Prescribed Conditions

SurfaceFluxes.jl supports flexible operating modes for specifying boundary conditions. While the default behavior is to solve for the surface fluxes iteratively using Monin-Obukhov Similarity Theory (MOST) given the temperature and humidity at the surface, users can also prescribe specific fluxes or exchange coefficients. It is also possible to compute the surface temperature and humidity interactively via callbacks. This is particularly useful for:

Driving models with observed fluxes.
Coupling to components that compute their own exchange coefficients (e.g., wave models).
Determining skin temperature over land/ice and implementing moisture limitations on evaporation.
Idealized experiments with fixed boundary conditions.

Flux Specification

The operating mode is controlled by the optional flux_specs argument in surface_fluxes. This argument accepts a FluxSpecs struct, which acts as a container for prescribed quantities:

FluxSpecs(shf=..., lhf=..., ustar=..., Cd=..., Ch=...)

Field	Symbol	Description	Units
`shf`	$H$	Sensible Heat Flux	$\mathrm{W~m^{-2}}$
`lhf`	$LE$	Latent Heat Flux	$\mathrm{W~m^{-2}}$
`ustar`	$u_*$	Friction Velocity	$\mathrm{m~s^{-1}}$
`Cd`	$C_d$	Momentum Exchange Coefficient	-
`Ch`	$C_h$	Heat Exchange Coefficient	-

The solver detects which combination of parameters is provided and dispatches to the appropriate routine.

Operating Modes

1. Iterative Solver (Standard MOST)

Inputs: Surface state ($T_s, q_s, \mathbf{u}_s$) and Atmospheric state ($T_a, q_a, \mathbf{u}_a, z, d$).
Unknowns: Fluxes ($H, LE, \boldsymbol{\tau}$), Coefficients ($C_d, C_h$), Stability ($\zeta$).

This is the default mode when flux_specs is empty or nothing. The solver iterates to find the Monin-Obukhov stability parameter $\zeta$ that satisfies the similarity relations.

# Standard call (positional arguments)
conditions = surface_fluxes(param_set, T_int, ..., u_sfc, ...)

Simplified Examples

The examples below use simplified syntax (e.g., flux_specs=...) for clarity. In the actual API, surface_fluxes uses positional arguments. Users must provide all preceding arguments or use nothing for optional inputs. See the API Reference for the exact signature.

2. Prescribed Coefficients

Inputs: Coefficients ($C_d, C_h$).
Unknowns: Fluxes ($H, LE, \boldsymbol{\tau}$).

When both Cd and Ch are prescribed, the fluxes are computed directly from the bulk aerodynamic formulas without iteration. This is typical when coefficients are diagnosed by an external parameterization (e.g., a wave model).

specs = FluxSpecs(Cd = 1.2e-3, Ch = 1.2e-3)
conditions = surface_fluxes(param_set, ..., flux_specs=specs)

3. Fully Prescribed Fluxes

Inputs: Fluxes ($H, LE$) and Friction Velocity ($u_*$).
Unknowns: Stability ($\zeta$), Coefficients ($C_d, C_h$).

When shf, lhf, and ustar are all provided, the solver bypasses the flux calculation. It uses the prescribed values to:

Compute the Monin-Obukhov length $L$.
Diagnose the stability parameter $\zeta = z/L$.
Back-calculate the exchange coefficients consistent with these fluxes.

specs = FluxSpecs(shf = 20.0, lhf = 100.0, ustar = 0.3)
conditions = surface_fluxes(param_set, ..., flux_specs=specs)

4. Prescribed Heat Fluxes and Drag Coefficient

Inputs: Fluxes ($H, LE$) and Drag Coefficient ($C_d$).
Unknowns: Friction Velocity ($u_*$), Stability ($\zeta$).

When shf, lhf, and Cd are provided (but not ustar):

Friction velocity is derived from the drag law: $u_* = \sqrt{C_d} U_{\text{eff}}$.
Stability $\zeta$ is computed from the fluxes and the derived $u_*$.

specs = FluxSpecs(shf = 50.0, lhf = 150.0, Cd = 1.5e-3)
conditions = surface_fluxes(param_set, ..., flux_specs=specs)

State Callbacks

In coupled systems, the surface state (e.g., skin temperature $T_s$) may respond rapidly to the surface fluxes. To ensure consistency without external fixed-point iteration, surface_fluxes accepts callback functions that update the surface state within the MOST iteration loop.

# Update Ts based on current flux guess
function update_Ts(T_sfc, local_geometry, surface_fluxes_conditions)
    # ... physics to update skin temperature ...
    return new_T_sfc
end

conditions = surface_fluxes(..., update_T_sfc=update_Ts)

Available callbacks:

update_T_sfc: Updates surface temperature.
update_q_vap_sfc: Updates surface specific humidity.

This mechanism ensures that the final fluxes and surface state are in equilibrium with respect to the surface energy/moisture balance.