Simulation of fall and winter surface energy balance over a dense urban area using the TEB scheme

The Town Energy Balance (TEB) scheme computes the surface energy balance for urban areas. It is intended to be coupled with atmospheric models for numerical weather prediction, air quality forecasts or research applications. Up to now, it has been evaluated for dry and hot seasons over light industrial (Vancouver) or dense urban (Mexico City, Marseille) areas. In this study, the evaluation of TEB is extended to two other seasons, fall and winter, using measurements conducted over a dense urban area of Toulouse (France) instrumented from February 2004 to March 2005. Most of the model outputs were measured (individual components of the net radiation, sensible heat flux) as well as state variables of the model (surface temperatures of roofs, roads, walls). Great care has been taken in the design of the surface temperature measurement strategy in order to provide comparable observations to modelled estimates. Focusing on the fall and winter season, this study also proposes an evaluation of the parameterization of anthropogenic heat sources against an inventory of energy consumption.