Earth ID: 3156

Urban Signatures: Latent Heat Flux (WMS)

Visualizations by Jeff de La Beaujardiere Released on May 27, 2005

Big cities influence the environment around them. For example, urban areas are typically warmer than their surroundings. Cities are strikingly visible in computer models that simulate the Earth's land surface. This visualization shows latent heat flux predicted by the Land Information System (LIS) for a day in June 2001. (Latent heat flux refers to the transfer of energy from the Earth's surface to the air above by evaporation of water on the surface; for a more detailed explanation see http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/faculty/ritter/geog101/textbook/energy/energy_balance.html). Latent heat flux is lower in the cities because there is less evaporation there. Only part of the global computation is shown, focusing on the highly urbanized northeast corridor in the United States, including the cities of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington.

This image shows latent heat flux (watts per square meter) predicted by LIS for 2001/06/11. The urban areas stand out very distinctly against their surroundings, which have more evaporation and therefore greater latent heat flux.

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Visualization Credits

Jeff de La Beaujardiere (NASA): Lead Animator

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

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https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3156

Data Used:

LIS/Latent Heat Flux

Model - 2001/06/11

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This item is part of these series:
WMS
Land Information System

Keywords:
DLESE >> Human geography
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Atmospheric Radiation >> Heat Flux
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Biosphere >> Terrestrial Ecosystems >> Urban Lands
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Human Dimensions >> Environmental Impacts >> Urbanization
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Land Surface >> Land Temperature >> Land Surface Temperature
GCMD >> Location >> United States Of America
NASA Science >> Earth

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0