Editorial Type:
Article
Article Type:
Research Article

An Improvement of Roughness Height Parameterization of the Surface Energy Balance System (SEBS) over the Tibetan Plateau

Xuelong Chen Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, and Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation, University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands

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Zhongbo Su Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation, University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands

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Yaoming Ma Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

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Kun Yang Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

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Jun Wen Key Laboratory of Land Surface Process and Climate Change in Cold and Arid Regions, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, Gansu, China

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Yu Zhang Key Laboratory of Land Surface Process and Climate Change in Cold and Arid Regions, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, Gansu, China

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Print Publication:
01 Mar 2013
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1175/JAMC-D-12-056.1
Page(s):
607–622
Restricted access

Abstract

Roughness height for heat transfer is a crucial parameter in the estimation of sensible heat flux. In this study, the performance of the Surface Energy Balance System (SEBS) has been tested and evaluated for typical land surfaces on the Tibetan Plateau on the basis of time series of observations at four sites with bare soil, sparse canopy, dense canopy, and snow surface, respectively. Both under- and overestimation at low and high sensible heat fluxes by SEBS was discovered. Through sensitivity analyses, it was identified that these biases are related to the SEBS parameterization of bare soil’s excess resistance to heat transfer (kB−1, where k is the von Kármán constant and B−1 is the Stanton number). The kB−1 of bare soil in SEBS was replaced. The results show that the revised model performs better than the original model.

Corresponding author address: Xuelong Chen, Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation, Water Resources Dept., University of Twente, Hengelostraat 99, 7514 AE Enschede, Netherlands. E-mail: chen24746@itc.nl

Abstract

Roughness height for heat transfer is a crucial parameter in the estimation of sensible heat flux. In this study, the performance of the Surface Energy Balance System (SEBS) has been tested and evaluated for typical land surfaces on the Tibetan Plateau on the basis of time series of observations at four sites with bare soil, sparse canopy, dense canopy, and snow surface, respectively. Both under- and overestimation at low and high sensible heat fluxes by SEBS was discovered. Through sensitivity analyses, it was identified that these biases are related to the SEBS parameterization of bare soil’s excess resistance to heat transfer (kB−1, where k is the von Kármán constant and B−1 is the Stanton number). The kB−1 of bare soil in SEBS was replaced. The results show that the revised model performs better than the original model.

Corresponding author address: Xuelong Chen, Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation, Water Resources Dept., University of Twente, Hengelostraat 99, 7514 AE Enschede, Netherlands. E-mail: chen24746@itc.nl
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Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology

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