Estimating Sensible Heat Flux from the Oklahoma Mesonet

Abstract

The challenges of using the Oklahoma Mesonet for calculations of sensible heat flux are discussed. The mesonet is an integrated network of 115 remote and automated meteorological stations across Oklahoma that provides the spatial density to observe synoptic and mesoscale features. Temperature and wind speed are measured at two levels at 48 mesonet sites, from which heat flux may be estimated using a gradient approach. A series of field experiments was conducted that quantified the problems and limitations of estimating heat fluxes from the mesonet sites. Four specific problems were identified, and solutions to these limitations are discussed. These problems include 1) differences in instrumentation, 2) an apparent “offset” between thermistors, 3) radiative heating error, and 4) fetch limitations. As an independent verification, mesonet flux values were compared directly with eddy correlation estimates.