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Energy balance in a shallow seagrass flat for winter conditions 1
Author(s) -
Smith Ned P.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
limnology and oceanography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.7
H-Index - 197
eISSN - 1939-5590
pISSN - 0024-3590
DOI - 10.4319/lo.1981.26.3.0482
Subject(s) - sensible heat , latent heat , energy balance , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , hydrography , climatology , longwave , meteorology , radiation , geology , oceanography , geography , physics , thermodynamics , quantum mechanics
Meteorological and hydrographic data from a 68‐day period in winter 1973–1974 are used to obtain a numerical model of local energy exchanges for a station in northern Laguna Madre, Texas, The standard deviations of the errors of simulated temperatures are 0.8°–1.0°C for calculations over periods of up to 1 month. Model results indicate that sensible and latent heat energy exchanges are of primary importance and together explain nearly all of the computed day‐to‐day temperature changes. Sensible and latent heat fluxes are highly and positively correlated, as frontal passages alternate warm, air with relatively cold, dry air. Conductive exchanges between the water and the sediments are relatively minor. Effects of incoming solar radiation and outgoing longwave radiation are highly but negatively correlated, although neither is related significantly to the computed net daily heating or cooling. The energy balance seems to be between the sum of the sensible and latent heat flux terms and the storage term.