Urban Energy Balance Obtained from the Comprehensive Outdoor Scale Model Experiment. Part I: Basic Features of the Surface Energy Balance

Abstract

Abstract The objective of this study is to examine the basic features of the surface energy balance (SEB) using the data obtained from the Comprehensive Outdoor Scale Model (COSMO). COSMO is an idealized miniature city that has no vegetation, no human activity, and no heterogeneity of the surface geometry. The basic features of the SEB such as energy balance closure, the ensemble mean of the diurnal variation of the energy balance, and the daytime and daily statistics of the energy balance were investigated. The following were the main findings of the study: 1) A surface energy imbalance was observed. The sum of sensible and latent heat fluxes estimated by the eddy correlation method underestimated the available energy by 1% during the daytime and by 44% during the night. 2) Large heat storage in the daytime and small radiative cooling at night sustained positive sensible heat fluxes throughout the night in all seasons and in all sunshine conditions. 3) The daytime ratio of heat storage ΔQS to net radiation Q*, ΔQS/Q*, depended on the friction velocity u* and decreased with increasing u*. 4) The values of ΔQS/Q* tended to be larger in winter than in summer. The annual averaged value of this ratio was approximately 0.6. 5) The large volumetric heat capacity of the surface materials and the resulting large energetic hysteresis produced nonzero total daily values of heat storage. The total daily values of heat storage largely depended on the weather (i.e., sunshine condition and with or without rainfall) and showed positive and negative values on clear-sky days and rainy days, respectively.