Anthropogenic moisture production and its effect on boundary layer circulations over New York City

A heat and moisture excess over New York City is shown to exist by the analysis of helicopter soundings of temperature and wet bulb depression. The magnitude of the temporal and spatial distribution of anthropogenic moisture emissions in New York City were estimated from fuel usage data. The URBMET urban boundary layer model was used to evaluate the effects on the dynamics of the urban boundary layer resulting from the observed urban moisture excess. Work is currently in progress which seeks to determine the fraction of the observed moisture excess over New York that is due to anthropogenic sources. (auth)