A Cooperative Atmosphere-Surface Exchange Study (CASES) dataset for analyzing and parameterizing the effects of land surface heterogeneity on area-averaged surface heat fluxes

A multiscale dataset that includes atmospheric, surface, and subsurface obs ervations obtained from an observation network covering a region that has a scale order comparable to mesoscale and general circulation models is desc ribed and analyzed. The dataset is half-hourly time series of forcing and f lux response data developed from the one-month Cooperative Atmosphere-Surfa ce Exchange Study (CASES-97) experiment, located in the Walnut Watershed ne ar Wichita, Kansas. The horizontal complexity of this dataset was analyzed by looking at the sensible and latent heat flux response of station data fr om the three main land surface types of winter wheat, grass/pastureland, an d bare soil/sparse vegetation. The variability in the heat flux response at and among the different sites points to the need for a spatially distribut ed, time-varying atmospheric-forcing dataset for use in land surface modeli ng experiments. Such a dataset at horizontal spacings of 1, 5, and 10 km wa s developed from the station data and other remotely sensed platforms, and its spatial heterogeneity was analyzed.