Turbulent Fluxes Of Water Vapor Research Articles

Gap Filling and Quality Assessment of CO2 and Water Vapour Fluxes above an Urban Area with Radial Basis Function Neural Networks

Vertical turbulent fluxes of water vapour, carbon dioxide, and sensible heat were measured from 16 August to the 28 September 2006 near the city centre of Munster in north-west Germany. In comparison to results of measurements above homogeneous ecosystem sites, the CO2 fluxes above the urban investigation area showed more peaks and higher variances during the course of a day, probably caused by traffic and other varying, anthropogenic sources. The main goal of this study is the introduction and establishment of a new gap filling procedure using radial basis function (RBF) neural networks, which is also applicable under complex environmental conditions. We applied adapted RBF neural networks within a combined modular expert system of neural networks as an innovative approach to fill data gaps in micrometeorological flux time series. We found that RBF networks are superior to multi-layer perceptron (MLP) neural networks in the reproduction of the highly variable turbulent fluxes. In addition, we enhanced the methodology in the field of quality assessment for eddy covariance data. An RBF neural network mapping system was used to identify conditions of a turbulence regime that allows reliable quantification of turbulent fluxes through finding an acceptable minimum of the friction velocity. For the data analysed in this study, the minimum acceptable friction velocity was found to be 0.15 m s−1. The obtained CO2 fluxes, measured on a tower at 65 m a.g.l., reached average values of 12 μmol m−2 s−1 and fell to nighttime minimum values of 3 μmol m −2 s−1. Mean daily CO2 emissions of 21 g CO2 m−2d −1 were obtained during our 6-week experiment. Hence, the city centre of Munster appeared to be a significant source of CO2. The half-hourly average values of water vapour fluxes ranged between 0.062 and 0.989 mmol m−2 s−1and showed lower variances than the simultaneously measured fluxes of CO2.

Atmospheric Response to a Partial Solar Eclipse over a Cotton Field in Central California

Abstract The partial solar eclipse on 11 July 1991 in central California, with 58.3% maximum coverage, provided an exceptional opportunity to study the temporal response of processes in the atmospheric boundary layer to an abrupt change in solar radiation. Almost laboratory-like conditions were met over a cotton field, since no clouds disturbed the course of the eclipse. Tower-based and complementing aircraft-based systems monitored the micrometeorological conditions over the site. Temperature profile measurements indicated neutral stratification during the maximum eclipse in contrast to the unstable conditions before and after the eclipse. Accordingly, the sensible heat exchange completely stopped, as a wavelet analysis of the tower measurements and airborne eddy-covariance measurements showed. Turbulent fluxes of water vapor, carbon dioxide, and ozone were reduced by approximately ⅔ at the peak of the eclipse. Wavelet analysis further indicated that the same eddies contributed to the turbulent transport of water vapor and carbon dioxide, whereas sensible heat was transported by different ones. An analysis of the decay of turbulent kinetic energy followed a power law of time with an exponent of −1.25. The response of the sensible heat flux was 8–13 min delayed relative to the solar forcing, whereas no significant time lag could be detected for the turbulent fluxes of air constituents.

Surface-layer fog considered using a modified Monin-Obukhov theory

The Prandtl-layer concept, assuming constant turbulent fluxes in the lowest meters or decameters of the atmosphere under horizontal homogeneous and steady-state conditions, is widely used; and it is also one of the fundamentals of Monin-Obukhov similarity theory. Thus, surface-layer condensation processes-essentially formation of shallow fog layers-implying convergence and divergence of turbulent fluxes of water vapour, liquid water content and sensible heat, cannot be treated within this concept. This paper tries to overcome this restriction by a modified Monin-Obukhov theory, which deals with constant fluxes of total water content and moist static energy (instead of water vapour and sensible heat). It shows that surface-layer fog situations (under steady-state and horizontally homogeneous conditions and neglecting radiational effects) can be treated by this modified theory, which yields turbulent vertical fluxes of sensible heat, water vapour and liquid water content and their divergences.