Estimating sensible heat flux from the Oklahoma Mesonet

The challenges of using the Oklahoma Mesonet for calculations of sensible h eat Aux we discussed. The mesonet is an integrated network of 115 remote an d automated meteorological stations across Oklahoma that provides the spati al density to observe synoptic and mesoscale features. Temperature and wind speed are measured at two levels at 48 mesonet sites, from which heat flux may be estimated using a gradient approach. A series of held experiments w as conducted that quantified the problems and limitations of estimating hea t fluxes from the mesonet sites. Four specific problems were identified, an d solutions to these limitations are discussed. These problems include 1) d ifferences in instrumentation, 2) an apparent "offset" between thermistors, 3) radiative heating error, and 4) fetch limitations. As an independent ve rification, mesonet Bus values were compared directly with eddy correlation estimates.