Errors of Naturally Ventilated Air Temperature Measurements in a Spatial Observation Network

Abstract

A spatial network of 25 air temperature sensors was deployed over an area of 3.5 km ? 3.5 km of agricultural land, aiming to calculate the sensible heat flux by spatial averaging instead of temporal averaging. Since temperature sensors in naturally ventilated solar radiation shields were used for these measurements, a correction for radiative heating had to be applied. In this study, the approach of Anderson and Baumgartner was adapted to the cube-shaped HOBO solar radiation shields. This semiempirical correction depends on the shield?s area normal to the sun in addition to solar radiation and wind speed. The required correction coefficients, which can be universally applied for this type of shield, were obtained through comparison with fan-aspirated temperature measurements at one site. The root-mean-square error of the HOBO temperature measurements was reduced from 0.49° to 0.15°C after applying this radiation correction.