Local scale heat advection

Surface processes play an important role in the simulation of desertification and climate change. The present study shows that enhancement of evaporation at a given place is due to surface temperature and wetness inhomogeneities compared to its surroundings. Between any adjacent dry and wet strips the induced advective heat transport changes the available net radiation between sensible and latent heat fluxes. It also accommodates a redistribution of surface energy between two adjacent inhomogeneous surface strips. A combined model of Tarpley (1994) and Ya Guo and Schuepp (1994) about the advective heat transport over dry and wet strips has been tested over Andhra Pradesh. Taking the Ananthpur district as a relatively drier region, the induced transport over the rest of the districts is estimated. This study has been done for two monsoon seasons of 1990 and 1991. Attempts are made to identify an indexing criteria based on this study to estimate the magnitude of the heat transport.