scholarly journals On the Use of the Eddy Covariance Latent Heat Flux and Sap Flow Transpiration for the Validation of a Surface Energy Balance Model

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonino Maltese ◽  
Hassan Awada ◽  
Fulvio Capodici ◽  
Giuseppe Ciraolo ◽  
Goffredo La Loggia ◽  
...  
2010 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 185-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurit Agam ◽  
William P. Kustas ◽  
Martha C. Anderson ◽  
John M. Norman ◽  
Paul D. Colaizzi ◽  
...  

Abstract The Priestley–Taylor (PT) approximation for computing evapotranspiration was initially developed for conditions of a horizontally uniform saturated surface sufficiently extended to obviate any significant advection of energy. Nevertheless, the PT approach has been effectively implemented within the framework of a thermal-based two-source model (TSM) of the surface energy balance, yielding reasonable latent heat flux estimates over a range in vegetative cover and climate conditions. In the TSM, however, the PT approach is applied only to the canopy component of the latent heat flux, which may behave more conservatively than the bulk (soil + canopy) system. The objective of this research is to investigate the response of the canopy and bulk PT parameters to varying leaf area index (LAI) and vapor pressure deficit (VPD) in both natural and agricultural vegetated systems, to better understand the utility and limitations of this approximation within the context of the TSM. Micrometeorological flux measurements collected at multiple sites under a wide range of atmospheric conditions were used to implement an optimization scheme, assessing the value of the PT parameter for best performance of the TSM. Overall, the findings suggest that within the context of the TSM, the optimal canopy PT coefficient for agricultural crops appears to have a fairly conservative value of ∼1.2 except when under very high vapor pressure deficit (VPD) conditions, when its value increases. For natural vegetation (primarily grasslands), the optimal canopy PT coefficient assumed lower values on average (∼0.9) and dropped even further at high values of VPD. This analysis provides some insight as to why the PT approach, initially developed for regional estimates of potential evapotranspiration, can be used successfully in the TSM scheme to yield reliable heat flux estimates over a variety of land cover types.


2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (9) ◽  
pp. 8844-8877 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramesh Dhungel ◽  
Richard Allen ◽  
Ricardo Trezza ◽  
Clarence Robison

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Langer ◽  
S. Westermann ◽  
S. Muster ◽  
K. Piel ◽  
J. Boike

Abstract. In this article, we present a study on the surface energy balance of a polygonal tundra landscape in northeast Siberia. The study was performed during half-year periods from April to September in each of 2007 and 2008. The surface energy balance is obtained from independent measurements of the net radiation, the turbulent heat fluxes, and the ground heat flux at several sites. Short-wave radiation is the dominant factor controlling the magnitude of all the other components of the surface energy balance during the entire observation period. About 50% of the available net radiation is consumed by the latent heat flux, while the sensible and the ground heat flux are each around 20 to 30%. The ground heat flux is mainly consumed by active layer thawing. About 60% of the energy storage in the ground is attributed to the phase change of soil water. The remainder is used for soil warming down to a depth of 15 m. In particular, the controlling factors for the surface energy partitioning are snow cover, cloud cover, and the temperature gradient in the soil. The thin snow cover melts within a few days, during which the equivalent of about 20% of the snow-water evaporates or sublimates. Surface temperature differences of the heterogeneous landscape indicate spatial variabilities of sensible and latent heat fluxes, which are verified by measurements. However, spatial differences in the partitioning between sensible and latent heat flux are only measured during conditions of high radiative forcing, which only occur occasionally.


2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 1391-1431 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Langer ◽  
S. Westermann ◽  
S. Muster ◽  
K. Piel ◽  
J. Boike

Abstract. Permafrost is largely determined by the surface energy balance. Its vulnerability to degradation due to climate warming depends on complex soil-atmosphere interactions. This article is the second part of a comprehensive surface energy balance study at a polygonal tundra site in Northern Siberia. It comprises two consecutive winter periods from October 2007 to May 2008 and from October 2008 to January 2009. The surface energy balance is obtained by independent measurements of the radiation budget, the sensible heat flux and the ground heat flux, whereas the latent heat flux is inferred from measurements of the atmospheric turbulence characteristics and a model approach. The measurements reveal that the long-wave radiation is the dominant factor in the surface energy balance. The radiative losses are balanced to about 60% by the ground heat flux and almost 40% by the sensible heat fluxes, whereas the contribution of the latent heat flux is found to be relatively small. The main controlling factors of the surface energy budget are the snow cover, the cloudiness and the soil temperature gradient. Significant spatial differences in the surface energy balance are observed between the tundra soils and a small pond. The heat flux released from the subsurface heat storage is by a factor of two increased at the freezing pond during the entire winter period, whereas differences in the radiation budget are only observed at the end of winter. Inter-annual differences in the surface energy balance are related to differences in snow depth, which substantially affect the temperature evolution at the investigated pond. The obtained results demonstrate the importance of the ground heat flux for the soil-atmosphere energy exchange and reveal high spatial and temporal variabilities in the subsurface heat budget during winter.


2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 3503-3540 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. R. Rounce ◽  
D. J. Quincey ◽  
D. C. McKinney

Abstract. Debris thickness plays an important role in regulating ablation rates on debris-covered glaciers as well as controlling the likely size and location of supraglacial lakes. Despite its importance, lack of knowledge about debris properties and associated energy fluxes prevents the robust inclusion of the effects of a debris layer into most glacier surface energy balance models. This study combines fieldwork with a debris-covered energy balance model to estimate debris temperatures and ablation rates on Imja-Lhotse Shar glacier located in the Everest region of Nepal. The debris properties that significantly influence the energy balance model are thermal conductivity, albedo, and surface roughness. Fieldwork was conducted to measure thermal conductivity and a method was developed using Structure from Motion to estimate surface roughness. Debris temperatures measured during the 2014 melt season were used to calibrate and validate a debris-covered energy balance model by optimizing the albedo, thermal conductivity, and surface roughness at 10 debris-covered sites. Furthermore, three methods for estimating the latent heat flux were investigated. Model calibration and validation found the three methods had similar performance; however, comparison of modeled and measured ablation rates revealed that assuming a zero latent heat flux may overestimate ablation. Results also suggest that where debris moisture is unknown, measurements of the relative humidity or precipitation may be used to estimate wet debris periods, i.e., the latent heat flux is non-zero. The effect of temporal resolution on the model was also assessed and results showed that both 6 h data and daily average data slightly underestimate debris temperatures and ablation rates, thus these should only be used to estimate rough ablation rates when no other data are available.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Mohd Wani ◽  
Renoj J. Thayyen ◽  
Chandra Shekhar Prasad Ojha ◽  
Stephan Gruber

Abstract. Cryosphere of the cold-arid trans-Himalayan region is unique with its significant permafrost cover. While the information on the permafrost characteristics and its extent started emerging, the governing energy regimes of this cryosphere region is of particular interest. This paper present the results of Surface Energy Balance (SEB) studies carried out in the upper Ganglass catchment in the Ladakh region of India, which feed directly to the River Indus. The point SEB is estimated using the one-dimensional mode of GEOtop model from 1 September 2015 to 31 August 2017 at 4727 m a.s.l elevation. The model is evaluated using field monitored radiation components, snow depth variations and one-year near-surface ground temperatures and showed good agreement with the respective simulated values. The study site has an air temperature range of −23.7 to 18.1 °C with a mean annual average temperature (MAAT) of −2.5 and ground surface temperature range of −9.8 to 19.1 °C. For the study period, the surface energy balance characteristics of the cold-arid site show that the net radiation was the major component with mean value of 28.9 W m−2 followed by sensible heat flux (13.5 W m−2) and latent heat flux (12.8 W m−2), and the ground heat flux was equal to 0.4 W m−2. The partitioning of energy balance during the study period shows that 47 % of Rn was converted into H, 44 % into LE, 1 % into G and 7 % for melting of seasonal snow. Both the study years experienced distinctly different, low and high snow regime. Key differences due to this snow regime change in surface energy balance characteristics were observed during peak summer (July–August). The latent heat flux was higher (lower) during this period with 39 W m−2 (11 W m−2) during high (low) snow years. The study also shows that the sensible heat flux during the early summer season (May, June) of the high (low) snow was much smaller (higher) −3.4 W m−2 (36.1 W m−2). During the study period, snow cover builds up in the catchment initiated by the last week of December facilitating the ground cooling by almost three months (October to December) of sub-zero temperatures up to −20 °C providing a favourable environment for permafrost. It is observed that the Ladakh region have a very low relative humidity in the range of 43 % as compared to, e.g., ~ 70 % in the Alps facilitating lower incoming longwave radiation and strongly negative net longwave radiation averaging ~ −90 W m−2 compared to −40 W m−2 in the Alps. Hence, the high elevation cold-arid region land surfaces could be overall colder than the locations with more RH such as the Alps. Further, it is apprehended that high incoming shortwave radiation in the region may be facilitating enhanced cooling of wet valley bottom surfaces as a result of stronger evaporation.


2014 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 665-682 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabienne Lohou ◽  
Edward G. Patton

Abstract The interactions surrounding the coupling between surface energy balance and a boundary layer with shallow cumuli are investigated using the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s large-eddy simulation code coupled to the Noah land surface model. The simulated cloudy boundary layer is based on the already well-documented and previously simulated 21 June 1997 case at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Southern Great Plains central facility. The surface energy balance response to cloud shading is highly nonlinear, leading to different partitioning between sensible and latent heat flux compared to the surface not impacted by cloud. The evaporative fraction increases by about 2%–3% in the presence of shallow cumuli at the regional scale but can increase by up to 30% at any individual location. As expected, the cloud’s reduction of solar irradiance largely controls the surface’s response. However, the turbulence and secondary circulations associated with the cloud dynamics increases the surface flux variability. Even though they are less than 1 km in horizontal scale, the cloud-induced surface heterogeneities impact the vertical flux of heat and moisture up to approximately 20% of the height of the subcloud layer zsl, higher than the surface layer’s typical extent. Above 0.2zsl, the cloud root tends to amplify the drying and the cooling of the subcloud layer. Near the entrainment zone, the cloud-induced latent heat flux increase and sensible heat flux decrease compensate each other with respect to total buoyancy and therefore do not significantly modify the subcloud-layer entrainment rate over large time scales.


2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 2295-2310 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. R. Rounce ◽  
D. J. Quincey ◽  
D. C. McKinney

Abstract. Debris thickness plays an important role in regulating ablation rates on debris-covered glaciers as well as controlling the likely size and location of supraglacial lakes. Despite its importance, lack of knowledge about debris properties and associated energy fluxes prevents the robust inclusion of the effects of a debris layer into most glacier surface energy balance models. This study combines fieldwork with a debris-covered glacier energy balance model to estimate debris temperatures and ablation rates on Imja–Lhotse Shar Glacier located in the Everest region of Nepal. The debris properties that significantly influence the energy balance model are the thermal conductivity, albedo, and surface roughness. Fieldwork was conducted to measure thermal conductivity and a method was developed using Structure from Motion to estimate surface roughness. Debris temperatures measured during the 2014 melt season were used to calibrate and validate a debris-covered glacier energy balance model by optimizing the albedo, thermal conductivity, and surface roughness at 10 debris-covered sites. Furthermore, three methods for estimating the latent heat flux were investigated. Model calibration and validation found the three methods had similar performance; however, comparison of modeled and measured ablation rates revealed that assuming the latent heat flux is zero may overestimate ablation. Results also suggest that where debris moisture is unknown, measurements of the relative humidity or precipitation may be used to estimate wet debris periods, i.e., when the latent heat flux is non-zero. The effect of temporal resolution on the model was also assessed and results showed that both 6 h data and daily average data slightly underestimate debris temperatures and ablation rates; thus these should only be used to estimate rough ablation rates when no other data are available.


2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 901-947 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Langer ◽  
S. Westermann ◽  
S. Muster ◽  
K. Piel ◽  
J. Boike

Abstract. Permafrost thawing is essentially determined by the surface energy balance, which potentially triggers the activation of a massive carbon source, if previously frozen organic soils are exposed to microbial decomposition. In this article, we present the first part of a comprehensive annual surface energy balance study performed at a polygonal tundra landscape in northeast Siberia, realized between spring 2007 and winter 2009. This part of the study focuses on the half year period from April to September 2007–2008, during which the surface energy balance is obtained from independent measurements of the radiation budget, the turbulent heat fluxes and the ground heat flux at several sites. The short-wave radiation is the dominant factor in the surface energy balance during the entire observation period. About 50% of the available net radiation is consumed by latent heat flux, while the sensible and the ground heat flux are both on the order of 20 to 30%. The ground heat flux is mainly consumed by active layer thawing, where 60% of soil energy storage are attributed to. The remainder is used for soil warming down to a depth of 15 m. The controlling factors for the surface energy partitioning are in particular the snow cover, the cloud cover and the soil temperature gradient. Significant surface temperature differences of the heterogeneous landscape indicate spatial variabilities of sensible and latent heat fluxes, which are verified by measurements at different locations. However, differences in the partition between sensible and latent heat flux for the different sites only exist during conditions of high radiative forcing, which only occur occasionally.


2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 509-524 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Langer ◽  
S. Westermann ◽  
S. Muster ◽  
K. Piel ◽  
J. Boike

Abstract. In this study, we present the winter time surface energy balance at a polygonal tundra site in northern Siberia based on independent measurements of the net radiation, the sensible heat flux and the ground heat flux from two winter seasons. The latent heat flux is inferred from measurements of the atmospheric turbulence characteristics and a model approach. The long-wave radiation is found to be the dominant factor in the surface energy balance. The radiative losses are balanced to about 60 % by the ground heat flux and almost 40 % by the sensible heat fluxes, whereas the contribution of the latent heat flux is small. The main controlling factors of the surface energy budget are the snow cover, the cloudiness and the soil temperature gradient. Large spatial differences in the surface energy balance are observed between tundra soils and a small pond. The ground heat flux released at a freezing pond is by a factor of two higher compared to the freezing soil, whereas large differences in net radiation between the pond and soil are only observed at the end of the winter period. Differences in the surface energy balance between the two winter seasons are found to be related to differences in snow depth and cloud cover which strongly affect the temperature evolution and the freeze-up at the investigated pond.


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