Large Aperture Scintillometer Used Over A Homogeneous Irrigated Area, Partly Affected By Regional Advection

Abstract

Scintillometer measurements were collected over an irrigated wheat field ina semi-arid region in northwest Mexico. Conditions were unstable in the morning andstable during the afternoon, while latent heat fluxes remained high throughout the day.Regional advection was observed during near-neutral conditions. Monin–Obukhovsimilarity relationships for the structure parameter of temperature were verified in both unstable and stable conditions, but were violated close to near-neutral conditions. We found that, using additional measurements of radiation, soil heat flux and windspeed, areally averages of both sensible and latent heat fluxes can be reliably predicted by large aperture scintillometer measurements, as long as the net radiation is greater than zero.