The heat balance in coastal areas of semiarid and arid regions: relevance to global warming and climate variability

PICCOLO M C

Fortaleza

Simposio; International Symposium on Materials Transfer at the Ocean Continent interface; 2011

Institutos Nacionais de Ciencia e Tecnologia

The coastal environment requires understanding of the interactions and feedbacks between the various processes that determine the heat flux across the coastal boundary. Relatively few studies have been conducted on heat exchanges in coastal wetlands of arid and semiarid regions. Net radiation and latent heat flux are the most important components to explain the heat transfer in the coastal zones. The climate variability effects on these components must be studied in detail to predict future change in the land-sea thermal contrast in arid and semiarid regions.