ABSTRACT
Urban areas create distinct local and microscale climates. A city’s geographical setting influences both its climate and its effects on climate. The surface energy balance provides a powerful framework within which to understand urban climates. The available energy at any location, urban or rural, to evaporate water, to heat the air, or heat the ground, is dependent on the balance of radiative fluxes. The anthropogenic heat flux is an additional energy term introduced in the urban energy balance to account for energy that is released in cities. The turbulent sensible heat flux is driven by the net available energy, the gradient in air temperature between the surface and the air it, and the ability of the air to transport the energy away from the ‘warm’ location. Advection, the net horizontal flow of energy, into and across a city results from spatial differences of surface characteristics.
