Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 21, 2026

Pool-Boiling Heat-Transfer Enhancement on Cylindrical Surfaces with Hybrid Wettable Patterns
Published on: April 10, 2017
Role of surface heat fluxes underneath cold pools
Pierre Gentine1, Alix Garelli1, Seung-Bu Park1
1Earth and Environmental Engineering, Earth Institute, School of Engineering and Applied Science Columbia University New York New York USA.
Abstract:
The role of surface heat fluxes underneath cold pools is investigated using cloud-resolving simulations with either interactive or horizontally homogenous surface heat fluxes over an ocean and a simplified land surface. Over the ocean, there are limited changes in the distribution of the cold pool temperature, humidity, and gust front velocity, yet interactive heat fluxes induce more cold pools, which are smaller, and convection is then less organized. Correspondingly, the updraft mass flux and lateral entrainment are modified. Over the land surface, the heat fluxes underneath cold pools drastically impact the cold pool characteristics with more numerous and smaller pools, which are warmer and more humid and accompanied by smaller gust front velocities. The interactive fluxes also modify the updraft mass flux and reduce convective organization. These results emphasize the importance of interactive surface fluxes instead of prescribed flux boundary conditions, as well as the formulation of surface heat fluxes, when studying convection.
Related Concept Videos
Heat Flow and Specific Heat
Mechanisms of Heat Transfer II
Surface Tension and Surface Energy
Consider a beaker filled with liquid. The bulk molecules in the liquid experience equal attractive forces on all sides with the surrounding molecules. However, the surface molecules experience a net attractive force downward due to the bulk molecules. The surface of the liquid behaves like a stretched membrane,...
Mechanism of heat transfer
Mechanisms of Heat Transfer
Conduction, accounting for approximately 3% of body heat loss at rest, is the process of exchanging heat between molecules of two materials in direct contact. This can result in both heat loss and gain. For instance, when the body is submerged in water, which conducts heat 20 times more effectively than air, it can either lose or gain significant...
Mechanisms of Heat Transfer I

