Heat and moisture budgets from airborne measurements and high-resolution model simulations

High-resolution simulations with a mesoscale model are performed to estimate heat and moisture budgets of a well-mixed boundary layer. The model budgets are validated against energy budgets obtained from airborne measurements over heterogeneous terrain in Western Germany. Time rate of change, vertical divergence, and horizontal advection for an atmospheric column of air are estimated. Results show that the time trend of specific humidity exhibits some deficiencies, while the potential temperature trend is matched accurately. Furthermore, the simulated turbulent surface fluxes of sensible and latent heat are comparable to the measured fluxes, leading to similar values of the vertical divergence. The analysis of different horizontal model resolutions exhibits improved surface fluxes with increased resolution, a fact attributed to a reduced aggregation effect. Scale-interaction effects could be identified: while time trends and advection are strongly influenced by mesoscale forcing, the turbulent surface fluxes are mainly controlled by microscale processes.     

Mesoscale moisture variability and its impact on energy transfer through the boundary layer

The impact of mesoscale moisture variability on the vertical energy transfer through a pre-frontal boundary layer is studied with NOPEX aircraft data. The moisture variability relates to a cold front that passed the area 2 1/2 hours after the observations. We find a density front ahead of the cold front. The large vertical divergence of the turbulent moisture flux in the surface layer is partly related to this moisture variability. Large scale horizontal advection contributes to the observed vertical turbulent flux divergence. The estimated horizontal mesoscale advection term in the budget of sensible heat and moisture is on average small but locally it can be large. This term acts to re-distribute moisture in the boundary layer and leads to sub-grid variations of relative humidity, which is an important quantity for boundary-layer cloud models. The distinct spatial variations of specific humidity are mainly related to synoptic forcing and not to heterogeneity in the surface energy balance.     

A study of multiple stable layers in the nocturnal lower atmosphere

The structure of nocturnal inversions in the first 300 m of the atmosphere is analyzed using observational data from the Boulder Atmospheric Observatory (BAO) from March through June 1981. The temperature profiles show more than one inversion layer 41% of the time during the observational period. The vertical distributions of wind speed and moisture also show evidence of stratification during these multiple-layer events. The relation between the radiative cooling rate in time and height, including moisture, and the vertical structure of the multiple layers is calculated. The vertical distribution of eddy kinetic energy and the turbulent vertical fluxes of heat and momentum are also calculated. Turbulent structure in the elevated inversion layers is more complicated than that in the single-layer, stable nocturnal boundary layer. The total heat budget for a multiple-layer case is calculated, and turbulent cooling is found to be negligible relative to radiative cooling and to horizontal advection and/or horizontal divergence of heat flux.     

地气通量中存贮和平流项计算方案的探讨

从物质收支方程出发,推导了一个包含物质存贮、水平平流输送、垂直对流输送以及传统的涡度相关项的地气通量计算方程。平流项本质上是地表非均匀性的结果,不同下垫面的感热和潜热通量也不同,将会产生中尺度环流,使得辐合辐散过程得以维持,从而将体元内的物质输送到体元以外,因此可以通过计算水汽和感热的存贮,间接求出物质的水平平流输送。量纲分析和实际的资料应用都表明,存贮和平流的通量贡献是非常小的。尤其是在均匀下垫面下,方程中的存贮和平流项的通量贡献可以忽略,因此估算地气通量时仅需考虑涡度相关项和Webb修正项即可。而在非均匀下垫面下,在1 d以上的时间尺度上,为方便计算,可以忽略存贮和平流的通量贡献;而在小时这样的时间尺度上,从物质能量收支守恒的角度考虑,估算地气通量需要包括存贮和平流的通量贡献。     

Variability of Sub-Canopy Flow,Temperature, and Horizontal Advection in Moderately Complex Terrain

We examine the space–time structure of the wind and temperature fields, as well as that of the resulting spatial temperature gradients and horizontal advection of sensible heat, in the sub-canopy of a forest with a dense overstorey in moderately complex terrain. Data were collected from a sensor network consisting of ten stations and subject to orthogonal decomposition using the multiresolution basis set and stochastic analyses including two-point correlations, dimensional structure functions, and various other bulk measures for space and time variability. Despite some similarities, fundamental differences were found in the space–time structure of the motions dominating the variability of the sub-canopy wind and temperature fields. The dominating motions occupy similar spatial, but different temporal, scales. A conceptual space–time diagram was constructed based on the stochastic analysis that includes the important end members of the spatial and temporal scales of the observed motions of both variables. Short-lived and small-scale motions govern the variability of the wind, while the diurnal temperature oscillation driven by the surface radiative transfer is the main determinant of the variability in the temperature signal, which occupies much larger time scales. This scale mismatch renders Taylor’s hypothesis for sub-canopy flow invalid and aggravates the computation of meaningful estimates of horizontal advective fluxes without dense spatial information. It may further explain the ambiguous and inconclusive results reported in numerous energy and mass balance and advection studies evaluating the hypothesis that accounting for budget components other than the change in storage term and the vertical turbulent flux improves the budget closure when turbulent diffusion is suppressed in plant canopies. Estimates of spatial temperature gradients and advective fluxes were sensitive to the network geometry and the spatial interpolation method. The assumption of linear spatial temperature gradients was not supported by the results, and leads to increased spatial and temporal variability of inferred spatial gradients and advection estimates. A method is proposed to estimate the appropriate minimum network size of wind and temperature sensors suitable for an evaluation of energy and mass balances by reducing spatial and temporal variability of the spatially sampled signals, which was estimated to be on the order of 200 m at the study site.     

Measurement of the Sensible Eddy Heat Flux Based on Spatial Averaging of Continuous Ground-Based Observations

Using the standard eddy-covariance (EC) method to quantify mass and energy exchange at a single location usually results in an underestimation of vertical eddy fluxes at the surface. In order to better understand the reasons for this underestimation, an experimental set-up is presented that is based on spatial averaging of air temperature data from a network of ground-based sensors over agricultural land. For eight days during the 34-day observational period in May and June 2007, additional contributions to the sensible heat flux of more than 50Wm⁻² were measured in the lower surface layer by applying the spatial EC method as opposed to the standard temporal EC method. Smaller but still significant additional sensible heat fluxes were detected for four more days. The additional energy is probably transported in organised convective structures resulting in a mean vertical wind velocity unequal to zero at the tower location. The results show that convective transport contributes significantly to the surface energy budget for measurement heights as low as 2–3 m. Since these structures may be quasi-stationary, they can hardly be captured by a single-location measurement. The spatial EC set-up presented here is capable of quantifying contributions to the sensible heat flux from structures up to the scale of our spatial sensor network, which covered an area 3.5 × 3.5 km. For future experiments aiming at closing the energy balance, the spatial EC method should be employed to measure both the sensible and latent heat fluxes. Experimental determination of the horizontal advection of sensible and latent heat should also be considered, since such transport must occur due to convergence and divergence related to convection.     

Divergence of turbulent fluxes in the surface layer: case of a coastal city

This study quantifies the processes that take place in the layer between the mean building height and the measurement level of an energy balance micrometeorological tower located in the dense old core of a coastal European city. The contributions of storage, vertical advection, horizontal advection and radiative divergence for heat are evaluated with the available measurements and with a three-dimensional, high-resolution meteorological simulation that had been evaluated against observations. The study focused on a summer period characterized by sea-breeze flows that affect the city. In this specific configuration, it appears that the horizontal advection is the dominant term. During the afternoon when the sea breeze is well established, correction of the sensible heat flux with horizontal heat advection increases the measured sensible heat flux up to 100 W m⁻². For latent heat flux, the horizontal moisture advection converted to equivalent latent heat flux suggests a decrease of 50 W m⁻². The simulation reproduces well the temporal evolution and magnitude of these terms.     

若尔盖高寒湿地夏季近地面水平热平流对地表能量闭合度的影响研究

近地面能量不闭合问题一直以来都是陆面过程研究的一个重要的科学问题,且在非均匀湿地下垫面的近地面尤为突出.利用中国科学院若尔盖高原湿地生态系统研究站花湖观测场的地面风场和温度场数据,计算了由湿地下垫面热力非均匀性引起的水平热平流,并分析了考虑水平热平流后地表能量平衡的变化.结果表明:2017年夏季若尔盖湿地近地面水平热平...     

The Influence of Advection on the Short Term CO 2 -Budget in and Above a Forest Canopy

An experimental micrometeorological set-up was established at the CARBOEURO-FLUX site in Tharandt, Germany, to measure all relevant variables for the calculation of the vertical and horizontal advective fluxes of carbon dioxide. The set-up includes two auxiliary towers to measure horizontal and vertical CO₂ and H₂O gradients through the canopy, and to make ultrasonic wind measurements in the trunk space. In combination with the long-term flux tower an approximately even-sided prism with a typical side-length of 50 m was established. It is shown that under stable (nighttime) conditions the mean advective fluxes have magnitudes on the same order as the daily eddy covariance (EC) flux, which implies that they play a significant, but not yet fully understood, role in the carbon budget equation. The two advective fluxes are opposite and seem to cancel each other at night (at least for these measurements). During the day, vertical advection tends to zero, while horizontal advection is still present implying a flow of CO₂ out of the control volume. From our measurements, a mean daily gain of 2.2 gC m^–2 d^–1 for the horizontal advection and a mean daily loss of 2.5 gC m^–2d^–1 for the vertical advection is calculated for a period of 20 days. However the large scatter of the advective fluxes has to be further investigated. It is not clear yet whether the large variability is natural or due to measurement errors and conceptual deficiencies of the experiment. Similar results are found in the few comparable studies.     

An objective method to achieve closure of overdetermined surface energy budgets

The analysis of an overdetermined energy budget provides an opportunity to investigate the existence of advective effects at the site and in the atmospheric layer represented by the energy budget. The present contribution presents a set of hourly averaged energy budget data representing the atmospheric surface layer over a suburban surface. The measured variables result in an overdetermined budget. A statistical analysis shows that the residual energy has a near-zero mean with no apparent relation to wind-speed or wind-direction, thus eliminating the possibilty of advection. It is then shown how the residual may be distributed between the two turbulent fluxes on the presumption that it represents measurement errors which are the largest in those fluxes. This method is expected to provide more reliable flux estimates in environments characterized by large turbulent fluxes subject to significant errors.     

On the heat budget of the Arabian Sea

Summary The rate of oceanic heat storage of the upper 200m of the Arabian Sea is explained in terms of net air-sea heat flux (Q _F), heat change due to horizontal divergence and vertical motion (Q _V) and heat change due to lateral advection (Q _A). The analysis revealed that the heat storage of the Arabian Sea is mainly controlled byQ _V while the effect ofQ _A is much larger than expected. Parameterisation of summer cooling revealed that the depletion of energy from the mixed layer is mainly due to upwelling and horizontal advection though large amount of heat is accumulated due to net air-sea heat flux. The annual heat balance of the upper 200m of the Arabian Sea suggested large heat gain by air-sea exchange processes. About two third of this heat gain is compensated by horizontal advection and one third by vertical advection.With 4 Figures     

Atmospheric turbulence within and above a douglas-fir stand. Part II: Eddy fluxes of sensible heat and water vapour

This is the second paper describing a study of the turbulence regimes and exchange processes within and above an extensive Douglas-fir stand. The experiment was conducted on Vancouver Island during a two-week rainless period in July and August 1990. Two eddy correlation units were operated in the daytime to measure the fluxes of sensible heat and water vapour and other turbulence statistics at various heights within and above the stand. Net radiation was measured above the overstory using a stationary net radiometer and beneath the overstory using a tram system. Supplementary measurements included soil heat flux, humidity above and beneath the overstory, profiles of wind speed and air temperature, and the spatial variation of sensible heat flux near the forest floor.The sum of sensible and latent heat fluxes above the stand accounted for, on average, 83% of the available energy flux. On some days, energy budget closure was far better than on others. The average value of the Bowen ratio was 2.1 above the stand and 1.4 beneath the overstory. The mid-morning value of the canopy resistance was 150–450 s/m during the experiment and mid-day value of the Omega factor was about 0.20. The daytime mean canopy resistance showed a strong dependence on the mean saturation deficit during the two-week experimental period.The sum of sensible and latent heat fluxes beneath the overstory accounted for 74% of the available energy flux beneath the overstory. One of the reasons for this energy imbalance was that the small number of soil heat flux plates and the short pathway of the radiometer tram system was unable to account for the large horizontal heterogeneity in the available energy flux beneath the overstory. On the other hand, good agreement was obtained among the measurements of sensible heat flux made near the forest floor at four positions 15 m apart.There was a constant flux layer in the trunk space, a large flux divergence in the canopy layer, and a constant flux layer above the stand. Counter-gradient flux of sensible heat constantly occurred at the base of the canopy.The transfer of sensible heat and water vapour was dominated by intermittent cool downdraft and warm updraft events and dry downdraft and moist updraft events, respectively, at all levels. For sensible heat flux, the ratio of the contribution of cool downdrafts to that of warm updrafts was greater than one in the canopy layer and less than one above the stand and near the forest floor.     

水平非均匀对流边界层热量平衡和平流输送作用的大涡模拟

采用大涡模拟所获的数据结果，分析地面热通量沿平均风方向存在 突变的条件下对流边界层的热量平衡和平流输送作用。分析表明边界层内模拟所得结果 可以很好地满足热量平衡关系。除地面热通量项以外，平流项（包括水平平流和垂直平 流）对边界层加热率的作用可达地面热通量不均匀性差值的大小，是影响边界层内热量 平衡的最重要因子，平均速度散度项对热量平衡的作用也不可忽略，但湍流通量散度项 的作用则很小。     

鄱阳湖地区复杂地表条件下一次强降水过程的近地面边界层特征

使用鄱阳湖北部70 m气象塔湍流和梯度观测数据,分析了2011年6月6日夜间一次暴雨过程中近地面边界层特征.结果表明,此次过程是在高空低槽和西南急流的天气背景下,受鄱阳湖复杂地表影响产生的局地性强降水.强降水发生前受东南暖平流影响,近地面边界层中水汽累积,不稳定性增加;强降水过程中,近地层感热、潜热通量迅速增加,同时,近地面层湍流动量通量下传和水平输送增加,鄱阳湖的水汽输送加强降水强度.另外,强降水过程中,近地面湍流动能迅速增大并达到最大值,而平均动能的增大发生在强降水结束后,表明地表作用明显,近地面边界层的湍流场为暴雨提供动力条件.尺度分析表明,强降水前,中尺度动量通量占主要地位,降水过程中湍流动量通量显著加强.     

Impact of Eddy Characteristics on Turbulent Heat and Momentum Fluxes in the Urban Roughness Sublayer

Eddy-covariance observations above the densely built-up Centre of Nanjing were made from December 2011 to August 2012. Separate eddy-covariance systems installed at two levels on a 36-m tower located on a rooftop were operated simultaneously, and observations grouped into two sectors (A, B) according to the prevalent wind directions. For sector A, where the nearby buildings are all below the lower measurement level, the sensible heat and momentum fluxes are generally greater at the upper level. For sector B, where several high-rise buildings are located upwind, the sensible heat and momentum fluxes at the upper level are close to those at the lower level. The analysis shows that the turbulent eddy characteristics differ between the two wind sectors, leading to a different behaviour of turbulent exchange between the two levels. A hypothesis is proposed that addresses the vertical variation of turbulent fluxes in the urban roughness sublayer (RSL). For sector A, the buildings block the flow, change the trajectory of scalars, and distort the footprint of scalar fluxes; this ‘blocking effect’ is believed to lead to a smaller sensible heat flux above the canopy layer. Such an effect should decrease with height in the RSL, explaining the increase of the observed turbulent heat flux with height. In addition, the presence of non-uniform building heights adversely affects turbulence organization around the canopy top, and likely elevates the inflection point of the mean flow to a higher elevation close to the upper measurement level, where larger shear results in a larger momentum flux. For sector B, wake effects from the nearby high-rise buildings strongly reduce turbulence organization at higher elevations, leading to similar sensible heat and momentum fluxes at both measurement levels.     

北京北郊冬季大风过程湍流通量演变特征的分析研究

利用中国科学院大气物理研究所325 m气象观测塔1993年12月～1994年1月大气边界层实验资料, 计算分析了大风过境过程中47 m和120 m高度湍流通量演变特征及其影响因子, 以及与风速、 稳定度等参数的关系。结果表明: 大风过程对近地面层的物质能量输送有着重要影响, 大风之前出现短时间动量上传和热量下传; 大风过程中的湍流通量数值明显高于过境后, 水平方向湍流通量数值和能量增加幅度大于垂直方向; 当风速大于临界值5 m/s时, 湍流通量与风速、 湍流动能的相关迅速增大; 湍流谱特征表现为湍流能量的低频部分增加、 湍流谱曲线变宽; 大风能强烈影响近地面层的能量收支。     

Surface-layer fog considered using a modified Monin-Obukhov theory

The Prandtl-layer concept, assuming constant turbulent fluxes in the lowest meters or decameters of the atmosphere under horizontal homogeneous and steady-state conditions, is widely used; and it is also one of the fundamentals of Monin-Obukhov similarity theory. Thus, surface-layer condensation processes-essentially formation of shallow fog layers-implying convergence and divergence of turbulent fluxes of water vapour, liquid water content and sensible heat, cannot be treated within this concept. This paper tries to overcome this restriction by a modified Monin-Obukhov theory, which deals with constant fluxes of total water content and moist static energy (instead of water vapour and sensible heat). It shows that surface-layer fog situations (under steady-state and horizontally homogeneous conditions and neglecting radiational effects) can be treated by this modified theory, which yields turbulent vertical fluxes of sensible heat, water vapour and liquid water content and their divergences.The paper also derives a simple formula for the divergence of the turbulent flux of water vapour (E/z) under saturation conditions, which elucidates convergence ofE very close to the ground and divergence ofE higher up independent of whether the stratification is stable or unstable, i.e., whether there is fog over cold or warm ground. Model computations with the modified Monin-Obukhov theory are in full accordance with this formula. Thus a steam-fog case can be given as a demonstration of vertical profiles of turbulent fluxes of sensible heat, water vapour and liquid water content and their divergences.     

Aspects of CO2 advection measurements

Observations of vegetation–atmosphere exchange of carbon dioxide (CO₂) by the eddy covariance (EC) technique are limited by difficult conditions such as nighttime and heterogeneous terrain. Thus, advective flux components are included into the net ecosystem exchange (NEE) budget. However, advection measurements are experimentally challenging and do not always help to solve the night flux problem of the EC technique. This study investigates alternative methods for the observation of horizontal advection, in particular horizontal concentration gradients, as well as different approaches to coordinate rotation and vertical advection. Continuous high-frequency measurements of the horizontal CO₂ concentration field are employed and compared to the often used discontinuous sequential sampling. Significant differences were found in the case of 30-min mean concentration values between the conventional discontinuous sampling approach and the complete observation of the time series by continuous sampling. Estimates of vertical advection rely on accurate estimates of vertical wind velocity ( $\emph{w}$ ). Therefore, different approaches to the planar fit coordinate rotation have been investigated. Sector-wise rotation was able to eliminate directional dependencies of mean $\emph{w}$ . Furthermore, the effect of the data set length used for rotation (window length) was investigated and was found to have significant impact on estimates of vertical advection, with larger window lengths yielding about 50% larger vertical advection. A sequential planar fit with controlled window length is proposed to give reproducible results. The different approaches to the measurement and calculation of horizontal and vertical advection presented are applied to data obtained during the exchange processes in mountainous region experiment at the FLUXNET site Waldstein–Weidenbrunnen (DE-Bay). Estimates of NEE including advection are compared to NEE from turbulent and storage flux alone without advection. NEE including vertical advection with sector-wise planar fit rotation and controlled window length and including horizontal advection from continuous gradient measurements, which were comprehensively bias corrected by a new approach, did compare well with the expected night flux error, with meteorological drivers of the fluxes and with soil chamber measurements. Unrealistically large and noisy values of horizontal advection from the conventional discontinuous sampling approach, which lead to unrealistic values of NEE, could be eliminated by the alternative approaches presented. We therefore suggest the further testing of those approaches at other sites in order to improve the accuracy of advection measurements and, subsequently, estimates of NEE.     

An OGCM Simulation of Seasonal and Interannual Variabilities in the Surface—Layer Pacific of the Equatorial Band

The heat budget is analyzed in the surface-layer (0-50 m) Pacific of the equatorial band (10°S-10°N),using the simulation of an ocean general circulation model from 1945 to 1993. The analysis indicates that downward net surface heat flux from the atmosphere and ocean advective heat fluxes play distinct roles in seasonal and interannual variabilities of surface-layer ocean temperature. The surface heat flux dominantly determines the ocean temperature in the seasonal time-scale. But, it has a negative feedback to the ocean temperature in the interannual time-scale. The interannual variability of ocean temperature is largely associated with the cold advection from off-equatorial divergent flow in the central Pacific and from upwelling in the cold tongue. Both the surface heat flux and ocean advective heat fluxes are important to the ocean temperature during an El Nino event. The ocean advective heat fluxes are further associated with local westward trade wind in the central Pacific. These results are largely consistent with some regional observational analyses.     

一次热对流降水成因的分析和模拟

夏季受西太平洋副热带高压控制的中国大陆地区常发生热对流降水.文中首先利用TRMM卫星观测资料、地面自动站地表温度观测资料和NCEP资料分析了热对流降水的特征及其产生的背景条件;利用区域平均的水汽方程诊断了地表蒸发、水汽平流和水汽通量辐合项的贡献,分析了降水的水汽来源;进一步利用AREM区域数值预报模式,设计了4个敏感性试验,研究了陆气感热、潜热通量对降水的贡献.结果表明,在副热带高压控制的地区,白天强烈的非均匀地表感热加热可导致低层热空气块突破环境下沉气流而上升,周围空气补充形成辐合运动.低层空气的辐合上升既可引起水汽的汇聚,又可把低层的水汽输送到高层.同时非均匀陆面特征造成的非均匀感热和潜热通量的共同作用增强了大气的位势不稳定度,触发了对流,但感热通量对热对流降水的贡献比潜热通量略大.热对流降水的水汽除部分来自地表蒸发外,另一部分来自低层的水平通量辐合.定量计算表明二者对大气可降水量的贡献基本相当,而平流水汽的贡献很小.