Micrometeorological modeling to understand the thermal anomaly in the sand dunes across the Israel–Egypt border

Qin, Zhihao; Berliner, Pedro; Karnieli, Arnon

doi:10.1006/jare.2001.0867

Cited by 41 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…The data are also in agreement with Otterman (1974) and Qin et al (2002) that reported a peculiar phenomenon of high temperature differences, as noted from space, at both sides of the Egyptian-Israeli border. Land surface temperatures (LST) of up to 2-3.5°C higher were recorded at the crusted Israeli side of the border in comparison to the non-crusted bare sand (due to crust destruction by goat and sheep trampling) at the Egyptian side of the border.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 93%

“…Land surface temperatures (LST) of up to 2-3.5°C higher were recorded at the crusted Israeli side of the border in comparison to the non-crusted bare sand (due to crust destruction by goat and sheep trampling) at the Egyptian side of the border. While differences in emissivity between the sand and the crusts were found to be small and therefore could not have explained the phenomenon, Qin et al (2002) concluded that significant differences in the albedo between the crusted surfaces and the sand may explain~90% of the differences in LST. Their data also showed that only following heavy rains, LST was higher at the Egyptian side of the border for a very short time period, in agreement with our short-period Petri dish experiment, during which the evaporation cooling during the temporal high surface water content masked the warming effect of the low-albedo crusts.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…We therefore hypothesized that different experimental settings may explain the contrasting results. We hypothesized that researchers who focused on indoor experiments tended to attribute a positive role to the biocrust (Mazor et al, 1996;Verrecchia et al, 1995) while those examining the biocrusts under field conditions during which the biocrusts and the underlying soil were subjected to sharp diurnal temperature fluctuation tended to attribute a negative role to the biocrusts (Harper and Marble, 1988;Qin et al, 2002). The aims of the current research are to examine this hypothesis and to resolve the controversy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…The positive contribution of the biocrust is attributed to the crust biomass and especially its exopolysaccharides, EPS (known to absorb copious amounts of water, see Durrell and Shields, 1961) and to its high organic matter and fine (silt and clay) content (Karnieli et al, 1999). Other authors suggested that they may play a negative role as a result of their darker color that may trigger surface warming and hence evaporation (Harper and Marble, 1988;Qin et al, 2002). Yet, both groups of researchers did not necessarily follow a similar experimental design, with some focusing on indoor experiments during which the biocrusts were examined in growth chambers, while others focused on outdoor field experiments.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

See 3 more Smart Citations

The effect of biocrusts on evaporation from sand dunes in the Negev Desert

Kidron

Tal²

2012

Geoderma

106

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 93%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The effect of biocrusts on evaporation from sand dunes in the Negev Desert

Kidron

Tal²

2012

Geoderma

106

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“…LST has been widely used in evapotranspiration estimation, urban heat island characterization, and drought monitoring [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. Thermal infrared remote sensing (TIRS) in high temporal or spatial resolution can be used to estimate LST dynamically and macroscopically [8][9][10][11][12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Downscaling Land Surface Temperature in an Arid Area by Using Multiple Remote Sensing Indices with Random Forest Regression

et al. 2017

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Many downscaling algorithms have been proposed to address the issue of coarse-resolution land surface temperature (LST) derived from available satellite-borne sensors. However, few studies have focused on improving LST downscaling in arid regions (especially in deserts) because of inaccurate remote sensing LST products. In this study, LST was downscaled by a random forest model between LST and multiple remote sensing indices (such as soil-adjusted vegetation index, normalized multi-band drought index, modified normalized difference water index, and normalized difference building index) in an arid region with an oasis-desert ecotone. The proposed downscaling approach, which involves the selection of remote sensing indices, was evaluated using LST derived from the MODIS LST product of Zhangye City in Heihe Basin. The spatial resolution of MODIS LST was downscaled from 1 km to 500 m. Results of visual and quantitative analyses show that the distribution of downscaled LST matched that of the oasis and desert ecosystem. The lowest (approximately 22 • C) and highest temperatures (higher than 37 • C) were detected in the middle oasis and desert regions, respectively. Furthermore, the proposed approach achieves relatively satisfactory downscaling results, with coefficient of determination and root mean square error of 0.84 and 2.42 • C, respectively. The proposed approach shows higher accuracy and minimization of the MODIS LST in the desert region compared with other methods. Optimal availability occurs in the vegetated region during summer and autumn. In addition, the approach is also efficient and reliable for LST downscaling of Landsat images. Future tasks include reliable LST downscaling in challenging regions.

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Is nonrainfall water a likely water source for arid and semiarid biocrusts? A critical perspective

Kidron

2024

Ecohydrology

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It is commonly believed that nonrainfall water (NRW) serves as an important and even a central source of water for biocrusts in arid and semiarid regions. Known also as biological soil crusts, they mainly consist of cyanobacteria (that dwell within the upper 2 mm of the soil) and crustose chlorolichens that commonly protrude 1–2 mm above ground. It is commonly assumed that due to the prolonged dry season in deserts, a constant source of water is required for their survival. Overestimated, nonrealistic NRW values, whether due to the use of improper measurement devices or erroneous interpretation of the recorded values as well as instances during which distillation was regarded as dewfall, supported the notion that the amounts of NRW are sufficiently high to allow for biocrust activation. In the current commentary, a short account of the reasons that led scholars to believe that NRW may be utilized by biocrusts is presented, and the findings that led to this belief are critically analysed. It is argued that the amounts of NRW reaching the surface are below the critical thresholds of 0.05 and 0.1 mm required for net photosynthesis by the chlorolichens and cyanobacteria, respectively. Moreover, it is argued that even if these thresholds are seldom reached, their duration is too short to result in net carbon gain. As shown for the dewy Negev and may be applicable for other arid and semiarid regions, biocrusts rely on rainwater for their growth and survival.

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Micrometeorological modeling to understand the thermal anomaly in the sand dunes across the Israel–Egypt border

Cited by 41 publications

References 43 publications

The effect of biocrusts on evaporation from sand dunes in the Negev Desert

The effect of biocrusts on evaporation from sand dunes in the Negev Desert

Downscaling Land Surface Temperature in an Arid Area by Using Multiple Remote Sensing Indices with Random Forest Regression

Is nonrainfall water a likely water source for arid and semiarid biocrusts? A critical perspective

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