Heat storage in urban areas: Local-scale observations and evaluation of a simple model.

The flux density of sensible heat to or from storage in the physical mass of the city is determined for seven cities (Chicago, Illinois; Los Angeles, California; Mexico City, Distrito Federal; Miami, Florida; Sacramento, California; Tucson, Arizona; and Vancouver, British Columbia) in North America across a 30° latitudinal range. These cities have a variety of synoptic-scale climates and surface cover and structural morphologies. In all cases the “measured” storage heat flux is determined as the energy balance residual from direct observations of net all-wave radiation, and sensible and latent heat fluxes conducted using the same radiometer and eddy correlation techniques. Databases describing the surface characteristics around each site are developed from analysis of aerial photography and field surveys. Results indicate that storage heat flux is a significant component of the surface energy balance at all sites and is greatest at downtown and light industrial sites. Hysteresis behavior, of varying degrees, is seen at all locations. A simple objective hysteresis model (OHM), which calculates storage heat flux as a function of net all-wave radiation and the surface properties of the site, is found to perform well in the mean for most cases, with the notable exception of Tucson; but considerable scatter is observed at some sites. Some of this is attributed to the moisture, wind, and synoptic controls at each of the sites, and to hour-to-hour variability in the convective fluxes that the OHM does not simulate. Averaging over 2 to 3 h may be a more appropriate way to use the model. Caution should be used when employing the OHM in windy environments. Copyright 1999 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be “fair use” under Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act (17 USC §108, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the AMS’s permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form, such as on a web site or in a searchable database, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statement, requires written permission or a license from the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policy, available on the AMS Web site located at (http://www.ametsoc.org/) or from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or copyright@ametsoc.org.Arts, Faculty ofGeography, Department ofReviewedFacult