Abstract
In the first part, this paper synthesises the main results from a series of previous studies on the closure of the local energy balance at low-vegetation sites during the LITFASS-2003 experiment. A residual of up to 25% of the available energy has been found which cannot be fully explained either by the measurement uncertainty of the single components of the surface energy balance or by the length of the flux-averaging period. In the second part, secondary circulations due to heterogeneities in the surface characteristics (roughness, thermal and moisture properties) are discussed as a possible cause for the observed energy balance non-closure. This hypothesis seems to be supported from the fluxes derived from area-averaging measurement techniques (scintillometers, aircraft).
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Acknowledgement
The work presented has been performed as part of the EVA_GRIPS project; this project was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Technology within the German Climate Research Program (DEKLIM, project EVA-GRIPS). Participation of the Wageningen group in LITFASS-2003 was based on own funding and support of the Dutch Science Foundation (NWO, project number 813.03.007). LES runs were performed on the NEC-SX6 of the German High Performance Computing Centre for Climate- and Earth System Research (DKRZ), Hamburg. This paper was written in preparation of the projects BA 1988/10-1, RA 617/21-1, BE 2044/4-1 and FO 226/20-1 funded by the German Science Foundation (DFG), which will continue support of this topic.
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Foken, T., Mauder, M., Liebethal, C. et al. Energy balance closure for the LITFASS-2003 experiment. Theor Appl Climatol 101, 149–160 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-009-0216-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-009-0216-8