| The objective of this dissertation is to evaluate the potential of newly available satellite information, to advance current capabilities in determining the spatial and temporal variability of the land Surface Energy Budget (SEB) on a regional scale. A one-dimensional SEB model is implemented over the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) Continental-Scale International Project (GCIP) study region---the Mississippi River Basin. The model is driven with satellite inferred surface shortwave radiation and skin temperature, to estimate several SEB components.; Satellite data are well suited to properly represent spatial variability on regional or global scales. In this study, information on two of the major SEB forcing parameters, namely, surface shortwave radiation and skin temperature, are obtained from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) observations, using inference schemes that have been implemented operationally at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service (NESDIS), to generate the NESDIS GOES-GCIP product. This real time product covers the continental US, within the domain of 25°--50°N latitude and 70°--125°W longitude, at 0.5° spatial resolution, at hourly time scale. The NOAA National Center of Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Eta model provides the atmospheric boundary conditions of the near surface atmospheric temperature, humidity, and wind speed, for this experiment.; A one-year simulation (May 1997 to May 1998) has been performed. Model inputs of shortwave radiation and skin temperature, and results of the latent and sensible heat fluxes, were evaluated at various temporal and spatial scales. On a local scale, results were evaluated against ground observations. The rms between the estimated and observed hourly shortwave radiation, latent and sensible heat fluxes were 35, 25, and 20 Wm-2, respectively. On a regional scale, results were evaluated by comparison with the National Center of Atmospheric Research (NCAR) - NCEP Reanalysis results. The estimated summertime latent heat fluxes from the two sources were of the same magnitudes and revealed similar regional-scale patterns. This result is within the range of accuracy that can be assessed currently. |
