PALM-4U components

PALM-4U is frequently referred to as a separate model for the simulation of urban atmospheric boundary layers. However, from a technical point of view, PALM-4U are special components that have been developed to suit the needs of modern academic urban boundary layer research and practical city planning related to the urban microclimate and climate change. PALM-4U components are shipped with PALM and are available after installation of PALM. PALM-4U components are thus also available in PALM and might be used without being limited to urban area applications. Per definition, starting from PALM version 5.0, the user runs PALM-4U as soon as buildings are placed within the model domain.

The PALM-4U components are have been and will be further developed by a consortium of institutions within the framework of the funding programme "[UC²] - Urban climate under change", funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). For more information, see ​​http://uc2-mosaik.org.

In the following an overview of the PALM-4U components is given. Note that some of these still undergo major changes and improvements at the moment. A final documentation and publications are planned in 2018 and 2019.

Building parameterization

RANS turbulence parameterization

Land and urban surface model

• refer to PALM's LSM

Radiative transfer in the urban canopy layer

• refer to radiation models in PALM

Indoor climate model

Chemistry module

Multi-agent system

External forcing by COSMO data

• refer to PALM overview's "external forcing" page and vice versa

Data input, output, and handling

• Coupling to the water balance model STORM for preprocessing of soil moisture
• Analysis tools and direct output of biometeorological quantities

soon.