Abstract
Scintillation measurements with a HeNe and a CO2 laser were used to derive turbulent fluxes of heat and momentum in the surface layer. This was achieved by the structure constant or dissipation technique, i.e., by relating the measured structure constants and inner scales of refractive index fluctuations to structure constants of temperature fluctuations and dissipation rates of turbulent kinetic energy, respectively, and then assuming Monin-Obukhov similarity.
The resulting heat fluxes agree well with measurements using the eddy correlation technique but for averaging periods of 10 min, the optical data show a much smoother and physically more plausible behaviour. The optically derived friction velocities are in good agreement with estimates derived from wind velocity and surface roughness. It was also observed that for stationary conditions, 1-min averaged optical measurements already provide good estimates for longer averaged heat and momentum fluxes.
Even though some uncertainty remains about the empirical constants and Monin-Obukhov similarity expressions used, the method clearly proves to be of great value for monitoring surface-layer turbulence.
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Thiermann, V., Grassl, H. The measurement of turbulent surface-layer fluxes by use of bichromatic scintillation. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 58, 367–389 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00120238
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00120238