Urban Warming in Jakarta, Indonesia

Results of the analysis indicate that (1) "the sea breeze developed at an earlier time of day in the present day than in the 1970s," (2) "in the present-day case, a converging flow developed over the old city in association with the low pressure which formed over the same location," (3) "the daytime average and maximum air temperature in the old city were higher in the present day than in the 1970s by 0.6 and 0.9°C , respectively, due to the advection of heat from the new area," and (4) "the amount of heat advected into the old city was estimated to be -0.7 Wm-2 in the 1970s and 77 Wm-2 in the 2000s."

In discussing their findings, Tokairin et al. report that there were only three megacities in Asia with a population greater than 10 million people in 1985, but that the United Nations (2005) has estimated there will be 13 such cities by 2015. For these megacities and their growing populations, expanding and intensifying urban heat islands will likely prove to be of more immediate significance than will any additional global warming that may develop concurrently.