Determination of averaging period parameter and its effects analysis for eddy covariance measurements

Abstract

It is more and more popular to estimate the exchange of water vapor, heat and CO2 fluxes between the land surface and the atmosphere using the eddy covariance technique. To get believable fluxes, it is necessary to correct the observations based on the different surface conditions and to determine relevant techinical parameters. The raw 10 Hz eddy covariance data observed in the Yucheng and Changbai Mountains stations were recalculated by various averaging periods (from 1 to 720 min) respectively, and the recalculated results were compared with the results calculated by the averaging period of 30 mins. Meanwhile, the distinctions of fluxes calculated by different averaging periods were analyzed. The continuous 15 days observations over wheat fields in the Yucheng station were mainly analyzed. The results are shown that: (i) In the Yucheng station, compared with the observations by 30 min, when the averaging period changes from 10 to 60 min, the variations of the eddy-covariance estimates of fluxes were less than 2%; when the averaging period changes less than 10 min, the estimate of fluxes reduced obviously with the reduction of the averaging period (the max relative error was -12%); and when the averaging period exceeds 120 min, the eddy covariance estimates of fluxes will be increased and become unsteady (the max relative error is over 10%); (ii) the eddy covariance estimates of fluxes over wheat field in the Yucheng station suggusted that it is much better to take 10 min as an averaging period in studying diurnal change of fluxes, and take 30 min for a long-term flux observation; and (iii) normalized ratio was put forward to determine the range of averaging period of eddy covariance measurements. By comparing the observations over farmlands and those over forests, it is indicated that the increase of eddy covariance estimates over tall forest was more than that over short vegetation when the averaging period increased.