Particle fluxes above forests: Observations, methodological considerations and method comparisons

Abstract

This paper reports a study designed to test, evaluate and compare micro-meteorological methods for determining the particle number flux above forest canopies. Half-hour average particle number fluxes above a representative broad-leaved forest in Denmark derived using eddy covariance range from −7 × 10 7 m −2 s −1 (1st percentile) to 5 × 10 7 m −2 s −1 (99th percentile), and have a median value of −1.6 × 10 6 m −2 s −1. The statistical uncertainties associated with the particle number flux estimates are larger than those for momentum fluxes and imply that in this data set approximately half of the particle number fluxes are not statistically different to zero. Particle number fluxes from relaxed eddy accumulation (REA) and eddy covariance are highly correlated and of almost identical magnitude. Flux estimates from the co-spectral and dissipation methods are also correlated with those from eddy covariance but exhibit higher absolute magnitude of fluxes.