Rj. Qualls et W. Brutsaert, EVALUATION OF SPATIALLY DISTRIBUTED GROUND-BASED AND REMOTELY-SENSED DATA TO ESTIMATE SPATIALLY DISTRIBUTED SENSIBLE HEAT FLUXES, Water resources research, 32(8), 1996, pp. 2489-2495
The First International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project (IS
LSCP) Field Experiment (FIFE) was initiated partly to improve our abil
ity to model spatial distributions of surface-atmospheric fluxes over
hilly prairie. Monin-Obukhov similarity was used to calculate sensible
heat fluxes (H-c) at an array of ten FIFE flux measurement sites for
comparison with measured sensible heat fluxes (H-m). Data were collect
ed within the dynamic sublayer on a clear morning when there was stron
g solar heating of the surface, winds in excess of 5 m s(-1), and unif
ormly wet soil conditions. The sensitivity of correlations between H-c
and H-m to spatial variability of air (T-a) and aircraft-based (therm
al infrared multispectral scanner (TIMS)) remotely sensed surface (T-r
) temperatures, wind speed (u), and an atmospheric stability parameter
ization (psi(h)) was examined. H-c was found to depend on the spatial
variability of T-r and u but not on T-a and psi(h). Furthermore, appro
ximately half the discrepancy between H-c and H-m may be attributed to
uncertainty in H-m.