Determination of water vapor and liquid water content by an iterative method

Summary A simple method of retrieving water vapor and liquid water content is presented and validated by applying the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager data using ground truth data from Japan. The method is based on an iterative technique which uses model functions of relating two geophysical parameters to brightness temperature. Water vapor is found by a model function of relating water vapor content to brightness temperature at 22.235 GHz. Liquid water content is found by two model functions. One function defines a level of clear sky condition, and the other gives a ratio of liquid water content to brightness temperature increased from clear sky conditions. The retrieved water vaporcontent is compared with upper air observations at Chichijima Island. The rms of errors is estimated at 3.3 Kg m^–2. The retrieved liquid water content is related to monthly precipitation observed at Chichijima Island, and a correlation coefficient of 0.68 is obtained.With 7 Figures     

LABORATORY STUDY ON MICROWAVE REMOTE SENSING OF GROUND TRUTH

In order to improve the interpretation of the earth system microwave remote sensing, the research of microwavespectrum characteristics of the ground truth (earth objects) was carried out in laboratory. A laboratory formicrowave remote sensing of the earth objects has been constructed to improve the remote sensing level, thelaboratory consists of four parts: the measuring system of dielectric constants, the microwave emissivity meter,the microwave reflectometer and the microwave remote sensing simulation experiment in field. In this paper,the principle of measurement, the correction of near field process, the structure of instrument, the calibrationmethod and the measurement of the earth substances, including soil, water and oil, are discussed. The labora-tory may supply the condition for measuring the parameters of thc earth substance remote sensing and help tointerpret the remote sensing data.     

LABORATORY STUDY ON MICROWAVE REMOTE SENSING OF GROUND TRUTH*

In order to improve the interpretation of the earth system microwave remote sensing,the research of microwave spectrum characteristics of the ground truth (earth objects) was carried out in laboratory.A laboratory for microwave remote sensing of the earth objects has been constructed to improve the remote sensing level,the laboratory consists of four parts:the measuring system of dielectric constants,the microwave emissivity meter,the microwave reflectometer and the microwave remote sensing simulation experiment in field.In this paper,the principle of measurement,the correction of near field process,the structure of instrument,the calibration method and the measurement of the earth substances,including soil,water and oil,are discussed.The laboratory may supply the condition for measuring the parameters of thc earth substance remote sensing and help to interpret the remote sensing data.     

Acoustic tomography and conventional meteorological measurements over heterogeneous surfaces

Summary Conventional micro-meteorological measuring methods are not particularly suitable for the investigation of the energy exchange under heterogeneous surface conditions. To consider the influence of the different surface properties, area-covered and spatially averaged meteorological measurements in combination with highly resolved simulations are necessary. In this context, the method of acoustic travel time tomography is introduced to provide information about the horizontal temperature and wind field.To check the applicability of the tomographic method for this problem and to provide data for the model initialisation a field experiment was carried out.The tomographic system and conventional meteorological equipment were utilised inside the investigation area with an extension of several hundred meters (300×700m²), which was arranged over areas with different surface properties: grassland and bare soil.The results of the field experiment show that differences between the measuring systems (in-situ and remote sensing) exist and the heterogeneity of the underlying surface is visible in the near surface temperature and wind field at a scale, which can be resolved with highly resolved numerical models. Depending on the incoming solar radiation and the local advection regional distinctions in the air temperature and wind field as well as in the vertical sensible heat fluxes were observed.The investigations demonstrate that the sensitivity of the acoustic tomography is sufficient to verify gradients in the meteorological fields even when the horizontal differences in sensible heat flux are small.     

利用地面遥感仪器对土壤水分的监测试验

在陇东黄土高原对西峰农业气象试验站内的裸地、生长茂盛的小麦、玉米地、草地4类地物进行了CE312热红外辐射计及CE313可见光、近红外辐射计的同步观测和土壤水分的实测,试验观测数据的初步分析结果表明:热红外辐射计各通道的亮温变化与土壤水分的变化呈非线性相关,由于影响各地物亮温的因素较为复杂,主要表现为对裸地的监测效果较好,在有植被覆盖的情况下关系不明显。此外通过比较各地物亮温与植被指数发现二者有较好相关性。实践证明,利用地面遥感监测土壤水分从理论上是可行的,可进一步通过亮温和植被指数来建立试验区的土壤水分监测模型。     

Trend of monthly temperature and daily extreme temperature during 1951–2012 in New Zealand

A new method for calculating evaporation is proposed, using the Penman–Monteith (P-M) model with remote sensing. This paper achieved the effective estimation to daily evapotranspiration in the Ziya river catchment by using the P-M model based on MODIS remote sensing leaf area index and respectively estimated plant transpiration and soil evaporation by using coefficient of soil evaporation. This model divided catchment into seven different sub-regions which are prairie, meadow, grass, shrub, broad-leaved forest, cultivated vegetation, and coniferous forest through thoroughly considering the vegetation diversity. Furthermore, optimizing and calibrating parameters based on each sub-region and analyzing spatio-temporal variation rules of the model main parameters which are coefficient of soil evaporation f and maximum stomatal conductance g _sx . The results indicate that f and g _sx calibrated by model are basically consistent with measured data and have obvious spatio-temporal distribution characteristics. The monthly average evapotranspiration value of simulation is 37.96 mm/mon which is close to the measured value with 33.66 mm/mon and the relative error of simulation results in each subregion are within 11 %, which illustrates that simulated values and measured values fit well and the precision of model is high. In addition, plant transpiration and soil evaporation account for about 84.64 and 15.36 % respectively in total evapotranspiration, which means the difference between values of them is large. What is more, this model can effectively estimate the green water resources in basin and provide effective technological support for water resources estimation.     

An evaluation of various forms of VAS retrievals in the analysis of a preconvective environment

Summary Quantitative retrievals derived from VISSR Atmospheric Sounder (VAS) radiances are combined with conventional surface and radiosonde data to evaluate the impact of the higher time and space resolution geosynchronous satellite soundings on the diagnosis of a preconvective environment over the central United States on 20 July 1981. Retrievals of temperature, dewpoint temperature, equivalent potential temperature, total column precipitable water, and lifted index, all derived at 60 km resolution over approximately three-hourly intervals, are shown to be physically consistent in space and time and to compare well with available radiosonde data. When VAS fields are used to augment qualitative VAS imagery and analyses from conventional data sources mesoscale regions with convective instability are more clearly delineated prior to the development of convection. The analysis of the VAS retrievals identifies significant spatial gradients and temporal changes in the thermal and moisture fields, especially at times and locations between radiosonde observations. Direct retrievals of vertically integrated bulk precipitable water and lifted index are particularly useful in this case since they correspond well to features in the VAS imagery and provide a strong preconvective signature. The nature of the VAS instrument dictates that these bulk parameters should display more consistency in space and time than the level-specific parameters due to the poor vertical resolution of the VAS instrument. The detailed analyses also point to limitations in using VAS data. Even with nearly optimal conditions for passive remote sounding (generally clear skies, minimal orographic effects, and a rapidly changing moisture field), the VAS retrievals were still degraded in some regions by VAS instrument noise and calibration errors and unresolved cloud contamination. Another problem is the cloud-free nature of the instrument data set, which biases the results toward a drier environment. In spite of these and other limitations, the analyses demonstrate that the geosynchronous VAS can be used in a case study mode to produce high-resolution spatial and temporal measurements which are useful for the quantitative analysis of a cloud-free preconvective environment.With 16 Figures     

Reduction of forecast error for global numerical weather prediction by The Florida State University (FSU) Superensemble

Summary The skill of the FSU Superensemble technique as applied to global numerical weather prediction is evaluated extensively in this paper. The global mass and motion fields for year 2000 and precipitation over the domain 55S to 55N for year 2001, as predicted by the Superensemble, the ensemble member models, and the mean of the ensemble members, are evaluated by standard statistical measures of skill to determine the performance of the Superensemble in relation to the other models. The member models are global forecast models from 5 of the worlds operational forecast centers in addition to the FSU global spectral model. For precipitation 5 additional versions of the FSU global model are utilized in the ensemble, as defined by different initial conditions provided by various physical initialization algorithms. Statistical parameters calculated for the mass and motion fields include root mean square (RMS) error, systematic error (or bias), and anomaly correlation. These are applied to the mean sea level pressure, 500hPa heights, and the wind fields at 850hPa and 200hPa. Statistical parameters that were calculated for precipitation include RMS error, correlation, equitable threat score (ETS), and a special definition of bias appropriate for the precipitation field. For the mass and motion fields the performance of the Superensemble was considered for the annual global case, as well as for each hemisphere (north and south) and for each of the four seasons. For precipitation only the annual case was considered over the domain cited above.For the mass and motion fields the RMS calculations showed the Superensemble to be superior (to have the smallest total forecast error) in all comparisons to the ensemble member models, and to be superior to the ensemble mean in the vast majority of comparisons. Performance in comparison to the other models was generally better in the Southern Hemisphere than in the Northern Hemisphere, and better in the transition seasons of fall and spring than in the extreme seasons of winter and summer. The Superensemble had the best success with mean sea level pressure, followed in order by 500hPa geopotential heights, 850hPa winds, and 200hPa winds.In the calculations of 500hPa geopotential height anomaly correlation the Superensemble had higher scores in all comparisons to the ensemble member models, as well as higher scores in the majority of comparisons to the ensemble mean. As with the RMS error results, the Superensemble performed better in the Southern Hemisphere than in the Northern Hemisphere, and better in fall than in summer, in comparison to the other models. The superior anomaly correlation scores of the Superensemble attest to the ability of the model to forecast daily perturbations from the climatological means, perturbations that are associated with transient synoptic scale features, given the horizontal resolution in the forecast models.In terms of systematic error reduction the Superensemble produces its most impressive results. Annual global mean sea-level pressure systematic errors for day 5 forecasts are generally in the range of ±1hPa (compared to errors as high as 8hPa in other models), and day 2 forecasts of 500hPa geopotential height produced systematic errors generally in the range of ±10 meters (compared to errors as high as 60 meters in other models). The Superensemble was able to reduce systematic errors in forecasts of a variety of important features in the global mass and motion fields: surface equatorial trough, wave amplitude in geopotential heights at 500hPa, trade winds and Somali Jet at 850hPa, mid-latitude westerlies, subtropical jet, and Tropical Easterly Jet (TEJ) at 200hPa.In terms of forecasting precipitation the Superensemble outperforms all ensemble member models and the ensemble mean in terms of RMS error, correlation coefficient, equitable threat score, and bias. The superior correlation scores indicate that the Superensemble is more reliable than the other models in predicting perturbations in the area distribution of precipitation, perturbations that are essentially associated with migrant synoptic scale disturbances, considering the horizontal resolution of the forecast models.The Superensemble is a valuable tool for significantly improving upon the global model forecasts of the worlds operational forecast centers. These forecasts are used daily as important guidance in making weather forecasts in all regions of the world. This paper will demonstrate that the Superensemble improves upon the ensemble member model forecasts: (1) in a statistical sense considering broad areas of the globe, (2) in a synoptic climatology sense through focus on the improved forecasts of climatological features seen in the global mass and motion fields, (3) in a synoptic sense through use of anomaly correlation and correlation coefficient where improvement is demonstrated in the forecasts of perturbations from mean fields which are essentially associated with transient synoptic scale disturbances.     

Remotely sensed soil moisture integration in an ecosystem carbon flux model. The spatial implication

While remote sensing is able to provide spatially explicit datasets at regional to global scales, extensive application to date has been found only in the reporting and verification of ecosystem carbon fluxes under the Kyoto Protocol. One of the problems is that new remote sensing datasets can be used only with models or data assimilation schemes adapted to include a data input interface dedicated to the type and format of these remote sensing datasets. In this study, soil water index data (SWI), derived from the ERS scatterometer (10-daily time period with a spatial resolution of 50 km), are integrated into the ecosystem carbon balance model C-Fix to assess 10-daily Net Ecosystem Productivity (NEP) patterns of Europe from the remote sensing perspective on an approximate 1-by-1 km² pixel scale using NDVI-AVHRR data. The modeling performance of NEP obtained with and without the assimilation of remotely sensed soil moisture data in the carbon flux model C-Fix is evaluated with EUROFLUX data. Results show a general decrease of the RRMSE of up to 11 with an average of 3.46. C-Fix is applied at the European scale to demonstrate the potential of this ecosystem carbon flux model, based on remote sensing inputs. More specifically, the strong impact of soil moisture on the European carbon balance in the context of the Kyoto Protocol (anthropogenic carbon emissions) is indicated at the country level. Results suggest that several European countries shift from being a carbon sink (i.e., NEP > 1) to being a carbon source (i.e., NEP < 0) whether or not short-term water availability (i.e., soil moisture) is considered in C-Fix NEP estimations.     

Modelling the ground heat flux of an urban area using remote sensing data

Summary During the Basel Urban Boundary Layer Experiment (BUBBLE) conducted in 2002, micrometeorological in-situ data were collected for different sites using a variety of instruments. This provides a unique data set for urban climate studies. Nevertheless, the spatial distribution of energy and heat fluxes can only be taken into account with remote sensing methods or numerical models. Therefore, multiple satellite images from different platforms (NOAA-AVHRR, MODIS and LANDSAT ETM+) were acquired, processed and analysed. In addition, a high resolution digital elevation model (DEM) and a 1 m resolution digital surface model (DSM) of a large part of the city of Basel was utilized. This paper focuses on the calculation and modelling of the ground (or storage) heat flux density using remotely sensed data combined with in-situ measurements using three different approaches. First, an empirical regression function was generated to estimate the storage heat flux from NDVI values second approach used the Objective Hysteresis Model (OHM) which is often used for in-situ measurements. The last method used information of the geometric parameters of urban street canyons, computed from the high resolution digital urban surface model. Modelled and measured data are found to be in agreement within ±30 Wm⁻² and result in a coefficient of determination (R²) of 0.95.     

利用静止气象卫星红外通道遥感监测中国沙尘暴

气象卫星的红外窗区通道 (8~12 μm) 对于通常大气气溶胶几乎没有响应, 但对于较大颗粒且浓度较强的沙尘气溶胶, 尤其是沙尘暴有明显的信号反应。空气中的沙尘在红外分裂窗通道表现出两个特征:一是对地表发射到空间的红外信号产生衰减, 造成卫星探测到的地气系统亮温降低, 这就是所谓的红外差值沙尘指数IDDI; 二是沙尘粒子在红外分裂窗两个通道的比辐射率不同, 11 μm比12 μm的比辐射率低, 从而造成这两个通道的亮温差是负值。基于这两个特征和沙尘多通道光谱聚类法, 针对静止气象卫星观测数据进行了沙尘暴卫星遥感监测业务算法开发, 输出沙尘暴监测产品和红外差值沙尘指数产品, 这一算法不仅用于已经退役的GMS-5卫星, 而且应用于正在运行的静止气象卫星FY-2C, 它还为沙尘暴的定量或半定量遥感提供参考借鉴。     

On the correlation between turbulent velocity and temperature derivatives in the atmospheric surface layer

Velocity and temperature derivatives were obtained at a height of 4 m in the atmospheric surface layer above land. With the assumption of local isotropy, these measurements are used to obtain some statistics of the turbulent energy and scalar dissipation fields. These statistics include the variances of the logarithms of the scalar and velocity dissipation fields and the correlation between these logarithms. When used in conjunction with the hypotheses for fluctuations in turbulent dissipation rates of Obukhov and Kolmogorov, the statistics suggest that the dependence of the flatness factor of temperature derivative on the turbulent Rynolds number R is not as large as that which had been previously reported in the literature. The experimental data indicate a R ^0.5 dependence for the kurtosis of the temperature derivative and a R ^0.15 variation for the strain rate-scalar dissipation correlation.     

植被温度条件指数在土壤墒情遥感监测中的应用

利用多年极轨气象卫星遥感资料,在计算出植被条件指数和温度条件指数的基础上,计算了遥感监测土壤墒情的植被温度条件指数(TV)。通过实测土壤湿度和TV的散点图,可以得到土壤墒情遥感模型的干旱等级指标,可用于干旱等级定性监测;通过建立土壤湿度和TV的回归方程,可进行土壤墒情定量监测。该方法兼有植被条件指数和温度条件指数的优点,且计算简单,对地面气象要素依赖性小,实时性好,在作物生长旺盛期,其定量反演0~30 cm土壤墒情精度平均可达80%以上,可以替代作物缺水指数法。     

The landfall and structure of a tropical cyclone: The sensitivity of model predictions to soil moisture parameterizations

A regional mesoscale multi-level primitive equation model is used to predict the landfall and structure of a tropical cyclone. Three areas of model sensitivity are addressed in this paper; (1) the horizontal resolution, which includes the representation of orography; (2) the impact of an improved representation of the distribution of land surface soil moisture on the landfall problem; and (3) the sensitivity of the storm to lateral boundary conditions. A diagnostic part of this study describes a statistical regression approach to determining a ground wetness parameterization from moisture budget computations to derive estimates of surface fluxes, which are used to determine the parameterization. The model sensitivity analysis compares several versions of ground wetness parameterization. The experiment where perfect (i.e., based on analysis of observations) boundary conditions are used is defined as a bench-mark. At the highest horizontal resolution (=50km) using the ground wetness obtained from the regression, the best results were found for the structure and motion of the tropical cyclone. When the boundary conditions from a global model are used at a resolution T106 (roughly 100 km resolution for the transformed grid), the results degrade somewhat. The rain bands are predicted, but do not contain the same detail. Several other sensitivity experiments illustrate the degree of degradation of rain bands, precipitation distribution, hurricane structure, and phase speed errors as the lateral boundaries, resolution, and ground wetness parameterization are altered.     

卫星反演积雪信息的研究进展

综合分析了积雪信息反演的主要遥感信息源和提取方法。在光学遥感方面，应用较广的主要是改进型甚高分辨率扫描辐射仪（AVHRR）资料和中分辨率成像光谱仪（MODIS）资料；提取积雪信息大多是根据积雪在可见光波段的高反射率和近红外波段的低反射率，并通过建立回归模型反演积雪面积和深度。由于传感器的改进，MODIS卫星资料在空间分辨率、积雪反演算法等方面明显优于AVHRR资料。光学仪器受云层和大气的影响很大，由于云和积雪在可见光和近红外波段上都具有高反射率。并且由于云层的遮挡。云下的地表信息不能被光学遥感仪器所接收到。微波遥感方面，被动微波遥感仪如微波辐射计成像仪（SSM／I）、高级微波扫描辐射计（AMSR—E）等可以全天候穿过云层进行监测，具有光学仪器所没有的优势，并通过提取地表的亮温差，建立雪深反演模型得到积雪深度。被动微波传感器存在分辨率低。无法监测浅雪区信息等问题。另外影响地表微波亮温的因素很多，这些都在一定程度上影响了反演结果的精确度。主动微波遥感仪如合成孔径雷达、微波散射计等利用积雪与其它地物的后向散射系数的不同来识别积雪，但也同样存在分辨率低等问题。最后探讨了卫星反演积雪信息中仍然存在的问题和进一步发展的方向。     

Mapping surface soil moisture with microwave radiometers

Summary Water stored in the soil serves as a reservoir for the evapotranspiration (ET) process on land surfaces, therefore knowledge of the soil moisture content is important for partitioning the incoming solar radiation into latent and sensible heat components. There is no remote sensing technique which directly observes the amount of water in this reservoir, however microwave remote sensing at long wavelengths (>10 cm) can give estimates of the moisture stored in the surface 5-cm layer of the soil. This approach is based on the large dielectric contrast between water and dry soil, resulting in emissivity changes from 0.96 for a dry smooth soil to less than 0.6.In this paper, basic relationships between soil moisture and emissivity are described using both theory and observations from various platforms. The ability of the approach to be extended to large regions has been demonstrated in several aircraft mapping experiments, e.g., FIFE, Monsoon 90, Washita 92 and HAPEX Sahel. Some results from Monsoon 90 are presented here. Applications of these soil moisture maps in runoff prediction, rainfall estimation, determining the direct evaporation from the soil surface and serving as a boundary condition for soil profile models are presented.With 10 Figures     

Impact of horizontal resolution on the simulation of the Asian summer monsoon and tropical cyclones in the JMA global model

To investigate the impact of increasing horizontal resolution on a simulated model climate, we conducted an experiment using the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) operational global atmosphere model (JMA-GSM0103). The models with four different horizontal resolutions ranging from T42 to T213 have been integrated over three years with prescribed climate sea surface temperature in the experiment. The distributions of 3-year averaged seasonal mean fields are basically similar among the models with different resolution, although there are some monotonic and systematic differences with increasing resolution. However, the climatology of synoptic scale phenomena is well represented in higher resolution models. The position and amount of precipitation in Baiu front (or Mei-yu) at higher resolution models agree well with observations. The start time of northward propagation of heavy precipitation over the Bay of Bengal, which is associated with Indian monsoon development, is also well simulated in higher resolution models. The number of tropical cyclones increases monotonically with resolutions. The simulated tropical cyclones become more realistic with increasing resolution.     

利用FY-1D极轨气象卫星分裂窗区通道计算陆表温度

根据理论和经验上已证明的地表温度与AVHRR窗区通道4、5的亮度温度存在线性或非线性关系, 通过对2818条全球晴空大气廓线做不同比辐射率地表的FY-1D窗区通道4、5辐射率的模拟计算, 推导出FY-1D极轨气象卫星的红外通道4、5亮温与地表温度的二次回归关系式。同时详细介绍了由这一回归关系式和FY-1D高分辨率图像传输 (HRPT) 遥测数据计算陆表温度的方法, 最后给出陆表温度计算结果的精度:用中国地面气象台站的0 cm地温观测数据与相同时刻的分辨率为0.01°×0.01°经纬度的卫星陆表温度相对比, 两者非常吻合, 绝大部分台站|ΔT|＜3.0 K。     

Microwave vegetation optical depth and inverse modelling of soil emissivity using Nimbus/SMMR satellite observations

Summary A radiative transfer model has been used to determine the large scale effective 6.6 GHz and 37 GHz optical depths of the vegetation cover. Knowledge of the vegetation optical depth is important for satellite-based large scale soil moisture monitoring using microwave radiometry. The study is based on actual observed large scale surface soil moisture data and observed dual polarization 6.6 and 37 GHz Nimbus/SMMR brightness temperatures over a 3-year period. The derived optical depths have been compared with microwave polarization differences and polarization ratios in both frequencies and with Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values from NOAA/AVHRR. A synergistic approach to derive surface soil emissivity from satellite observed brightness temperatures by inverse modelling is described. This approach improves the relationship between satellite derived surface emissivity and large scale top soil moisture fromR ²=0.45 (no correction for vegetation) toR ²=0.72 (after correction for vegetation). This study also confirms the relationship between the microwave-based MPDI and NDVI earlier described and explained in the literature.List of Symbols f frequency [Hz] - f _i(p) fractional absorption at polarizationp - h surface roughness - h h cos² - H horizontal polarization - n _i complex index of refraction - p polarization (H orV) - R _s microwave surface reflectivity - T _B(p) brightness temperature at polarizationp - T ^* normalized brightness temperature - T polarization difference (T _v-T _H) - T _s temperature of soil surface - T _c temperature of canopy - T _max daily maximum air temperature - T _min daily minimum air temperature - V vertical polarization - soil moisture distribution factor; also used for the constant to partition the influence of bound and free water components to the dielectric constant of the mixture - empirical complex constant related to soil texture - microwave transmissivity of vegetation (=e ^–) - ^* effective transmissivity of vegetation (assuming =0) - microwave emissivity - _s emissivity of smooth soil surface - _rs emissivity of rough soil surface - _vs emissivity of vegetated surface - soil moisture content (% vol.) - K dielectric constant [F·m^–1] - K _fw dielectric constant of free water [F·m^–1] - K _ss dielectric constant of soil solids [F·m^–1] - K _m dielectric constant of mixture [F·m^–1] - K _o permittivity of free space [8.854·10^–12 F·m^–1] - high frequency limit ofK _wf [F·m^–1] - wavelength [m] - incidence angle [degrees from nadir] - polarization ratio (T _H/T _V) - b soil bulk density [gr·cm^–3] - s soil particle density [gr·cm^–3] - R surface reflectivity in red portion of spectrum - NIR surface reflectivity in near infrared portion of spectrum - _eff effective conductivity of soil extract [mS·cm^–1] - vegetation optical depth - _6.6 vegetation optical depth at 6.6 GHz - ₃₇ vegetation optical depth at 37 GHz - ^* effective vegetation optical depth (assuming =0) - single scattering albedo of vegetation With 12 Figures     

A Case Study of Carbon Pools Under Three Different Land-Uses in Panamá

This paper examines changes in carbon (C) pools associated with land-use, synthesizing data from two experiments dealing with different aspects of tree plantation establishment in Central Panamá. First, we analysed soil profiles in a grazed pasture and an adjacent 5-year-old teak (Tectona grandis) plantation. There were small differences in soil C mass in the top 10 cm of the pasture and the plantation, though analysis of paired profiles suggested larger differences at greater depth. Analysis of the ¹³C signatures in the pasture soils and litter showed that 90% to 95% of the organic matter in the surface 5 cm was derived from C₄ pasture plants, over the 45 years since the pasture was converted from forest. Comparison of the ¹³C signatures in the pasture and teak plantation profiles indicated substantial replacement of C₄—derived organic matter with the dominantly C₃—derived plantation tissues. Organic matter turnover times in the upper 10 cm of the soils ranged from 8 to 34 years and from 11 to 58 years in the upper 30 cm, depending on topographic location. We also present preliminary results, and technical challenges, for an eddy covariance experiment set up to provide a direct comparison between a grazed pasture and a native tree plantation. The two ecosystems studied are estimated to be small CO₂ sinks, 92 g,C,m^–2 yr^–1 for the pasture, and 57 g,C,m^–2 yr^–1 for native species plantation in the first year after establishment. The pastures response to seasonal change was more pronounced, both in term of CO₂ fluxes and in term of herbaceous productivity, than the plantations response. The storage below ground systems contained up 40% of the total sapling biomass.