A three component model to estimate sensible heat flux over sparse shrubs in Nevada

Abstract

It is now recognized that accurate partitioning of available energy into sensible and latent heat flux is crucial to understanding surface‐atmosphere interactions. This issue is more complicated in arid and semi‐arid regions where the relative contribution to surface fluxes from the soil and vegetation may vary significantly throughout the day and throughout the season. The objective of this paper is to present a three‐component model to estimate sensible heat flux over heterogeneous surfaces. The surface was represented with two adjacent compartments. The first compartment is made up of two components, shrubs and shaded soil; the second compartment consists of bare, unshaded soil. Data collected at two different sites in Nevada during the summers of 1991 and 1992 were used to evaluate model performance. The results show that the present model is sufficiently general to yield satisfactory results for both sites.