What is SURF_HEAT_TRANSF_COEFF?

Question

Is SURF_HEAT_TRANSF_COEFF, the coefficient of heat exchange from the bottom surface, or air/water surface?

I'm having trouble with water heating up too high, in the 40+ degrees.  Don't know if SURF_HEAT_TRANSF_COEFF has anything to do with it?

It's not documented in the users manual.

Answer 1

Hi Reed,

SURF_HEAT_TRANSF_COEFF is the transfer coefficient for air/water exchange (AEM3D ignores sediment/water heat transfer).

The value is fairly fixed though and I'd be surprised if it was your main problem.  What are you using for longwave radiation?  Does your shortwave data look sensible?

Chris

Answer 2

I had this problem also, and after sensitivity analysis found that mean_albedo, wind_cd, and surf_heat_transf_coeff were all sensitive regarding changes in water temperature.  I used a least squares algorithm to tune these parameters, and my results look much more reasonable now.

Comments

I'm most familiar with CE-QUAL-W2 -- wind-sheltering coefficient, beta, light extinction, albedo.....  Can't find "wind_cd" function in any documentation (AEM3D or ELCOM).  What's the function of "wind_cd"?

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Take a look at the ELCOM science manual, it's shown in equation 6.2 in the version I have (2.2).  It controls the wind shear.