Earth ID: 3157

Urban Signatures: Sensible 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 sensible heat flux predicted by the Land Information System (LIS) for a day in June 2001. (Sensible heat flux refers to transfer of heat from the earth's surface to the air above; for further explanation see http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/faculty/ritter/geog101/textbook/energy/energy_balance.html). Sensible heat flux is higher in the cities—that is, they transfer more heat to the atmosphere—because the surface there is warmer than in the surroundings. 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 sensible heat flux (watts per square meter) predicted by LIS for 2001/06/11. The warm urban areas have higher positive flux (heat flowing towards the atmosphere) and stand out very distinctly against their surroundings.

This product is available through our Web Map Service.

Sensible heat flux color bar. Negative values (blue) indicate heat flow from the atmosphere to the surface; positive (red) values indicate heat flow from surface to atmosphere. The range of this color bar is greater than the flux values in the area shown in the visualization; values in the visualization range from -100 to +284 W/m2.

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/3157

Data Used:

LIS/Sensible Heat Flux

Model - 2001/06/11

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Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

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

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