Scaling artificial heat islands to enhance precipitation in the United Arab Emirates

Branch, Oliver; Jach, Lisa; Schwitalla, Thomas; Warrach-Sagi, Kirsten; Wulfmeyer, Volker

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-15-109-2024

Articles | Volume 15, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-15-109-2024

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-15-109-2024

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 15, issue 1

Research article

|

30 Jan 2024

Research article |

| 30 Jan 2024

Scaling artificial heat islands to enhance precipitation in the United Arab Emirates

Oliver Branch, Lisa Jach, Thomas Schwitalla, Kirsten Warrach-Sagi, and Volker Wulfmeyer

Model code and software

A Description of the Advanced Research WRF Model Version 4.3 (No. NCAR/TN-556+STR) W. C. Skamarock et al. https://doi.org/10.5065/1dfh-6p97

NCAR Command Language (NCL) V 6.6.2 software (2019) NCAR https://doi.org/10.5065/D6WD3XH5

Short summary

In the United Arab Emirates, water scarcity is reaching a crisis point, and new methods for obtaining freshwater are urgently needed. Regional climate engineering with large artificial heat islands can enhance desert precipitation by increasing cloud development. Through model simulation, we show that heat islands of 20 × 20 km or larger can potentially produce enough annual rainfall to supply thousands of people. Thus, artificial heat islands should be made a high priority for further research.