Note on estimating surface sensible heat fluxes using surface temperatures measured from a geostationary satellite during FIFE 1989

Abstract

Twelve‐hour daytime totals of surface sensible heat flux were estimated using geostationary satellite measured surface “skin” temperatures and models of the land surface and the planetary boundary layer for 4 days in August 1989 at the First International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project (ISLSCP) Field Experiment site. During this period in August a rapid “dry down” occurred in which daytime surface sensible heat flux totals, as estimated from the surface flux measurements, rose from approximately 2–4 MJ m−2 to 6–9 MJ m−2 within the span of a few days. In this period the daytime surface temperature range as measured from the geostationary satellite rose by several degrees Celsius. The standard errors of estimate comparing satellite‐derived sensible heating totals with surface measurements were 0.93 and 1.43 MJ m−2, respectively, using surface roughness length estimates of 1 and 5 cm in the planetary boundary layer model.

Retrieval of Model Grid-Scale Heat Capacity Using Geostationary Satellite Products. Part I: First Case-Study Application

“…It has proved to decrease model bias and standard error of temperature and humidity in long-term statistical tests (Lapenta et al 1999). Diak and Whipple (1995) have also used morning tendencies for the specification of model parameters to improve model performance.…”

“…An abbreviated version is presented below. The insulation retrievals followed Gautier et al (1980) and Diak and Gautier (1983), using visible radiances corrected for drift in the GOES-8 optical/detector response (Rao et al 1999). Insulation values derived in cloudy regions include a bulk parameterization of the cloud effects.…”

Spatio-Temporal Variability in Land Surface Temperature and Its Relationship with Vegetation Types over Ibadan, South-Western Nigeria

“…It varies in response to the surface energy balance, modulates the ambient air temperature, central to the energy balance of the earth surface and affects the energy exchanges that affect the comfort of the city dwellers [13]. LST is widely used for variety of environmental studies [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] and it plays an important role in measuring surface urban heat islands, estimation of building energy consumption and evaluating heat related risks [19] [20] [21] [22]. LST had been referred to as a transient and non-uniform parameter, correlating it with a stable environmental feature like terrain and land cover becomes highly imperatives [23].…”

Spatial and temporal patterns of land surface fluxes from remotely sensed surface temperatures within an uncertainty modelling framework

“…The use of temperature differences to gain insight into the surface condition has its origins in thermal inertia studies, in which the time rate of change in the surface temperature is used to infer variations in surface energy storage and to soil moisture status. The thermal inertia concept has been used in a deterministic manner to derive surface flux predictions (Wetzel et al, 1984;Diak and Whipple, 1995;Norman et al, 2000) and also to offer insight into soil moisture dynamics (McVicar and Jupp, 2002). In order to implement a temperature difference approach to examine the spatial patterns of evapotranspiration across the study region, discrete temperature signatures were required.…”

“…While numerous schemes and methodologies have been proposed to provide estimates of land surface fluxes using surface temperatures obtained from remote sensors (Diak and Whipple, 1995;Anderson et al, 1997;Norman et al, 2000), estimation of evapotranspiration in this way has achieved varied levels of success. Whether this is due to the disparity between the aerodynamic and radiometric temperatures, to conceptual misrepresentations or to the inevitable scale issues that plague hydrological modelling, heat fluxes estimated in this way are often subject to significant uncertainty.…”