Abstract
Accuracy of spatial estimation of air temperatures can be very poor for a short term temperature. The objective of this paper is to study feasibility of the regional estimation of air temperatures with a nocturnal cooling model, which was proposed by Kondo & Mori (1982) to describe nocturnal cooling rate with wind speed and site-specific parameters.First, relationships between elevation and air temperatures within diurnal cycles were addressed at 27 monitoring points across a region of 110km×100km in central Japan. The weather data were obtained from the Automated Meteorological Data Acquisition System. The results showed that air temperature in the evenings was linearly related to the elevation above sea level with little perturbations from the weather, wind speed and topography. In contrast, minimum air temperature in the mornings and nocturnal cooling rate were greatly influenced by the above factors. Furthermore, in a complex terrain, the morning air temperature and cooling rate were unrelated to those at nearby points. Therefore, the two temperature traits may not be accurately estimated by using spatial interpolation.Second, two parameters (a & b) of the nocturnal cooling model were determined for each of the 27 monitoring points, and were ralated to topographical features of the points. Indexes of surface flatness (Sidx), cubical measure by a concavo-convex space (Cidx) and steepness (Ridx) on the level surface at observation were defined and calculated for each point using elevations of the grid points of the Digital National Land Information. The parameter b, which represents thermal conditions and accumulation of cold air, was related to Sidx and Cidx. The parameter a, which represents the extent of air mixing, was related to Ridx.The short-term air temperatures could therefore be estimated on a regional basis with the nocturnal cooling model, whose parameters are determined with the topographical indexes.
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