Turbulent fluxes from Helipod flights above quasi-homogeneous patches within the LITFASS area

Turbulent fluxes of sensible and latent heat were measured with the helicopter-borne turbulence probe Helipod over a heterogeneous landscape around the Meteorological Observatory Lindenberg during the STINHO-2 and LITFASS-2003 field experiments. Besides the determination of area-averaged heat fluxes, the analysis focused on different aspects of the response of the turbulent structure of the convective boundary layer (CBL) on the surface heterogeneity. A special flight pattern was designed to study flux profiles both over quasi-homogeneous sub-areas of the study region (representing the major land use types—forest, farmland, water) and over a typical mixture of the different surfaces. Significant differences were found between the heat fluxes over the individual surfaces along flight legs at about 80 m above ground level, in agreement with large-aperture scintillometer measurements. This flux separation was still present during some flights at levels near the middle of the CBL. Different scales for the blending height and horizontal heterogeneity were calculated, but none of them could be identified as a reliable indicator of the mixing state of the lower CBL. With the exception of the flights over water, the latent heat flux measurements generally showed a larger statistical error when compared with the sensible heat flux. Correlation coefficients a nd integral length scales were used to characterise the interplay between the vertical transport of sensible and latent heat, which was found to vary between ‘fairly correlated’ and ‘decoupled’, also depending on the soil moisture conditions.     

A New Method for the Determination of Area-Averaged Turbulent Surface Fluxes from Low-Level Flights Using Inverse Models

The low-level flight method (LLF) has been combined with linear inverse models (IM) resulting in an LLF+IM method for the determination of area-averaged turbulent surface fluxes. With this combination, the vertical divergences of the turbulent latent and sensible heat fluxes were calculated from horizontal flights. The statistical errors of the derived turbulent surface fluxes were significantly reduced. The LLF+IM method was tested both in numerical and field experiments. Large-eddy simulations (LES) were performed to compare ‘true’ flux profiles with ‘measurements’ of simulated flights in an idealised convective boundary layer. Small differences between the ‘true’ and the ‘measured’ fluxes were found, but the vertical flux divergences were correctly calculated by the LLF+IM method. The LLF+IM method was then applied to data collected during two flights with the Helipod, a turbulence probe carried by a helicopter, and with the research aircraft Do 128 in the LITFASS-98 field campaign. The derived surface fluxes were compared with results from eddy-covariance surface stations and with large-aperture scintillometer data. The comparison showed that the LLF+IM method worked well for the sensible heat flux at 77 and 200 m flight levels, and also for the latent heat flux at the lowest level. The model quality control indicated failures for the latent heat flux at the 200 m level (and higher), which were probably due to large moisture fluctuations that could not be modelled using linear assumptions. Finally the LLF+IM method was applied to more than twenty low-level flights from the LITFASS-2003 experiment. Comparison with aggregated surface flux data revealed good agreement for the sensible heat flux but larger discrepancies and a higher statistical uncertainty for the latent heat flux     

Simulation of surface energy fluxes using high-resolution non-hydrostatic simulations and comparisons with measurements for the LITFASS-2003 experiment

Land-surface heterogeneity effects on the subgrid scale of regional climate and numerical weather prediction models are of vital interest for the energy and mass exchange between the surface and the atmospheric boundary layer. High-resolution numerical model simulations can be used to quantify these effects, and are a tool used to obtain area-averaged surface fluxes over heterogeneous land surfaces. We present high-resolution model simulations for the LITFASS area near Berlin during the LITFASS-2003 experiment, which were carried out using the non-hydrostatic model FOOT3DK of the University of Köln with horizontal resolutions of 1 km and 250 m. The LITFASS-2003 experimental dataset is used for comparison. The screen level quantities show good quality for the simulated pressure, temperature, humidity and wind speed and direction. Averaged over the four week experimental period, simulated surface energy fluxes at land stations show a small bias for the turbulent heat fluxes and an underestimation of the net radiation caused by excessive cloudiness in the simulations. For eight selected days with low cloud amounts, the net radiation bias is close to zero, but the sensible heat flux shows a strong positive bias. Large differences are found for latent heat fluxes over a lake, which are partly due to local effects on the measurements, but an additional problem seems to be the overestimation of the turbulent exchange under stable conditions in the daytime internal boundary layer over the lake. In the area average over the LITFASS area of 20 ×  20 km², again a strong positive bias of 70 W m^?2 for the sensible heat is present. For the low soil moisture conditions during June 2003, the simulation of the turbulent heat fluxes is sensitive to variations in the soil type and its hydrological properties. Under these conditions, the supply of ground water to the lowest soil layer should be accounted for. Different area-averaging methods are tested. The experimental set-up of the LITFASS-2003 experiment is found to be well suited for the computation of area-averaged turbulent heat fluxes.     

Determination of boundary-layer parameters using wind profiler/RASS and sodar/RASS in the frame of the LITFASS project

Summary ?Progress in technology as well as signal processing has promoted Wind Profiler Radar (WPR) or sodar with RASS additions to become standard tools in profiling of the atmospheric boundary layer. Apart from these instruments’ basic abilities in profiling mean winds and temperature, this paper will give an emphasis on the profiling of ABL height as well as the turbulent fluxes of sensible heat and momentum both, with respect to methods as well as with respect to realization. The special focus will thereby be laid on the demands for vertical profiling, which were defined within the LITFASS-project of the German Meteorological Service. In the frame of this project, some special measuring campaigns have been performed where remote-sensing systems were used to assess their abilities in profiling ABL parameters. On the base of some case studies from these campaigns comparisons are shown, where results from sodar/RASS and WPR/RASS measurements are compared to measurements from airborne sensor systems and results from numerical models. Regarding turbulent heat fluxes, we found excellent agreement for remotely-sensed flux profiles from WPR/RASS with both, numerical models and airborne in-situ measurements. However, as the inherent errors of the remotely-sensed fluxes are in the order of ± 20 ⋯ 30 W/m² typically, current signal processing does not allow to interpret small-scale vertical structures in the profiles with respect to surface inhomogeneities yet. Received June 16, 2001; revised February 20, 2002; accepted May 30, 2002     

Surface turbulent flux measurements over the Loess Plateau for a semi-arid climate change study

In order to provide high quality data for climate change studies, the data quality of turbulent flux measurements at the station of SACOL (Semi-Arid Climate & Environment Observatory of Lanzhou University), which is located on a semi-arid grassland over the Loess Plateau in China, has been analyzed in detail. The effects of different procedures of the flux corrections on CO₂, momentum, and latent and sensible heat fluxes were assessed. The result showed that coordinate rotation has a great influence on the momentum flux but little on scalar fluxes. For coordinate rotation using the planar fit method, different regression planes should be determined for different wind direction sectors due to the heterogeneous nature of the ground surface. Sonic temperature correction decreased the sensible heat flux by about 9%, while WPL correction (correction for density fluctuations) increased the latent heat flux by about 10%. WPL correction is also particularly important for CO₂ fluxes. Other procedures of flux corrections, such as the time delay correction and frequency response correction, do not significantly influence the turbulent fluxes. Furthermore, quality tests on stationarity and turbulence development conditions were discussed. Parameterizations of integral turbulent characteristics (ITC) were tested and a specific parameterization scheme was provided for SACOL. The ITC test on turbulence development conditions was suggested to be applied only for the vertical velocity. The combined results of the quality tests showed that about 62%–65% of the total data were of high quality for the latent heat flux and CO₂ flux, and as much as about 76% for the sensible heat flux. For the momentum flux, however, only about 35% of the data were of high quality.     

Validation of the “Lokal-Modell” over heterogeneous land surfaces using aircraft-based measurements of the REEEFA experiment and comparison with micro-scale simulations

Summary An aircraft-based experimental investigation of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) structure and of the energy exchange processes over heterogeneous land surfaces is presented. The measurements are used for the validation of the mesoscale atmospheric model “Lokal-Modell” (LM) of the German Weather Service with 2.8 km resolution. In addition, high-resolution simulations using the non-hydrostatic model FOOT3DK with 250 m resolution are performed in order to resolve detailed surface heterogeneities. Two special observation periods in May 1999 show comparable convective boundary layer (CBL) conditions. For one case study vertical profiles and area averages of meteorological quantities and energy fluxes are investigated in detail. The measured net radiation is highly dependent on surface albedo, and the latent heat flux exhibits a strong temporal variability in the investigation area. A reduction of this variability is possible by aggregation of multiple flight patterns. To calculate surface fluxes from aircraft measurements at low altitude, turbulent energy fluxes were extrapolated to the ground by the budget method, which turned out to be well applicable for the sensible heat flux, but not for the latent flux. The development of the ABL is well captured by the LM simulation. The comparison of spatiotemporal averages shows an underestimation of the observed net radiation, which is mainly caused by thin low-level clouds in the LM compared to observed scattered CBL clouds. The sensible heat flux is reproduced very well, while the latent flux is highly overestimated especially above forests. The realistic representation of surface heterogeneities in the investigation area in the FOOT3DK simulations leads to improvements for the energy fluxes, but an overestimation of the latent heat flux still persists. A study of upscaling effects yields more structures than the LM fields when averaged to the same scale, which are partly caused by the non-linear effects of parameter aggregation on the LM scale.     

Monin–Obukhov Similarity Functions for the Structure Parameters of Temperature and Humidity

Monin–Obukhov similarity functions for the structure parameters of temperature and humidity are needed to derive surface heat and water vapour fluxes from scintillometer measurements and it is often assumed that the two functions are identical in the atmospheric surface layer. Nevertheless, this assumption has not yet been verified experimentally. This study investigates the dissimilarity between the turbulent transport of sensible heat and water vapour, with a specific focus on the difference between the Monin–Obukhov similarity functions for the structure parameters. Using two datasets collected over homogeneous surfaces where the surface sources of sensible heat and water vapour are well correlated, we observe that under stable and very unstable conditions, the two functions are similar. This similarity however breaks down under weakly unstable conditions; in that regime, the absolute values of the correlations between temperature and humidity are also observed to be low, most likely due to large-scale eddies that transport unsteadiness, advection or entrainment effects from the outer layer. We analyze and demonstrate how this reduction in the correlation leads to dissimilarity between the turbulent transport of these two scalars and the corresponding Monin–Obukhov similarity functions for their structure parameters. A model to derive sensible and latent heat fluxes from structure parameters without measuring the friction velocity is tested and found to work very well under moderately to strongly unstable conditions (−z/L > 0.5). Finally, we discuss the modelling of the cross-structure parameter over wet surfaces, which is crucial for correcting water vapour effects on optical scintillometer measurements and also for obtaining surface sensible and latent heat fluxes from the two-wavelength scintillometry.     

Comparison of areally averaged turbulent fluxes over non-homogeneous terrain: Results from the EFEDA-field experiment

In June 1991 the EFEDA-field experiment (ECHIVAL Field Experiment in a Desertification-Threatened Area) was carried out in the Spanish province Castilla-La Mancha, to improve the understanding of the interactions between the soil, the vegetation and the atmosphere.Here results of energy balance studies at the Barrax site are given, one of the three intensively studied experimental sites within Castilla-La Mancha. This area is characterized by a large fraction of irrigated fields (40%) while the remaining 60% was fallow land at the end of June 1991. The energy balances over these two characteristic land-use classes totally differ. While for the irrigated fields the evapotranspiration is dominant, for the non-irrigated fields the sensible and the soil heat fluxes dominate and the latent heat flux is nearly negligible.In order to achieve areally averaged turbulent fluxes, surface, SODAR and aircraft data have been used. Comparing the surface fluxes from all three facilities, it can be found that:The sensible heat flux estimation from SODAR (_w-method) gives reliable results when a calibration of _w is done with another independent system (e.g. aircraft).Aircraft measurements in conjunction with energy budget methods yield surface fluxes of sensible heat, which are about 20% lower than the areally averaged values calculated by the surface measurements. The areally averaged latent heat fluxes from aircraft and surface measurements agree better than the sensible heat fluxes.     

Spatio-temporal Variability of Surface-layer Turbulent Fluxes Over the Bay of Bengal and Arabian sea During the ICARB Field Experiment

We report the spatio-temporal variability of surface-layer turbulent fluxes of heat, moisture and momentum over the Bay of Bengal (BoB) and the Arabian Sea (AS) during the Integrated Campaign for Aerosols, gases Radiation Budget (ICARB) field experiment. The meteorological component of ICARB conducted during March – May 2006 onboard the oceanic research vessel Sagar Kanya forms the database for the present study. The bulk transfer coefficients and the surface-layer fluxes are estimated using a modified bulk aerodynamic method, and then the spatio-temporal variability of these air-sea interface fluxes is discussed in detail. It is observed that the sensible and latent heat fluxes over the AS are marginally higher than those over the BoB, which we attribute to differences in the prevailing meteorological conditions over the two oceanic regions. The values of the wind stress, sensible and latent heat fluxes are compared with those obtained for the Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX) period. The variation of drag coefficient (C _D ), exchange coefficients of sensible heat and moisture (C _H = C _E ) and neutral drag coefficient (C _DN ) with wind speed is also discussed.

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Regional surface fluxes from satellite-derived surface temperatures (AVHRR) and radiosonde profiles

Radiometric surface temperatures, derived from measurements by the AVHRR instrument aboard the NOAA-9 and the NOAA-11 polar orbiting satellites, were used in combination with wind velocity and temperature profiles measured by radiosondes, to calculate surface fluxes of sensible heat. The measurements were made during FIFE, the First ISLSCP (International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project) Field Experiment, in a hilly tall grass prairie area of northeastern Kansas. The method of calculation was based on turbulent similarity formulations for the atmospheric boundary layer. Good agreement (r = 0.7) was obtained with reference values of sensible heat flux, taken as arithmetic means of measurements with the Bowen ratio method at six ground stations. The values of evaporation (latent heat fluxes), derived from these sensible heat fluxes by means of the energy budget, were also in good agreement (r = 0.94) with the corresponding reference values from the ground stations.     

A lagrangian random-walk model for simulating water vapor,CO2 and sensible heat flux densities and scalar profiles over and within a soybean canopy

An integrated canopy micrometeorological model is described for calculating CO₂, water vapor and sensible heat exchange rates and scalar concentration profiles over and within a crop canopy. The integrated model employs a Lagrangian random walk algorithm to calculate turbulent diffusion. The integrated model extends previous Lagrangian modelling efforts by employing biochemical, physiological and micrometeorological principles to evaluate vegetative sources and sinks. Model simulations of water vapor, CO₂ and sensible heat flux densities are tested against measurements made over a soybean canopy, while calculations of scalar profiles are tested against measurements made above and within the canopy. The model simulates energy and mass fluxes and scalar profiles above the canopy successfully. On the other hand, model calculations of scalar profiles inside the canopy do not match measurements.The tested Lagrangian model is also used to evaluate simpler modelling schemes, as needed for regional and global applications. Simple, half-order closure modelling schemes (which assume a constant scalar profile in the canopy) do not yield large errors in the computation of latent heat (LE) and CO₂ (F _c ) flux densities. Small errors occur because the source-sink formulation of LE andF _c are relatively insensitive to changes in scalar concentrations and the scalar gradients are small. On the other hand, complicated modelling frames may be needed to calculate sensible heat flux densities; the source-sink formulation of sensible heat is closely coupled to the within-canopy air temperature profile.     

Heterogeneity-Induced Heat-Flux Patterns in the Convective Boundary Layer: Can they be Detected from Observations and is There a Blending Height?—A Large-Eddy Simulation Study for the LITFASS-2003 Experiment

An understanding of how the convective boundary layer (CBL) is mixed under heterogeneous surface forcing is crucial for the interpretation of area-averaged turbulence measurements. To determine the height and degree to which a complex heterogeneous surface affects the CBL, large-eddy simulations (LES) for two days of the LITFASS-2003 experiment representing two different wind regimes were undertaken. Spatially-lagged correlation analysis revealed the turbulent heat fluxes to be dependent on the prescribed surface flux pattern throughout the entire CBL including the entrainment layer. These findings prompted the question of whether signals induced by surface heterogeneity can be measured by airborne systems. To examine this question, an ensemble of virtual flights was conducted using LES, according to Helipod flight measurements made during LITFASS-2003. The resulting ensemble-averaged heat fluxes indicated a clear dependence on the underlying surface up to the top of the CBL. However, a large scatter between the flux measurements in different ensemble runs was observed, which was the result of insufficient sampling of the largest turbulent eddies. The random and systematic errors based on the integral length scale did not indicate such a large scatter. For the given flight leg lengths, at least 10–15 statistically independent flight measurements were necessary to give a significant estimate of heterogeneity-induced signals in the CBL. The need for ensemble averaging suggests that the observed blending of heterogeneity-induced signals in the CBL can be partly attributed to insufficient averaging.     

The LITFASS project of DWD and the LITFASS-98 experiment: The project strategy and the experimental setup

Summary ?The LITFASS project (‘Lindenberg Inhomogeneous Terrain – Fluxes between Atmosphere and Surface: a Long-term Study’) of the Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD, German Meteorological Service) aims to develop and to test a strategy for the determination and parameterisation of the area-averaged turbulent fluxes of heat, momentum, and water vapour over a heterogeneous land surface. These fluxes will be representative for an area of about 10 * 10 km² (while the typical patch size is between 10⁻¹ to 10⁰ km²) corresponding to the size of a grid cell in the present operational numerical weather prediction model of the DWD. LITFASS consists of three components: – the development of a non-hydrostatic micro-α-scale model (the LITFASS local model – LLM) with a grid-size of about 100 * 100 m², – experimental investigations of land surface – atmosphere exchange processes and boundary layer structure within a 20 * 20 km² area around the Meteorological Observatory Lindenberg, – the assimilation of a data base as an interface between measurements and modelling activities. The overall project strategy was tested over a three-week period in June 1998 during the LITFASS-98 field experiment. This paper gives an overview on the LITFASS project, on the design and measurement program of the LITFASS-98 experiment, and on the weather conditions during the period of the experiment. Conclusions are formulated for the operational realisation of the LITFASS measurement concept and for future field experiments aimed at studying the land surface – atmosphere interaction in the Lindenberg area. Selected results from both experimental and modelling activities are presented in a series of companion papers completing this special issue of the journal. Received June 18, 2001; revised March 18, 2002; accepted April 2, 2002     

Buoyancy and The Sensible Heat Flux Budget Within Dense Canopies

In contrast to atmospheric surface-layer (ASL) turbulence, a linear relationship between turbulent heat fluxes (F_T) and vertical gradients of mean air temperature within canopies is frustrated by numerous factors, including local variation in heat sources and sinks and large-scale eddy motion whose signature is often linked with the ejection-sweep cycle. Furthermore, how atmospheric stability modifies such a relationship remains poorly understood, especially in stable canopy flows. To date, no explicit model exists for relating F_T to the mean air temperature gradient, buoyancy, and the statistical properties of the ejection-sweep cycle within the canopy volume. Using third-order cumulant expansion methods (CEM) and the heat flux budget equation, a “diagnostic” analytical relationship that links ejections and sweeps and the sensible heat flux for a wide range of atmospheric stability classes is derived. Closure model assumptions that relate scalar dissipation rates with sensible heat flux, and the validity of CEM in linking ejections and sweeps with the triple scalar-velocity correlations, were tested for a mixed hardwood forest in Lavarone, Italy. We showed that when the heat sources (S_T) and F_T have the same sign (i.e. the canopy is heating and sensible heat flux is positive), sweeps dominate the sensible heat flux. Conversely, if S_T and F_T are opposite in sign, standard gradient-diffusion closure model predict that ejections must dominate the sensible heat flux.     

The Effective Height of a Two-Wavelength Scintillometer System

A scaling factor, S, is derived to account for the difference in path-weighted measurement heights of a combined system consisting of a large-aperture scintillometer (LAS) and a millimetre-wave scintillometer (MWS), operating at wavelengths of 0.88 μm and about 3 mm respectively, and designed to determine the area-averaged latent heat flux. This work extends an earlier derivation of Z _ef , the effective height for the LAS yielding the area-averaged sensible heat flux. The LAS and MWS have different path-weighting functions, therefore, in general, it is expected that the path-weighted beam heights are different, for paths other than with the beam parallel to the land surface. Their difference will depend on the detail of the experimental set-up. The objective is to introduce a scaling factor that transforms the MWS refractive-index structure parameter measurement to the same path-weighted height of the LAS measurement. By applying S as a prelude to the calculation of the temperature and humidity structure parameters, and the sensible and latent heat fluxes, these quantities are made representative of the same measurement height, thus simplifying the application of two-wavelength scintillometry. The equations presented here enable the analysis of LAS-MWS paths such that they can be selected to optimize S towards its ideal value of unity. For this purpose we provide a new analytical approximation of the LAS path-weighting function. The importance of accounting for S is demonstrated by example applications over varying topography as well as for slanted beams.     

Linking the Atmospheric Boundary Layer to the Amundsen Gulf Sea-Ice Cover: A Mesoscale to Synoptic-Scale Perspective from Winter to Summer 2008

The link between the sea-ice cover of the Amundsen Gulf and the overlying atmospheric boundary layer was explored on a weekly timestep from winter to summer 2008. The total sea-ice cover was around 97% (3% leads) from 7 January to 21 April. From 28 April to 12 May, the total sea-ice cover approached 100%. From May 19, the total sea-ice declined rapidly to its July minimum of 3%. During the winter, a turbulent internal boundary layer (IBL), attributed to the upward flux of sensible heat (mean = 46 W m⁻²), was present in most of the mean daily potential temperature profiles. The mean latent heat flux was 1.7 Wm⁻². A turbulent IBL was also present in most of the mean daily profiles for early spring. Surface fluxes were not estimated. During late spring and early summer, a stable IBL, attributed to the downward flux of sensible heat (mean = −19 W m⁻²), was present in most of the potential temperature profiles. Both downward and upward fluxes of latent heat occurred in this period (means = −3.3 and 1.1 W m⁻²). The sensible heat flux estimates are consistent with the results of others; however, the latent heat flux estimates may be too small due to condensation/deposition within the IBL. The unconsolidated nature of the pack ice in the Amundsen Gulf, and the low sea-surface temperatures following break-up, were critical factors controlling the presence and type of IBL.     

Aircraft measurements of boundary-layer turbulence over the central Equatorial Pacific Ocean

We analyze gust probe measurements obtained in the convective boundary layer over the central equatorial Pacific as part of the Equatorial Pacific Ocean Climate Studies (EPOCS) program. From the lowest level flights, the bulk transfer coefficients are found to be 1.1 × 10^-3 and 1.4 × 10^-3 for latent and sensible heat fluxes, respectively. Vertical profiles of water vapor density, potential temperature and wind velocity are obtained as are the profiles of the fluxes of latent and sensible heat and momentum. From the extrapolated profiles, we obtain surface fluxes of 120 W m^-2 and 13 W m^-2 for latent and sensible heat, respectively, and 0.11 N m^-2 for momentum. The 10 m drag coefficient is 1.5 × 10^-3. Two convergence boxes, north and south of the ITCZ, are analyzed. Enhanced convergence is found in the northern trades relative to the southern trades. The advective acceleration is found to be comparable in magnitude to the other terms in the horizontal equations of motion.     

Consequences of Incomplete Surface Energy Balance Closure for CO2 Fluxes from Open-Path CO2/H2O Infrared Gas Analysers

We present an approach for assessing the impact of systematic biases in measured energy fluxes on CO₂ flux estimates obtained from open-path eddy-covariance systems. In our analysis, we present equations to analyse the propagation of errors through the Webb, Pearman, and Leuning (WPL) algorithm [Quart. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc. 106, 85–100, 1980] that is widely used to account for density fluctuations on CO₂ flux measurements. Our results suggest that incomplete energy balance closure does not necessarily lead to an underestimation of CO₂ fluxes despite the existence of surface energy imbalance; either an overestimation or underestimation of CO₂ fluxes is possible depending on local atmospheric conditions and measurement errors in the sensible heat, latent heat, and CO₂ fluxes. We use open-path eddy-covariance fluxes measured over a black spruce forest in interior Alaska to explore several energy imbalance scenarios and their consequences for CO₂ fluxes.     

Increased heat fluxes near a forest edge

Summary ?Observations of sensible and latent heat flux above forest downwind of a forest edge show these fluxes to be larger than the available energy over the forest. The enhancement averages to 56 W m⁻², or 16% of the net radiation, at fetches less than 400 m, equivalent to fetch to height ratios less than 15. The enhancement of turbulent energy fluxes is explained by advection and increases with the difference in temperature and humidity of the air over the upwind area as compared to the forest. The relatively high temperature and humidity of the upwind air are not caused by high surface heat fluxes, but are explained by the relatively low aerodynamic roughness of the upwind surface. Although the heat fluxes over forest are enhanced, the momentum fluxes are almost adjusted to the underlying forest. The different behaviour of heat and momentum fluxes is explained by absorption of momentum by pressure gradients near the forest edge. It is concluded that fetch requirements to obtain accurate surface fluxes from atmospheric observations need to be more stringent for scalar fluxes as compared to momentum fluxes. Received November 23, 2001; accepted May 13, 2002     

Effects of vegetative heterogeneity and patch-scale harvest on energy balance closure and flux measurements

Based on the micrometeorological measurements at a heterogeneous farmland in South China, this work detects the effects of vegetative heterogeneity and patch-scale harvest on the energy balance closure and turbulent fluxes. As a quality control, the integral turbulent characteristics are analyzed in the framework of Monin-Obukhov similarity theory. Spatial representativeness of the measurements is studied in terms of footprint and source area. Firstly, in two wind sectors, the nondimensional standard deviations of turbulent quantities generally agree with some foregoing studies. Discrepancies exist in the other sectors due to the instrument-induced flow distortion. Secondly, energy balance closure is examined with two types of linear regression, which confirms that mismatching source areas between the available energy and turbulent fluxes have no preference to either energy “deficit” or “surplus”. Thirdly, turbulent fluxes exhibit greater variability when they represent smaller source areas. The patch-scale harvest adjacent to the flux mast causes notable increase and decrease in the sensible heat and latent heat fluxes, respectively, while the CO₂ exchange almost vanishes after the harvest. Interestingly, energy balance closure is less influenced despite the notable effects on the turbulent fluxes and Bowen ratio, implying that the energy balance closure check may mask some variability in the turbulent fluxes. Thus, to adjust the heat fluxes with a single “closure factor” for a perfect closure is dangerous at a patchy site.