Atmosphere–Surface Fluxes of CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> using Spectral Techniques

Different flux estimation techniques are compared here in order to evaluate air–sea exchange measurement methods used on moving platforms. Techniques using power spectra and cospectra to estimate fluxes are presented and applied to measurements of wind speed and sensible heat, latent heat and CO₂ fluxes. Momentum and scalar fluxes are calculated from the dissipation technique utilizing the inertial subrange of the power spectra and from estimation of the cospectral amplitude, and both flux estimates are compared to covariance derived fluxes. It is shown how even data having a poor signal-to-noise ratio can be used for flux estimations.     

Estimation of momentum and heat fluxes in the constant flux layer from temperature measurements

Global estimates of momentum and heat fluxes are required for the application of any general atmospheric and oceanic circulation model. A new technique for the estimation of these fluxes in a constant flux boundary layer is developed. The new approach is a modification of the dissipation technique but the only required measurements are the mean and fluctuating temperatures at two levels within the constant flux layer. All other flux estimation techniques require measurement of both temperature and velocity. Data are presented to compare flux estimation results with the conventional eddy-correlation technique. Also discussed are the limitations of the procedure and restrictions on its applicability.     

Where does all the energy go? Surface energy partitioning in suburban Christchurch under stable wintertime conditions

Summary Typical observations of surface energy fluxes in urban areas usually employ the eddy covariance approach with measurements from a tower at a height well above the roughness elements. Net radiation and the turbulent fluxes are directly measured, the anthropogenic flux may be estimated and the storage flux is calculated as an energy balance residual. This paper reports both measurement and modelling of energy fluxes during wintertime in suburban areas of Christchurch, New Zealand. Under settled anticyclonic conditions, a strong inversion can occur over the city which severely restricts turbulent mixing. Even after sunrise the turbulent fluxes are small, and if one assumes advection is negligible, this means the storage flux increases in importance to very high levels. This paper suggests that these high storage rates are physically unrealistic for this environment. Rather, it is likely that some energy, which is assumed to be dissipated as heat storage, is more likely lost through mesoscale advection or attributed to errors caused by unsuitable measurement techniques under conditions with low friction velocity. However, even these two processes cannot fully account for flux loss. A full study is recommended to resolve this issue and meanwhile, caution is advised when applying current research methodology to estimate storage fluxes in urban areas in stable wintertime conditions.     

Evaluation of the profile and the resistance method for estimation of surface fluxes of momentum,sensible and latent heat

Summary Hourly lysimetric and micrometeorological data taken over a grass surface at the Meteorological Research Unit, Cardington U.K. have been analysed. A temperature difference and measurements of wind speed at only one height, combined with an independently estimated effective roughness length allowed sensible heat and momentum fluxes determination by the profile method on an hourly basis. The estimates are compared with direct measurements of sensible heat and friction velocity obtained by the eddy correlation method. The sensible and latent heat fluxes are also modelled by the resistance method. Equations based on the Monin—Obukhov similarity theory are used to account for stability effects through various forms of parameterization Aerodynamic and surface resistances, necessary for the Penman—Monteith equation are calculated from routinely measured meteorological data. The profile method for estimation of sensible heat flux and friction velocity is found to work excellently on the discussed daytime experimental data which correspond mainly to near neutral or slightly unstable conditions.Surface latent and sensible heat fluxes can also be described very well by the resistance method. A slightly better estimate of the sensible heat flux is achieved when stability corrections are taken into account. On the contrary Penman-Monteith equation for estimating latent heat flux is insensitive to adjustments for atmospheric stability.The comparison of the various methods leads to the establishment of empirical relationships which correlate various quantities such as soil heat flux, resistances, evapotranspiration etc. to routinely measured meteorological data.With 8 Figures     

Flux Footprint Simulation Downwind of a Forest Edge

Surface fluxes, originating from forest patches, are commonly calculated from atmospheric flux measurements at some height above that patch using a correction for flux arising from upwind surfaces. Footprint models have been developed to calculate such a correction. These models commonly assume homogeneous turbulence, resulting in a simulated atmospheric flux equal to the average surface flux in the footprint area. However, atmospheric scalar fluxes downwind of a forest edge have been observed to exceed surface fluxes in the footprint area. Variations in atmospheric turbulence downwind of the forest edge, as simulated with an E – model, can explain enhanced atmospheric scalar fluxes. This E – model is used to calculate the footprint of atmospheric measurements downwind of a forest edge. Atmospheric fluxes appear mainly enhanced as a result of a stronger sensitivity to fluxes from the upwind surface. A sensitivity analysis shows that the fetch over forest, necessary to reach equilibrium between atmospheric fluxes and surface fluxes, tends to be longer for scalar fluxes as compared to momentum fluxes. With increasing forest density, atmospheric fluxes deviate even more strongly from surface fluxes, but over shorter fetches. It is concluded that scalar fluxes over forests are commonly affected by inhomogeneous turbulence over large fetches downwind of an edge. It is recommended to take horizontal variations in turbulence into account when the footprint is calculated for atmospheric flux measurements downwind of a forest edge. The spatially integrated footprint is recommended to describe the ratio between the atmospheric flux and the average surface flux in the footprint.     

The Footprint for Estimation of Atmosphere-Surface Exchange Fluxes by Profile Techniques

The flux footprint, that is the contribution per unit emission from each element of the upwind surface area to measurement of the vertical flux of a passive scalar, is calculated for fluxes estimated by micrometeorological profile techniques. It is found that the upwind extent of the footprint for concentration-profile flux estimates is similar to that of the footprint for eddy-covariance flux measurements, when the eddy-covariance measurement is made at a height equal to the arithmetic mean of the highest and lowest profile measurement heights for stable stratification or the geometric mean for unstable stratification. The concentration-profile flux footprint depends on the ratio of the highest to the lowest measurement height, but is insensitive to the number of measurement levels. The concentration-profile flux footprint extends closer to the measurement location than does the 'equivalent eddy-covariance flux footprint, and the difference becomes more pronounced as the ratio of the profile measurement heights increases. The flux footprint for the Bowen-ratio technique is identical to that for a two-level profile measurement only for very limited circumstances. In the more general case, a flux footprint cannot be defined for the Bowen-ratio technique and the uniform upwind fetch required for representative flux measurements depends on the specific spatial distribution of surface fluxes.     

Determination of turbulent momentum and heat fluxes by spectral methods

Methods are studied which permit one to evaluate turbulent fluxes from the results of spectral measurements in turbulent laboratory flows and an unstable atmospheric surface layer. The well known dissipation method of flux measurements, which uses spectral data related to the inertial range, is reanalyzed. New theoretical ideas and the latest experimental data are used to specify this method in cases of moderately and very strongly unstable thermal stratifications.Moreover, it is also explained how to estimate momentum and heat fluxes from data in the low frequency parts of the velocity and temperature spectra in the low frequency ranges beyond the lower limit of the inertial range. This permits one to estimate fluxes using rather simple and cheap instruments (e.g., Pilot-tubes and thermocouples in laboratory flows or cup anemometers and crude resistance thermometers in meteorological studies). The equations for flux determination are based in such cases on the recent models by Kader (1987, 1988) and Kader and Yaglom (1990, 1991) of spectral shapes at mesoscale wave numbers; these models agree quite satisfactorily with many (though not all) data of direct spectral measurements. It is shown that estimated momentum and heat fluxes in the laboratory and in an unstably stratified atmospheric surface layer obtained by the method suggested in this paper agree satisfactorily with direct flux measurements.     

Comparison of in-situ measured ground heat fluxes within a heteorogeneous urban ballast layer

Summary This study concentrates on measurements of ground heat fluxes within a porous urban ballast layer that were conducted from June to September 2002 at the goods station in Osnabrück, Germany. To account for the limitation of accurately installing sensors within the heterogeneous and porous ballast bulk, the heat fluxes were calculated from four different methods to compare their variability, dynamics and shortcomings. Ground heat fluxes were gathered from 1) a heat flux plate with the inclusion of heat storage between the soil surface and the heat flux plate, 2) temperature gradient measurements with correction for heat storage, 3) temperature gradient measurements with a modelled surface temperature and a laboratory derived thermal conductivity, 4) as residual from the surface energy balance equation. The results show a distinct deviation of the four methods for absolute values of the ground heat flux as well as for temporal dynamics on the diurnal cycle. As indicated by the temporal dynamics of the ground heat flux times series and a simple error analysis of the four methods, the most plausible estimates for an urban application in a heterogeneous ballast layer were obtained by temperature gradient measurements between the surface and −0.05 m. Overall, the results indicate that accurate ground heat flux measurements in urban applications still prove difficult to acquire.     

Eddy-covariance CO2 flux measurements using open- and closed-path CO2 analysers: Corrections for analyser water vapour sensitivity and damping of fluctuations in air sampling tubes

Methods of calibrating infrared CO₂ analysers for sensitivity to CO₂ and water vapour are described. Equations to correct eddy covariance CO₂ flux measurements are presented for: (i) analyser cross-sensitivity to water vapour and the effects of density fluctuations arising from atmospheric fluxes of water vapour and sensible heat, (ii) flux losses caused by signal processing and limited instrument frequency response for open- and closed-path CO₂ analysers, and (iii) flux losses resulting from damping of concentration fluctuations in a tube used to sample air for closed-path CO₂ analysers. Examples of flux corrections required for typical instruments are presented.     

Pilot study using SPOT satellite imagery over Apalachicola national forest to determine appropriate spatial scale for area-wide aggregation of surface fluxes

Summary High resolution radiances from SPOT satellite imagery converted to Normalized Difference Vegetation Indices (NDVI) over a 16×16 km² mixed ground cover study-area in the Apalachicola National Forest in northwest Florida, along with in situ measurements from a Bowen ratio surface flux monitoring system and physical modeling techniques, are used to determine the length manifold beyond which degraded resolution satellite imagery fails to capture flux variability over the scene. The investigation is relevant to an understanding of how bias error is generated in methods designed to produce scale-invariant surface flux estimates from satellite measurements. Error estimates are based on assigning characteristic NDVI values to the four predominant types of ground cover found within the study-area. An open site near the center of the study-area, which satisfies the conditions for surface flux monitoring, is used for obtaining input data for a biosphere-atmosphere exchange model designed to calculate representative fluxes for the different ground covers. Continuous 6-minute meteorological and surface flux measurements were made at the monitoring site for a period of 22 days. These measurements are used in conjunction with surface layer theory to provide surface layer profile estimates of wind speed, temperature, and relative humidity at the tops of the forested sites. The measured and derived meteorological parameters, together with representative biophysical parameters, are used as input to the biosphere-atmosphere exchange model. By representing sensible and latent heat flux distributions due to the variable ground cover with characteristic NDVI values at 20-m resolution, baseline area-wide sensible and latent heat flux quantities are calculated. Error-growth curves as a function of spatial resolution for the fluxes are found by degrading the resolution of the SPOT radiances used to calculate NDVI, and rationing the associated area-wide fluxes to the baseline values. The point at which an error-growth curve becomes invariant represents the edge of a length manifold beyond which the satellite input no longer contains information on surface flux variability, even though NDVI variability continues at all scales up to that of the complete SPOT scene. The error-growth curves are non-linear, with all the error build-up taking place between 20 m and 1.6 km. Decreasing the spatial resolution of the NDVI information down to or below 1.6 km, introduces bias errors in the area-wide surface flux estimates of 10% for sensible heat and 8% for latent heat. The underlying assumptions and modeling produce uncertainty in estimating the manifold limits, however, the principal objective is to show that in using satellite data for scale-invariant surface flux retrieval, there is an optimal spatial resolution factor that can be objectively quantified.With 10 Figures     

Heat and water vapour fluxes and scalar roughness lengths over an Antarctic ice shelf

We present eddy-correlation measurements of heat and water vapour fluxes made during the Antarctic winter. The surface layer was stably stratified throughout the period of observation and sensible heat fluxes were always directed downwards. However, both upward and downward water vapour fluxes were observed. Their magnitude was generally small and the latent heat flux was not a significant fraction of the surface energy budget. The variation of heat and water vapour fluxes with stability is well described by Monin-Obukhov similarity theory but the scalar roughness lengths for heat and water vapour appear to be much larger than the momentum roughness length. Possible explanations of this effect are discussed.     

涡旋相关法测定湍流通量偏低的研究

针对野外实验所发现的不同观测法测定地表能通量不平衡问题,进行了均匀加热大气边界层的大涡模拟实验.用模拟的湍流风、温度和湿度涨落的时间序列证实,对流边界层低频涡普遍存在,并经常以一簇一簇热泡的形式出现.风速较小时,有限时长的取样不足以捕捉低频涡的贡献,可造成涡旋相关法测量的统计量异常偏低.仿照涡旋相关法的步骤进行数据处理发现,经去除平均或趋势计算的温度和湿度通量偏低程度在边界层下部随观测高度的增高而显著,其中尤以湿度通量为甚.其结果在一定程度上可以解释低风速条件下地表能通量测量的不闭合问题,但是尚不能完全解释诸如青藏高原实验出现的严重不闭合.文中对此作了探讨性的讨论.     

Creating Surface Flux Maps from Airborne Measurements: Application to the Mackenzie Area GEWEX Study MAGS 1999

The objective of this study is to produce two-dimensional maps of the sensible and the latent heat fluxes from airborne measurements, based on the analysis of a flight pattern, called grid flights. A footprint model with along-wind and cross-wind components was used to project the measured fluxes onto the surface map. The method was applied to measurements over Arctic tundra during the Mackenzie Area GEWEX (Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment) Study (MAGS) 1999. The resulting flux estimates were computed by integration of a wavelet transform, and corrected for long wavelength losses using information from 100 km long regional runs that were conducted close to the grid flights. The random flux error was estimated based on the flight length that is represented in each map element, and a map resolution of 3 × 3 km was chosen in order to keep the average random error of the latent heat flux below 25%. The random error of the sensible heat flux was smaller by a factor of 1.4 on average. An analysis of airborne flux measurements at different altitudes showed no significant increase of flux estimates for measurement heights below 90 m. Thus, the fluxes measured at heights between 48 and 64 m were not corrected for vertical flux divergence. The resulting flux maps provide quantitative two-dimensional estimates of the energy exchange between the surface and the atmosphere during the snow melt period in an Arctic environment, which are well-suited for calibration and validation of numerical models.     

A solely radiance-based spectral angular distribution model and its application in deriving clear-sky spectral fluxes over tropical oceans

The radiation budget at the top of the atmosphere plays a critical role in climate research. Compared to the broadband flux, the spectrally resolved outgoing longwave radiation or flux(OLR), with rich atmospheric information in different bands,has obvious advantages in the evaluation of GCMs. Unlike methods that need auxiliary measurements and information, here we take atmospheric infrared sounder(AIRS) observations as an example to build a self-consistent algorithm by an angular distribution model(ADM), based solely on radiance observations, to estimate clear-sky spectrally resolved fluxes over tropical oceans. As the key step for such an ADM, scene type estimations are obtained from radiance and brightness temperature in selected AIRS channels. Then, broadband OLR as well as synthetic spectral fluxes are derived by the spectral ADM and validated using both synthetic spectra and CERES(Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System) observations. In most situations, the mean OLR differences between the spectral ADM products and the CERES observations are within ±2 W m~(-2), which is less than 1% of the typical mean clear-sky OLR over tropical oceans. The whole algorithm described in this study can be easily extended to other similar hyperspectral radiance measurements.     

Using Empirical Mode Decomposition to Filter Out Non-turbulent Contributions to Air–Sea Fluxes

A methodology based on Empirical mode decomposition (EMD) was used to filter out non-turbulent motions from measurements of atmospheric turbulence over the sea, aimed at reducing their contribution to eddy-covariance (EC) estimates of turbulent fluxes. The proposed methodology has two main objectives: (1) to provide more robust estimates of the fluxes of momentum, heat and CO\(_2\); and (2) to reduce the number of flux intervals rejected due to non-stationarity criteria when using traditional EC data processing techniques. The method was applied to measurements from a 28-day cruise (HALOCAST 2010) in the Eastern Pacific region. Empirical mode decomposition was applied to 4-h long time series data and used to determine the cospectral gap time scale, \(T_\mathrm{{gap}}\). Intrinsic modes of oscillation with characteristic periods longer than the gap scale due to non-turbulent motions were assumed and filtered out. Turbulent fluxes were then calculated for sub-intervals of length \(T_\mathrm{{gap}}\) from the filtered 4-h time series. In the HALOCAST data, the gap scale was successfully identified in 89% of the 4-h periods and had a mean of 37 s. The EMD approach resulted in the rejection of 11% of the flux intervals, which was much less than the 68% rejected when using standard filtering methods based on data non-stationarity. For momentum and sensible heat fluxes, the averaged difference in flux magnitude between the traditional and EMD approaches was small (3 and 1%, respectively). For the CO\(_2\) flux, the magnitude of EMD flux estimates was on average 16% less than fluxes estimated from linear detrended 10-min time series. These results provide evidence that the EMD method can be used to reduce the effects of non-turbulent correlations from flux estimates.     

Methods to Estimate Surface Fluxes of Momentum and Heat from Routine Weather Observations for Dispersion Applications under Stable Stratification

We examine the efficacy of two methods commonly used to estimate the vertical turbulent fluxes of momentum and sensible heat from routinely observed mean quantities in the surface layer under stable stratification. The single-level method uses mean wind speed and temperature measurements at a single height, whereas the two-level method uses mean wind speed measurements at a single height and mean temperature measurements at two heights. These methods are used in popular meteorological processors such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved AERMET and CALMET to generate inputs for dispersion simulations. We use data from a flux station of the U.K. Met Office at Cardington for comparison. It is found that the single-level method does not describe the flux variation in the weakly stable regime at all, because of its assumption that the temperature scale, i.e. the ratio of the kinematic sensible heat flux to the friction velocity, is constant, which is plausible only under strongly stable conditions. On the other hand, the two-level method provides a physically realistic variation of the fluxes with stability, but the required temperature measurements at two levels are usually not available on a routine basis. If measurements of the standard deviation of temperature are also available, in addition to the mean temperature at a single level, then they can be usefully employed in a third (single-level) method, with the consequence that the computed fluxes are very similar to those obtained from the two-level method. An improvement to the original single-level method is considered, and flux calculations under low wind conditions are also discussed.     

Surface energy balance,parameterizations of boundary-layer heights and the application of resistance laws near an Antarctic Ice Shelf front

A study of the surface energy balance with turbulent fluxes obtained by the Monin-Obukhov similarity theory and a comparison with results for resistance laws are presented for the strong baroclinic conditions in the vicinity of the Filchner/Ronne Ice Shelf front. The data are taken from a field experiment in the Antarctic summer season 1983/84. For the first time in the coastal Antarctic region, this data set comprises synchronous energy balance measurements over the polynya and the ice shelf together with soundings of the boundary layer, yielding vertical profiles of the wind velocity and temperature over the ice shelf, at the ice shelf front and over the polynya.Over the ice shelf, the radiation balance is the largest component of the energy fluxes and is mainly compensated by the subsurface energy flux and the turbulent heat flux in the daily mean. Over the polynya, turbulent fluxes of sensible and latent heat lead to large energy losses of the water surface in the night-time and in situations of very low air temperatures.Different parameterizations for boundary-layer height are compared using tethered sonde and energy balance measurements. With the height of the inversion base over the polynya and the height of the critical bulk Richardson number over the ice shelf, external parameters for the application of resistance laws were determined. The comparison of turbulent surface fluxes obtained by the energy balance measurements and by the resistance laws shows good agreement for the convective conditions over the polynya. For the stably stratified boundary layer over the ice shelf with small amounts of the turbulent heat flux, the deviation is large for the case of a cold air outflow with a superposed inertial oscillation.     

An Optimal Inverse Method Using Doppler Lidar Measurements to Estimate the Surface Sensible Heat Flux

Inverse methods are widely used in various fields of atmospheric science. However, such methods are not commonly used within the boundary-layer community, where robust observations of surface fluxes are a particular concern. We present a new technique for deriving surface sensible heat fluxes from boundary-layer turbulence observations using an inverse method. Doppler lidar observations of vertical velocity variance are combined with two well-known mixed-layer scaling forward models for a convective boundary layer (CBL). The inverse method is validated using large-eddy simulations of a CBL with increasing wind speed. The majority of the estimated heat fluxes agree within error with the proscribed heat flux, across all wind speeds tested. The method is then applied to Doppler lidar data from the Chilbolton Observatory, UK. Heat fluxes are compared with those from a mast-mounted sonic anemometer. Errors in estimated heat fluxes are on average 18 %, an improvement on previous techniques. However, a significant negative bias is observed (on average $-63\,\%$ ) that is more pronounced in the morning. Results are improved for the fully-developed CBL later in the day, which suggests that the bias is largely related to the choice of forward model, which is kept deliberately simple for this study. Overall, the inverse method provided reasonable flux estimates for the simple case of a CBL. Results shown here demonstrate that this method has promise in utilizing ground-based remote sensing to derive surface fluxes. Extension of the method is relatively straight-forward, and could include more complex forward models, or other measurements.     

Water vapour flux profiles in the convective boundary layer

Summary Water vapour flux profiles in the atmospheric boundary layer have been derived from measurements of water vapour density fluctuations by a ground-based Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) and of vertical wind fluctuations by a ground-based Doppler lidar. The data were collected during the field experiment LITFASS-2003 in May/June 2003 in the area of Lindenberg, Germany. The eddy-correlation method was applied, and error estimates of ±50 W/m² for latent heat flux were found. Since the sampling error dominates the overall measurement accuracy, time intervals between 60 and 120 min were required for a reliable flux calculation, depending on wind speed. Rather large errors may occur with low wind speed because the diurnal cycle restricts the useful interval length. In the lower height range, these measurements are compared with DIAL/radar-RASS fluxes. The agreement is good when comparing covariance and error values. The lidar flux profiles are well complemented by tower measurements at 50 and 90 m above ground and by area-averaged near surface fluxes from a network of micrometeorological stations. Water vapour flux profiles in the convective boundary layer exhibit different structures mainly depending on the magnitude of the entrainment flux. In situations with dry air above the boundary layer a positive entrainment flux is observed which can even exceed the surface flux. Flux profiles which linearly increase from the surface to the top of the boundary layer are observed as well as profiles which decrease in the lower part and increase in the upper part of the boundary layer. In situations with humid air above the boundary layer the entrainment flux is about zero in the upper part of the boundary layer and the profiles in most cases show a linear decrease.     

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.