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Abstract:
A global inter-comparison of 12 monthly mean land surface heat flux products
for the period 1993-1995 is presented. The inter-comparison includes some
of the first emerging global satellite-based products (developed at Paris Observatory,
MPI for Biogeochemistry, University of California Berkeley, University of Maryland,
and Princeton University) and examples of fluxes produced by reanalyses (ERA-Interim,
MERRA, NCEP-DOE) and off-line land surface models (GSWP-2, GLDAS CLM/Mosaic/Noah).
An inter-comparison of the global latent heat flux (Qle) annual means shows a spread
of ~20 W/m2 (all-product global average of ~45 W/m2). A similar spread is observed for
the sensible (Qh) and net radiative (Rn) fluxes. In general, the products correlate well
with each other, helped by the large seasonal variability and common forcing data for some
of the products. Expected spatial distributions related to the major climatic regimes
and geographical features are reproduced by all products. Nevertheless, large Qle and
Qh absolute differences are also observed. The fluxes were spatially averaged
for 10 vegetation classes. The larger Qle differences were observed for the rain forest,
but when normalized by mean fluxes the differences were comparable to other classes. In
general, the correlations between Qle and Rn were higher for the satellite
based products compared with the reanalyses and off-line models. The fluxes
were also averaged for 10 selected basins. The seasonality was generally well captured
by all products, but large differences in the flux partitioning were observed for
some products and basins.