On the use of satellite data to infer surface fluxes at meteorological scales.

Abstract

For numerical meteorological prediction, the determination of energy, momentum and moisture fluxes at the earth's surface requires knowledge of surface properties at a very coarse spatial resolution. A procedure is described for estimating the important surface properties (diurnal heat capacity, moisture availability) through analysis of high spatial resolution visible and thermal infrared data from satellites. The procedure is illustrated by application to a data set from the Heat Capacity Mapping Mission. -from Author