditions for the Sofia Region—Preliminary Results

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Environmental Protection and Disaster Risks (EnviroRISK 2020)

Part of the book series: Studies in Systems, Decision and Control ((SSDC,volume 361))

Abstract

The environmental thermal comfort is one of the issues not only these days, but also in the future, concerning the results from the climate projections. The objective of this paper is to study the human discomfort in winter and summer in Sofia and its surroundings. Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model numerical simulations were used to calculate two characteristics called indexes, of the thermal environmental properties from the human point of view. They estimate the deviation of the environmental conditions from the human thermal comfort. The first one—Wind Chill index describes the thermal discomfort in low temperatures (winter), depending on air temperature and wind speed. The second one—Heat Index describes the deviation from the summer thermal comfort in high air temperatures (summer), depending on the air temperature and relative humidity. Numerical experiments with combination of different parameterization schemes for atmospheric boundary layer and microphysical processes were carried out. Model performance for the temperature, wind speed and relative humidity were used for estimation of the best model options for calculation of the Wind Chill and Heat Index in the corresponding conditions when they are applicable.

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Acknowledgements

This work has been carried out in the framework of the National Science Program “Environmental Protection and Reduction of Risks of Adverse Events and Natural Disasters”, approved by the Resolution of the Council of Ministers № 577/17.08.2018 and supported by the Ministry of Education and Science (MES) of Bulgaria (Agreement № Д01-322/18.12.2019).

We want to acknowledge the Bulgarian National Science Fund (grant DN-04/2/13.12.2016).

Special thanks to the Faculty of Physics at the University of Sofia “St. Kl. Ohridski” for the access to the supercomputing facilities (NESTUM cluster http://hpc-lab.sofiatech.bg/home/, funded by the ERDF Project BG161PO003-1.2.05-0001-C0001) at Sofia Tech Park, Sofia, Bulgaria and to US NCEP for providing free-of-charge data and software.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Geophysics, Geodesy and Geography, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (NIGGG-BAS), Acad. Georgi Bonchev str., Bl. 3, 1113, Sofia, Bulgaria

    Vladimir Ivanov & Reneta Dimitrova

  2. Faculty of Physics, Department of Meteorology and Geophysics, Sofia University “St. K. Ohridski”, 5 James Bourchier Blvd, 1164, Sofia, Bulgaria

    Reneta Dimitrova

Authors
  1. Vladimir Ivanov
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  2. Reneta Dimitrova
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Correspondence to Vladimir Ivanov .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Information and Communication Technologies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IICT-BAS), Sofia, Bulgaria

    Nina Dobrinkova

  2. National Institute of Geophysics, Geodesy and Geography, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (NIGGG-BAS), Sofia, Bulgaria

    Georgi Gadzhev

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Ivanov, V., Dimitrova, R. (2021). Study of the Extreme Thermal Conditions for the Sofia Region—Preliminary Results. In: Dobrinkova, N., Gadzhev, G. (eds) Environmental Protection and Disaster Risks. EnviroRISK 2020. Studies in Systems, Decision and Control, vol 361. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70190-1_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70190-1_9

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