Estimativa da partição de energia na superfície a partir de séries meteorológicas de temperatura e umidade específica do ar

Abstract

The developed method is proposed with the aim of estimating the energy partition on the surface, according to the Bowen ratio method, and the height of convective boundary layer on the monthly scale. The basic hypothesis is that the average temporal evolution of the variables air temperature and specific humidity is controlled solely by the convergence of surface fluxes of sensible and latent heat. This assumption is valid for the monthly scale and in mid-latitude regions away from the coast. Thus, it is assumed that the advective terms of the balance equation of these quantities in the convective boundary layer in prefrontal and post-frontal situations have opposite sign. Therefore, using for a longer time scale than the typical scale of the passage of synoptic systems, the cancellation of terms hypothesis can be tested. In this study, the method is applied to the region of Santa Maria, where it is assumed that the conditions allowing despise the advective terms in a monthly time scale are valid. Although the model is simplified, it was possible to estimate the surface fluxes of latent and sensible heat from simple meteorological data, such as hourly observations of air temperature and specific humidity and a vertical profile of these quantities in the morning; the method was efficient in most of the cases, and more flawed in the winter months. In general, the method overestimated consistently, but slightly, the latent heat fluxes, while the sensible heat fluxes were slightly underestimated in the winter and overestimated in the remaining months. This pattern caused a major deviation in energy partition in the winter months. The method can also be used to provide time evolution of the convective boundary layer. This is a variable of great interest for studies of pollutant dispersion and in many cases it is difficult to estimate.