Urban Heat Surface Fluxes Observations: Current State and Future Needs

Interest in urban environments and advances in technology mean today urban surface energy balance fluxes are being measured in cities across the world. These are revealing important insights into land-surface interactions and boundary layer dynamics. However, numerous challenges and data limitations still exist, and there remain remarkably few long-term measurements to further our understanding or against which to evaluate urban land surface models and city based climate services. This talk will consider what we as a community are we doing well; promising new approaches; pitfalls we need to be aware of; and the challenges that need most specific attention.