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.     

Evaporation over a Heterogeneous Land Surface: EVA_GRIPS and the LITFASS-2003 Experiment—An Overview

The Evaporation at Grid/Pixel Scale (EVA_GRIPS) project was realised in order to determine the area-averaged evaporation over a heterogeneous land surface at the scale of a grid box of a regional numerical weather prediction or climate model, and at the scale of a pixel of a satellite image. EVA_GRIPS combined surface-based and airborne measurements, satellite data analysis, and numerical modelling activities. A mesoscale field experiment, LITFASS-2003, was carried out in the heterogeneous landscape around the Meteorological Observatory Lindenberg (MOL) of the German Meteorological Service in May and June, 2003. The experiment was embedded in the comprehensive, operational measurement program of the MOL. Experimental determination of surface fluxes on a variety of spatial scales was achieved by employing micrometeorological flux stations, scintillometers, a combination of ground-based remote sensing instruments, and the Helipod, a turbulence probe carried by a helicopter. Surface energy fluxes were also derived from satellite data. Modelling work included the use of different Soil–Vegetation–Atmosphere Transfer schemes, a large-eddy simulation model and three mesoscale atmospheric models. The paper gives an overview on the background of EVA_GRIPS, and on the measurements and meteorological conditions during LITFASS-2003. A few general results are discussed.     

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