Articles | Volume 15, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-15-109-2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-15-109-2024
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

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Seasonal and diurnal performance of daily forecasts with WRF V3.8.1 over the United Arab Emirates
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Analysis of an extreme weather event in a hyper-arid region using WRF-Hydro coupling, station, and satellite data
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Cited articles

Abdulrahman, S. A.: Water shortage in GCC countries: transferring water from Iraqi Kurdistan Region, Int. J. Environ. Stud., 77, 191–207, https://doi.org/10.1080/00207233.2019.1690335, 2020. 
Al Azhar, M., Temimi, M., Zhao, J., and Ghedira, H.: Modeling of circulation in the Arabian Gulf and the Sea of Oman: Skill assessment and seasonal thermohaline structure, J. Geophys. Res.-Ocean., 121, 1700–1720, https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JC011038, 2016. 
Albannay, S., Kazama, S., Oguma, K., Hashimoto, T., and Takizawa, S.: Water demand management based on water consumption data analysis in the Emirate Of Abu Dhabi, Water, 13, 2827, https://doi.org/10.3390/w13202827, 2021. 
Albergel, C., de Rosnay, P., Balsamo, G., Isaksen, L., and Muñoz-Sabater, J.: Soil Moisture Analyses at ECMWF: Evaluation Using Global Ground-Based In Situ Observations, J. Hydrometeorol., 13, 1442–1460, https://doi.org/10.1175/JHM-D-11-0107.1, 2012. 
Al Hosari, T., Al Mandous, A., Wehbe, Y., Shalaby, A., al Shamsi, N., al Naqbi, H., al Yazeedi, O., al Mazroui, A., and Farrah, S.: The UAE Cloud Seeding Program: A Statistical and Physical Evaluation, Atmosphere, 12, 1013, https://doi.org/10.3390/ATMOS12081013, 2021. 
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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.
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