Abstract
Substantial worldwide efforts are underway aimed at identifying the spatial and temporal distribution of the global sources and sinks of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). The sink/source strength of vegetated surfaces at ground sites can now be estimated with reasonable accuracy and micrometeorological techniques are now well established, while difficulties exist in up scaling these figures to the regional and global scales. Airborne measurement of mass, momentum, and energy fluxes for boundary layer research has been available for decades requiring the use of large aircraft to carry instruments and dedicated support facilities. The advent of compact, lowpower instruments and high speed, high-capacity digital data acquisition systems has recently allowed small research aircraft to perform such measurements with high accuracy. This paper first describes the Sky Arrow ERA (Environmental Research Aircraft), a small research aircraft that has been recently developed in Italy, in the frame of an international scientific collaboration. This aircraft can be operated to measure fluxes of mass, momentum and energy while flying at low altitude and reduced ground speed. The fluxes are computed with the airborne eddy correlation technique. The basic theory at the basis of the flux measurement technique is also described in the paper, and two application examples are discussed to illustrate the quality and the accuracy of the measurements that can be made using this research platform. Potential applications of those data to parametrize land surface schemes, validate simulation models and provide extensive and reliable ground truthing for satellite remote sensing applications are highlighted.
Highlights
Research aircraft are becoming increasingly important for biospheric and atmospheric research
The recent advent of Small Environmental Research Aircraft (SERA) (Crawford et al, 2001) was of special importance to develop airborne wind and turbulence measurements as small aircraft result in minimized flow distorsion leading to more reliable and precise measurements, and they can fly at low speed and at very low altitude
This paper provides a technical description of the Sky Arrow ERA (Environmental Research Aircraft), a small research aircraft that has been operated by the Institute of Biometeorology of CNR (National Research Council of Italy) over the last two years
Summary
Research aircraft are becoming increasingly important for biospheric and atmospheric research. SERAs are making airborne science increasingly accessible to a larger scientific community, enhancing the overall capacity to monitor and understand the most important land surface processes and the biosphere/atmosphere interactions and feedback. This paper provides a technical description of the Sky Arrow ERA (Environmental Research Aircraft), a small research aircraft that has been operated by the Institute of Biometeorology of CNR (National Research Council of Italy) over the last two years. This SERA is the product of an international collaboration between US and Italian scientists and an Italian aircraft industry and it is capable of measuring mass, energy and momentum fluxes using the airborne eddy correlation technique. Two examples of the performance of the Sky Arrow ERA for the measurement of terrestrial and marine/fresh water mass and energy fluxes will be illustrated and briefly discussed in this paper to highlight the large potential of this innovative tool for environmental research
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