Local-scale urban energy balance observation under various sky conditions in a humid subtropical region

Abstract

The present study presents local-scale urban energy balance observations under various sky conditions in a humid subtropical region. The study site is a typical urban residential area in Guangzhou in which building density is 38%, vegetation coverage is 36%, and mean building height is 21 m. The observation was conducted at a 110-m-high tower using the eddy covariance technique from September to November 2016. The median diurnal pattern and daily maxima were achieved for all radiation components and turbulent fluxes. The Bowen ratio (b) results indicated a predominant role for sensible heat flux (QH) in the daytime and latent heat flux (QE) at night. The sky conditions played a significant part in the urban surface energy exchanges, showing that the median daily maxima of net radiation (Q*), QH, storage heat flux (DQS), surface albedo, and b all present a consistent order from large to small for clear, cloudy, and rainy days and a different order of rainy, clear, and cloudy days for QE. The mean daytime QH /Q*, QE /Q*, DQS/Q*, and b changed with urban density, while QE /Q* and b also varied with vegetation fraction. Furthermore, the adaptability of net all-wave radiation parameterization (NARP), objective hysteresis model (OHM), and local-scale urban meteorological parameterization scheme (LUMPS) were validated, given the index of agreements of 0.998 and 0.951 for Q* and DQS and the reasonable RMSEs for QH and QE. The present study helps to verify and improve the parameterizations of energy exchange over an urban surface in the humid subtropical region.