Surface Energy Balance Across the 18-site New York State Mesonet Flux Network

The New York State Mesonet (NYSM) Flux Network consists of 18 sites across New York that have been measuring surface energy balance components since 2018: incoming and outgoing shortwave and longwave radiation, eddy covariance momentum flux and latent and sensible heat fluxes, and ground heat flux. To date, the network has generated over 100 site-years of continuous 30-minute fluxes. A NOAA Joint Technology Transfer Initiative (JTTI) collaborative project between UAlbany and NCAR aims to advance land-atmosphere coupling evaluation metrics using NYSM observations in enhanced Model Evaluation Tools (METplus) and evaluate high-resolution forecast model output (an experimental version of the Unified Forecast System). To ensure the accuracy and consistency of the flux site data, quality assurance flags and/or scores were assigned to each flux measurement and used to filter data prior to further analyses. The quality controlled radiation components, turbulent fluxes, and ground heat flux from each flux site were evaluated to identify diurnal, seasonal, and interannual variability. Data from surrounding flux networks (e.g. Ameriflux, NEON Network) were utilized to validate some features observed in the NYSM data. By establishing the network’s ability to produce reliable estimates of the energy balance components, the NYSM observational flux data can be a robust tool for evaluating land surface models such as Noah MP and coupled model systems such as the UFS.