Carbon dioxide and methane emission dynamics in central London (UK)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Helfter, Carole; Nemitz, Eiko; Barlow, Janet F.; Wood, Curtis R.

2013-04-01

London, with a population of 8.2 million, is the largest city in Europe. It is heavily built-up (typically 8% vegetation cover within the central boroughs) and boasts some of the busiest arteries in Europe despite efforts to reduce traffic in the city centre with the introduction of a congestion charging scheme in 2007. We report on two substantial pollution monitoring efforts in the heart of London between October 2006 and present. Fluxes of carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) were measured continuously by eddy-covariance in central London from October 2006 until May 2008 from a 190 m telecommunication tower (BT tower; 51° 31' 17.4'' N 0° 8' 20.04'' W). The eddy-covariance system consisted of a Gill R3-50 ultrasonic anemometer operated at 20 Hz and a LI-COR 6262 infrared gas analyser. Air was sampled 0.3 m below the sensor head of the ultrasonic anemometer - which was itself mounted on a 3 m mast to the top of a 15 m lattice tower situated on the roof of the tower (instrument head at 190 m above street level) - and pulled down 45 m of 12.7 mm OD Teflon tubing. In addition, meteorological variables (temperature, relative humidity, pressure, precipitation, wind speed and direction) were also measured with a multi-sensor (Weather Transmitter WXT510, Vaisala). Eddy-covariance measurements at the BT tower location were reinstated in July 2011 and include methane (CH4), CO2 and H2O concentrations measured by a Picarro fast methane analyser (G2301-f). CO2 emissions were found to be mainly controlled by fossil fuel combustion (e.g. traffic, commercial and domestic heating). Diurnal averages of CO2 fluxes were found to be highly correlated to traffic. However changes in heating-related natural gas consumption and, to a lesser extent, photosynthetic activity in two large city centre green spaces (Hyde Park and Regent's Park) explained the seasonal variability. Annual estimates of net exchange of CO2 obtained by eddy-covariance agreed well with up-scaled data from the UK National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI) for the flux footprint estimated using a simple Kormann-Meixner model. Methane emissions from central London exhibit diurnal trends both for concentrations and fluxes. The former is consistent with cycles of growth and shrinkage of the urban boundary layer. Methane fluxes are strongly correlated with those of carbon dioxide. Work is ongoing to establish to what extent the diurnal cycles reflect dynamic changes in ground sources (emissions from road traffic, commercial/ domestic heating, variations in flux footprint) and to what extent they are affected by transport efficiency between street level and the top of the tower and storage in between, given the high measurement height.

Using In Situ Eddy Covariance Flux Measurements from a Low Flying Aircraft in the Arctic to Measure Regional Methane Fluxes.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sayres, D. S.; Dobosy, R.; Healy, C. E.; Dumas, E. J.; Kochendorfer, J.; Munster, J. B.; Wilkerson, J.; Baker, B.; Anderson, J. G.

2016-12-01

The Arctic terrestrial and subsea permafrost region contains approximately 30% of the global carbon stock and therefore understanding Arctic methane emissions and how they might change with a changing climate is important for quantifying the global methane budget and understanding its growth in the atmosphere. Here we present measurements from a new in situ flux observation system designed for use on a small, low-flying aircraft that flew over the North Slope of Alaska during August of 2013. The system combines a small methane instrument based on Integrated Cavity Output Spectroscopy (ICOS) with an air turbulence probe to calculate methane fluxes based on eddy covariance. Surface fluxes are grouped by ecotope using a map based on LandSat 30 meter resolution data. We find that wet sedge areas dominate the methane fluxes during the first part of August, with methane emissions from the Sagavanirktok river being the second highest. We compare the aircraft measurements with an eddy covariance flux tower located in a wet sedge area and show that the two measurements agree quantitatively when the footprints of both overlap. However, fluxes from sedge vary at times by a factor of two or more even within a few kilometers of the tower demonstrating the importance of making regional measurements to map out methane emission spatial heterogeneity. Aircraft measurements of surface flux can play an important role in bridging the gap between ground-based measurements and regional measurements from remote sensing instruments and models.

The case for increasing the statistical power of eddy covariance ecosystem studies: why, where and how?

PubMed

Hill, Timothy; Chocholek, Melanie; Clement, Robert

2017-06-01

Eddy covariance (EC) continues to provide invaluable insights into the dynamics of Earth's surface processes. However, despite its many strengths, spatial replication of EC at the ecosystem scale is rare. High equipment costs are likely to be partially responsible. This contributes to the low sampling, and even lower replication, of ecoregions in Africa, Oceania (excluding Australia) and South America. The level of replication matters as it directly affects statistical power. While the ergodicity of turbulence and temporal replication allow an EC tower to provide statistically robust flux estimates for its footprint, these principles do not extend to larger ecosystem scales. Despite the challenge of spatially replicating EC, it is clearly of interest to be able to use EC to provide statistically robust flux estimates for larger areas. We ask: How much spatial replication of EC is required for statistical confidence in our flux estimates of an ecosystem? We provide the reader with tools to estimate the number of EC towers needed to achieve a given statistical power. We show that for a typical ecosystem, around four EC towers are needed to have 95% statistical confidence that the annual flux of an ecosystem is nonzero. Furthermore, if the true flux is small relative to instrument noise and spatial variability, the number of towers needed can rise dramatically. We discuss approaches for improving statistical power and describe one solution: an inexpensive EC system that could help by making spatial replication more affordable. However, we note that diverting limited resources from other key measurements in order to allow spatial replication may not be optimal, and a balance needs to be struck. While individual EC towers are well suited to providing fluxes from the flux footprint, we emphasize that spatial replication is essential for statistically robust fluxes if a wider ecosystem is being studied. © 2016 The Authors Global Change Biology Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

A continuous measure of gross primary production for the conterminous United States derived from MODIS and AmeriFlux data

Treesearch

Jingfeng Xiao; Qianlai Zhuang; Beverly E. Law; Jiquan Chen; Dennis D. Baldocchi; David R. Cook; Ram Oren; Andrew D. Richardson; Sonia Wharton; Siyan Ma; Tomothy A. Martin; Shashi B. Verma; Andrew E. Suyker; Russel L. Scott; Russel K. Monson; Marcy Litvak; David Y. Hollinger; Ge Sun; Kenneth J. Davis; Paul V. Bolstad; Sean P. Burns; Peter S. Curtis; BErt G. Drake; Matthias Falk; MArc L. Fischer; David R. Foster; Lianhong Gu; Julian L. Hadley; Gabriel G. Katul; Roser Matamala; Steve McNulty; Tilden P. Meyers; J. William Munger; Asko Noormets; Walter C. Oechel; Kyaw Tha U Paw; Hans Peter Schmid; Gregory Starr; Margaret S. Torn; Steven C. Wofsy

2010-01-01

The quantification of carbon fluxes between the terrestrial biosphere and the atmosphere is of scientific importance and also relevant to climate-policy making. Eddy covariance flux towers provide continuous measurements of ecosystem-level exchange of carbon dioxide spanning diurnal, synoptic, seasonal, and interannual time scales....

Net Ecosystem Production (NEP) of the Great Plains, United States

USGS Publications Warehouse

Howard, Daniel; Gilmanov, Tagir; Gu, Yingxin; Wylie, Bruce; Zhang, Li

2012-01-01

Flux tower networks, such as AmeriFlux and FLUXNET, consist of a growing number of eddy covariance flux tower sites that provide a synoptic record of the exchange of carbon, water, and energy between the ecosystem and atmosphere at various temporal frequencies. These towers also detect and measure certain site characteristics, such as wind, temperature, precipitation, humidity, atmospheric pressure, soil features, and phenological progressions. Efforts are continuous to combine flux tower network data with remote sensing data to upscale the conditions observed at specific sites to a regional and, ultimately, worldwide scale. Data-driven regression tree models have the ability to incorporate flux tower records and remote sensing data to quantify exchanges of carbon with the atmosphere (Wylie and others, 2007; Xiao and others, 2010; Zhang and others, 2010; Zhang and others, 2011). Previous study results demonstrated the dramatic effect weather has on NEP and revealed specific ecoregions and times acting as carbon sinks or sources. As of 2012, more than 100 site-years of flux tower measurements, represented by more than 50 individual cropland or grassland sites throughout the Great Plains and surrounding area, have been acquired, quality controlled, and partitioned into gross photosynthesis (Pg) and ecosystem Re using detailed light-response, soil temperature, and vapor pressure deficit (VPD) based analysis.

Tidal effects on net ecosystem exchange of carbon in an estuarine wetland

Treesearch

H. Guo; A. Noormets; B. Zhao; J. Chen; G. Sun; Y. Gu; B. Li; J. Chen

2009-01-01

One year of continuous data from two eddy-flux towers established along an elevation gradient incoastal Shanghai was analyzed to evaluate the tidal effect on carbon flux (Fc) over an estuarine wetland.The measured wavelet spectra and cospectra of Fc and other environmental factors demonstrated thatthe...

Modelling soil temperature and moisture and corresponding seasonality of photosynthesis and transpiration in a boreal spruce ecosystem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, S. H.; Jansson, P.-E.

2012-05-01

Recovery of photosynthesis and transpiration is strongly restricted by low temperatures in air and/or soil during the transition period from winter to spring in boreal zones. The extent to which air temperature (Ta) and soil temperature (Ts) influence the seasonality of photosynthesis and transpiration of a boreal spruce ecosystem was investigated using a process-based ecosystem model (CoupModel) together with eddy covariance (EC) data from one eddy flux tower and nearby soil measurements at Knottåsen, Sweden. A Monte Carlo based uncertainty method (GLUE) provided prior and posterior distributions of simulations representing a wide range of soil conditions and performance indicators. The simulated results showed sufficient flexibility to predict the measured cold and warm Ts in the moist and dry plots around the eddy flux tower. Moreover, the model presented a general ability to describe both biotic and abiotic processes for the Norway spruce stand. The dynamics of sensible heat fluxes were well described the corresponding latent heat fluxes and net ecosystem exchange of CO2. The parameter ranges obtained are probably valid to represent regional characteristics of boreal conifer forests, but were not easy to constrain to a smaller range than that produced by the assumed prior distributions. Finally, neglecting the soil temperature response function resulted in fewer behavioural models and probably more compensatory errors in other response functions for regulating the seasonality of ecosystem fluxes.

Observed drag coefficients in high winds in the near offshore of the South China Sea

DOE PAGES

Bi, Xueyan; Liu, Yangan; Gao, Zhiqiu; ...

2015-07-14

This paper investigates the relationships between friction velocity, 10 m drag coefficient, and 10 m wind speed using data collected at two offshore observation towers (one over the sea and the other on an island) from seven typhoon episodes in the South China Sea from 2008 to 2014. The two towers were placed in areas with different water depths along a shore-normal line. The depth of water at the tower over the sea averages about 15 m, and the depth of water near the island is about 10 m. The observed maximum 10 min average wind speed at a heightmore » of 10 m is about 32 m s⁻¹. Momentum fluxes derived from three methods (eddy covariance, inertial dissipation, and flux profile) are compared. The momentum fluxes derived from the flux profile method are larger (smaller) over the sea (on the island) than those from the other two methods. The relationship between the 10 m drag coefficient and the 10 m wind speed is examined by use of the data obtained by the eddy covariance method. The drag coefficient first decreases with increasing 10 m wind speed when the wind speeds are 5–10 m s⁻¹, then increases and reaches a peak value of 0.002 around a wind speed of 18 m s⁻¹. The drag coefficient decreases with increasing 10 m wind speed when 10 m wind speeds are 18–27 m s⁻¹. A comparison of the measurements from the two towers shows that the 10 m drag coefficient from the tower in 10 m water depth is about 40% larger than that from the tower in 15 m water depth when the 10 m wind speed is less than 10 m s⁻¹. Above this, the difference in the 10 m drag coefficients of the two towers disappears.« less

Observed drag coefficients in high winds in the near offshore of the South China Sea

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bi, Xueyan; Liu, Yangan; Gao, Zhiqiu

This paper investigates the relationships between friction velocity, 10 m drag coefficient, and 10 m wind speed using data collected at two offshore observation towers (one over the sea and the other on an island) from seven typhoon episodes in the South China Sea from 2008 to 2014. The two towers were placed in areas with different water depths along a shore-normal line. The depth of water at the tower over the sea averages about 15 m, and the depth of water near the island is about 10 m. The observed maximum 10 min average wind speed at a heightmore » of 10 m is about 32 m s⁻¹. Momentum fluxes derived from three methods (eddy covariance, inertial dissipation, and flux profile) are compared. The momentum fluxes derived from the flux profile method are larger (smaller) over the sea (on the island) than those from the other two methods. The relationship between the 10 m drag coefficient and the 10 m wind speed is examined by use of the data obtained by the eddy covariance method. The drag coefficient first decreases with increasing 10 m wind speed when the wind speeds are 5–10 m s⁻¹, then increases and reaches a peak value of 0.002 around a wind speed of 18 m s⁻¹. The drag coefficient decreases with increasing 10 m wind speed when 10 m wind speeds are 18–27 m s⁻¹. A comparison of the measurements from the two towers shows that the 10 m drag coefficient from the tower in 10 m water depth is about 40% larger than that from the tower in 15 m water depth when the 10 m wind speed is less than 10 m s⁻¹. Above this, the difference in the 10 m drag coefficients of the two towers disappears.« less

Characterization of Shrubland-Atmosphere Interactions through Use of the Eddy Covariance Method, Distributed Footprint Sampling, and Imagery from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anderson, C.; Vivoni, E. R.; Pierini, N.; Robles-Morua, A.; Rango, A.; Laliberte, A.; Saripalli, S.

2012-12-01

Ecohydrological dynamics can be evaluated from field observations of land-atmosphere states and fluxes, including water, carbon, and energy exchanges measured through the eddy covariance method. In heterogeneous landscapes, the representativeness of these measurements is not well understood due to the variable nature of the sampling footprint and the mixture of underlying herbaceous, shrub, and soil patches. In this study, we integrate new field techniques to understand how ecosystem surface states are related to turbulent fluxes in two different semiarid shrubland settings in the Jornada (New Mexico) and Santa Rita (Arizona) Experimental Ranges. The two sites are characteristic of Chihuahuan (NM) and Sonoran (AZ) Desert mixed-shrub communities resulting from woody plant encroachment into grassland areas. In each study site, we deployed continuous soil moisture and soil temperature profile observations at twenty sites around an eddy covariance tower after local footprint estimation revealed the optimal sensor network design. We then characterized the tower footprint through terrain and vegetation analyses derived at high resolution (<1 m) from imagery obtained from a fixed-wing and rotary-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). Our analysis focuses on the summertime land-atmosphere states and fluxes during which each ecosystem responded differentially to the North American monsoon. We found that vegetation heterogeneity induces spatial differences in soil moisture and temperature that are important to capture when relating these states to the eddy covariance flux measurements. Spatial distributions of surface states at different depths reveal intricate patterns linked to vegetation cover that vary between the two sites. Furthermore, single site measurements at the tower are insufficient to capture the footprint conditions and their influence on turbulent fluxes. We also discuss techniques for aggregating the surface states based upon the vegetation and soil classifications obtained from the high-resolution aerial imagery. Overall, the integration of the different techniques yielded new insight into the spatiotemporal variation of land surface states and their relation to sensible and latent heat fluxes in two shrubland sites, with the potential application in other ecosystems worldwide.

Satellite-based modeling of gross primary production in an evergreen needleleaf forest

Treesearch

Xiangming Xiao; David Hollinger; John Aber; Mike Goltz; Eric A. Davidson; Qingyuan Zhang; Berrien Moore III

2004-01-01

The eddy covariance technique provides valuable information on net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of CO2, between the atmosphere and terrestrial ecosystems, ecosystem respiration, and gross primary production (GPP) at a variety of C02 eddy flux tower sites. In this paper, we develop a new, satellite-based Vegetation Photosynthesis Model (VPM) to estimate the seasonal dynamcs...

Tall tower landscape scale N2O flux measurements in a Danish agricultural and urban, coastal area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ibrom, Andreas; Lequy, Émeline; Loubet, Benjamin; Pilegaard, Kim; Ambus, Per

2015-04-01

Both technical and natural processes emit the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O) into the atmosphere. The abundant use of nitrogen (N) as fertiliser increases the concentration of reactive nitrogen (Nr) in the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and in the biosphere, i.e. in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Surplus Nr is distributed across linkages to other spheres until most of it is emitted to the atmosphere as NO, N2O or N2. A complete estimate of the effects from human activities on N2O emissions must therefore include all emissions, the direct emissions and the indirect emissions that happen in interlinked spheres. For this it is necessary to assess the fluxes at least at the landscape scale. The episodic nature and the large spatial variability make it difficult to estimate the direct and indirect emissions in a landscape. Modelling requires not only to include the highly variable microbial processes in the ecosystems that produce N2O but as well the accurate simulation of lateral Nr fluxes and their effects on N2O fluxes in places remote from the primary Nr sources. In this context tall tower N2O flux measurements are particularly useful as they integrate over larger areas and can be run, continuously without disturbing the fluxes. On the other hand these measurements can be difficult to interpret due to difficulties to measure the small concentration fluctuations in the atmosphere at small flux rates and to accurately attribute the measured flux at the tower to the area that generates the flux, i.e. the source area. The Technical University of Denmark (DTU) has established eddy covariance N2O flux measurements on a 125 m tall tower at its Risø Campus as part of the EU research infrastructure project the 'Integrated non-CO2 Greenhouse gas Observing System' (InGOS). The eddy covariance system consisted of a N2O/CO quantum cascade laser, Los Gatos, Mountain View, CA, USA and a 3D sonic anemometer (USA-1), Metek, Elmshorn, Germany. The Risø peninsula lies at the eastern coastline of the Roskilde fjord on the Danish island Zealand. The tower is surrounded by the fjord, by agricultural area, forests and, in the South by the urban area of the City of Roskilde. The City of Roskilde operates a waste incinerator and a waste water treatment plant, which drains treated waste water into the fjord. The level of the measured flux values was generally relatively low. Based on the clear definition of the lag time between N2O concentrations and the vertical wind speed, fluxes were measureable over larger periods. The fluxes showed clear directional relationships indicating their large spatial and temporal variability in the landscape. Footprint calculations were performed to attribute source areas to the measured fluxes ...(Kormann and Meixner, 2001; Neftel et al., 2008). The footprint of the flux measurement included areas between 200 m and several kilometres distance from the tower. A preliminary approach was developed to generate monthly maps of N2O fluxes around the tower. Here we present the results from the first seven months of flux measurements. Based on these results we discuss the potential and the limitations of tall tower eddy covariance measurements to estimate maps of N2O fluxes and the integral value of the landscape N2O flux. Acknowledgements: This work was funded by the EU-FP7 InGOS project. We thank Ebba Dellwik (Technical University of Denmark) for providing sonic anemometer data. References: Kormann, R. and Meixner, F.X., 2001. An Analytical Footprint Model For Non-Neutral Stratification. Boundary-Layer Meteorology, 99(2): 207-224. Neftel, A., Spirig, C. and Ammann, C., 2008. Application and test of a simple tool for operational footprint evaluations. Environmental Pollution, 152(3): 644-652.

Variation in agricultural CO2 fluxes during the growing season, collected from more than ten eddy covariance towers in the Mississippi Delta Region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Runkle, B.; Suvocarev, K.; Reba, M. L.; Novick, K. A.; White, P.; Anapalli, S.; Locke, M. A.; Rigby, J.; Bhattacharjee, J.

2016-12-01

Agriculture is unique as an anthropogenic activity that plays both a large role in carbon and water cycling and whose management activities provide a key opportunity for responses to climate change. It is therefore especially crucial to bring field observations into the modeling community, test remote sensing products, encourage policy debate, and enable carbon offsets markets that generate revenue and fund climate-smart activities. The accurate measurement of agricultural CO2 exchange - both primary productivity and ecosystem respiration - in concert with evapotranspiration provides crucial information on agro-ecosystem functioning and improves our predictive capacity for estimating the impacts of climate change. In this study we report field measurements from more than 10 eddy covariance towers in the Lower Mississippi River Basin taken during the summer months of 2016. Many towers, some recently deployed, are being aggregated into a regional network known as Delta-Flux, which will ultimately include 15-20 towers by 2017. Set in and around the Mississippi Delta Region within Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi, the network will collect flux, micrometeorological, and crop yield data in order to construct estimates of regional CO2 exchange. These time-series data are gap-filled using statistical and process-based models to generate estimates of summer CO2 flux. The tower network is comprised of sites representing widespread agriculture production, including rice, cotton, corn, soybean, and sugarcane; intensively managed pine forest; and bottomland hardwood forest. Unique experimental production practices are represented in the network and include restricted water use, bioenergy, and by-product utilization. Several towers compose multi-field sites testing innovative irrigation or management practices. Current mapping of agricultural carbon exchange - based on land cover layers and fixed crop emission factors - suggests an unconstrained carbon flux estimate in this region. The observations from the Delta-Flux network will significantly constrain the multi-state C budget and provide guidance for regional conservation efforts. We include implications for regional carbon modeling, sustainable agricultural management, crop and land use cover changes, and responses to a warming climate.

Modeling gross primary production in semi-arid Inner Mongolia using MODIS imagery and eddy covariance data

Treesearch

Ranjeet John; Jiquan Chen; Asko Noormets; Xiangming Xiao; Jianye Xu; Nan Lu; Shiping Chen

2013-01-01

We evaluate the modelling of carbon fluxes from eddy covariance (EC) tower observations in different water-limited land-cover/land-use (LCLU) and biome types in semi-arid Inner Mongolia, China. The vegetation photosynthesis model (VPM) and modified VPM (MVPM), driven by the enhanced vegetation index (EVI) and land-surface water index (LSWI), which were derived from the...

Eddy covariance fluxes of the NO-O3-NO2 triad above the forest canopy at the ATTO Site in the Amazon Basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsokankunku, Anywhere; Wolff, Stefan; Sörgel, Matthias; Berger, Martina; Zelger, Michael; Dlugi, Ralf

2017-04-01

Nitrogen monoxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) (denoted together as NOx) determine the abundance of the tropospheric oxidants OH, O3 and NO3 that regulate atmospheric self-cleaning. The three reactive trace gases NO, NO2 and O3 undergo a series of interconnected photochemical reactions and are often referred to as the NO-O3-NO2 triad. Ozone deposition is mainly controlled by stomatal uptake, thus contributes to oxidative stress for the plants. Similarly, nitrogen dioxide from above or below the canopy is deposited to leaves through stomatal uptake. NO emissions from soils contribute to above canopy O3 formation and accelerate OH recycling. Therefore, quantification of the exchange fluxes of these species between the atmosphere and the biosphere are important for atmospheric chemistry and ecosystem research as well. The eddy covariance method is state of the art for direct measurements of ecosystem fluxes of trace gases. Eddy covariance measurements of NOx in pristine environments are rare because of lack of availability of instruments with the required precision to resolve concentrations characteristic of these environments. The Amazon Tall Tower Observatory (ATTO) is located in a pristine rainforest environment in the Amazon basin about 150 km northeast of the city of Manaus. It is the ideal site for studying the biosphere-atmosphere exchange of the NO-O3-NO2 triad, being largely undisturbed by anthropogenic sources. During an intensive measurement campaign in November 2015 at the ATTO site, measurements of NO, NO2 and O3 were carried out at 42 m above ground level on the 80 m walk-up tower with a fast (5 Hz) and sensitive (< 30 ppt) instrument (CLD790SR2, Eco Physics) for NO and NO2 and with 10 Hz for O3 (Enviscope). Additionally, measurements of turbulent and micrometeorological parameters were conducted with a profile of 3-dimensional sonic anemometers and meteorological sensors for temperature, humidity and radiation. Vertical concentration profile measurements of NO, NO2 and O3 were available at 8 levels on the INSTANT tower from a reactive trace gas profile system which has been operational at the site since 2012. From these measurements, we present eddy covariance fluxes of the NO-O3-NO2 triad. We relate the fluxes to the canopy-atmosphere exchange of the trace gases and other scalars using the profile data along the tower. Chemical and turbulent transport timescales of the triad constituents are also presented. Coherent structures and canopy-atmosphere coupling is discussed, particularly in relation to the dynamics of O3 and its subsequent influence on the NOx fluxes. As far as we know, these are the first full simultaneous measurements of NO, NO2 and O3 fluxes using the eddy covariance method above an Amazonian rainforest.

Modelling soil temperature and moisture and corresponding seasonality of photosynthesis and transpiration in a boreal spruce ecosystem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, S. H.; Jansson, P.-E.

2013-02-01

Recovery of photosynthesis and transpiration is strongly restricted by low temperatures in air and/or soil during the transition period from winter to spring in boreal zones. The extent to which air temperature (Ta) and soil temperature (Ts) influence the seasonality of photosynthesis and transpiration of a boreal spruce ecosystem was investigated using a process-based ecosystem model (CoupModel) together with eddy covariance (EC) data from one eddy flux tower and nearby soil measurements at Knottåsen, Sweden. A Monte Carlo-based uncertainty method (GLUE) provided prior and posterior distributions of simulations representing a wide range of soil conditions and performance indicators. The simulated results showed sufficient flexibility to predict the measured cold and warm Ts in the moist and dry plots around the eddy flux tower. Moreover, the model presented a general ability to describe both biotic and abiotic processes for the Norway spruce stand. The dynamics of sensible heat fluxes were well described by the corresponding latent heat fluxes and net ecosystem exchange of CO2. The parameter ranges obtained are probably valid to represent regional characteristics of boreal conifer forests, but were not easy to constrain to a smaller range than that produced by the assumed prior distributions. Finally, neglecting the soil temperature response function resulted in fewer behavioural models and probably more compensatory errors in other response functions for regulating the seasonality of ecosystem fluxes.

Characterization and Modeling of Dust Emissions from an Instrumented Mine Tailings Site

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Betterton, E. A.; Stovern, M.; Saez, A.; Csavina, J. L.; Felix Villar, O. I.; Field, J. P.; Rine, K. P.; Russell, M. R.; Saliba, P.

2012-12-01

Mining operations are potential sources of airborne particulate metal and metalloid contaminants through both direct smelter emissions and wind erosion of mine tailings. The warmer, drier conditions predicted for the Southwestern US by climate models may make contaminated atmospheric dust and aerosols increasingly important, due to potential deleterious effects on human health and ecology. Dust emissions and dispersion of contaminants from the Iron King Mine tailings in Dewey-Humboldt, Arizona, a Superfund site, are currently being investigated through in situ field measurements and computational fluid dynamics modeling. These tailings are heavily contaminated with lead and arsenic. We report on the chemical characterization of atmospheric dust and aerosol sampled near the mine tailings. Instrumented eddy flux towers were also setup on the mine tailings to give both spatial and temporal dust observations. The eddy flux towers have multiple DUSTTRAK monitors as well as weather stations. These in situ observations allow us to assess spatial distribution of suspended particulate. Using the DUSTTRAK flux tower observations at 10-second resolution in conjunction with a computational fluid dynamics model, we have been able to model dust transport from the mine tailings to downwind areas. In order to improve the accuracy of the dust transport simulations both regional topographical features and local weather patterns have been incorporated into the model simulations.

Eddy-Covariance Observations and Large-Eddy-Simulations of Near-Shore Fluxes from Water Bodies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bohrer, G.; Rey Sanchez, C.; Kenny, W.; Morin, T. H.

2017-12-01

Eddy covariance (EC) measurement techniques are increasingly used in the study of lakes and coastal ecosystems. The sharp water-shore transitions in energy forcing and surface roughness are challenging the validity of the EC approach at these sites. We discuss the results of two seasonal campaigns to measure CO2 and water-vapor fluxes in coastal environments - a small lake in Michigan, and the water over a coral reef in the Red, Sea, Israel. We show that in both environments, horizontal advection of CO2 and water vapor is responsible to a non-negligible component of the total flux to/from the water. We used a two-tower approach to measure fluxes from the water and from the shore and calculate the advection and flux divergence between the two. An empirical footprint model was used to filter the observations and keep only the times when interference from the shore-line transition is minimal. Observations of both vertical turbulent fluxes and advection were gapfilled with a neural-network model, based on their observed relationships with environmental forcing. Gap-filled observations were used to determine the seasonal net fluxes for the tow ecosystems. We used Large-Eddy Simulations (LES) to conduct a case study of airflow patterns associated with a small inland lake surrounded by forest (i.e. radius of lake only ten times the height of the forest). We combined LES outputs with scalar dispersion simulations to model potential biases in EC flux measurements due to the heterogeneity of surface fluxes and vertical advection. Our simulations show that the lake-to-forest transition can induce a non-zero vertical wind component, which will strongly affect the interpretation of wind and flux measurements. Furthermore, significant horizontal gradients of CO2 are generated by the forest carbon sink and lake carbon source, which are further transported by local roughness-induced circulation. We simulated six hypothetical flux tower locations along a downwind gradient at various heights and calculated the effects of both average vertical advection and average turbulent flux divergence of CO2 at each.

Investigating spatial variability in gas-flux dynamics within Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida using hydrogeophysical methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sirianni, M.; Comas, X.; Shoemaker, B.; Job, M. J.; Cooper, H.

2016-12-01

Globally, wetland soils play an important role in regulating climate change by functioning as a source or sink for atmospheric carbon, particularly in terms of methane and carbon dioxide. While many historic studies defined the function of wetland soils in the global carbon budget, the gas-flux dynamics of subtropical wetlands is largely unknown. Big Cypress National Preserve is a collection of subtropical wetlands in southwestern Florida, including extensive forested (cypress, pine, hardwood) and sawgrass ecosystems that dry and flood annually in response to rainfall. The U.S. Geological Survey employs eddy covariance methods at several locations within the Preserve to quantify carbon and methane exchanges at ecosystem scales. While eddy covariance towers are a convenient tool for measuring gas fluxes, their footprint is spatially extensive (hundreds of meters); and thus spatial variability at smaller scales is masked by averaging or even overlooked. We intend to estimate small-scale contributions of organic and calcitic soils to gas exchanges measured by the eddy covariance towers using a combination of geophysical, hydrologic and ecologic techniques. Preliminary results suggest that gas releases from flooded calcitic soils are much greater than organic soils. These results - and others - will help build a better understanding of the role of subtropical wetlands in the global carbon budget.

Carbon fluxes in a heterogeneous estuarine wetland in Northern Ohio. Comparing eddy covariance and chamber measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rey Sanchez, C.; Morin, T. H.; Stefanik, K. C.; Wrighton, K. C.; Bohrer, G.

2016-12-01

Wetlands are important carbon dioxide (CO2) sinks but also the largest source of methane (CH4), a powerful greenhouse gas. Wetlands are often heterogeneous landscapes with highly diverse land covers and different paths of CH4 release and CO2 uptake. Understanding the ecosystem level greenhouse gas budget of a wetland involves understanding several carbon fluxes associated with each of the different land cover patches. We studied CO2 and CH4 fluxes from different land cover types at the Old Woman Creek (OWC) National Estuarine Research Reserve, at the Lake Erie shore in Northern Ohio. OWC is composed of four main types of land cover: open water, emergent cattail vegetation (Typha spp), floating vegetation (Nelimbo spp), and mud flats. CH4 and CO2 gas exchange was measured in each patch type using enclosed chambers monthly during the growing seasons of 2015 and 2016. During the same period of time, an eddy covariance tower was deployed in a representative section of the wetland to measure continuous site-level CO2 and CH4 fluxes. A footprint model was used to account for the relative contributions of each patch type to the flux measured by the tower. The chamber measurements were used to constrain the contributions of each patch within the flux tower footprint, and to correct the flux measurements to the whole-wetland total flux. We analyzed the spatial and temporal variability of methane and carbon dioxide and related this variation to some of the most important environmental drivers at the site. We used these data to analyze the implications of different arrangements of land cover types on the carbon balance and greenhouse-gas budget in wetlands.

Measurement and modeling of CO2 exchange over forested landscapes in India: an overview

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kushwaha, S.; Dadhwal, V.

2009-04-01

The increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration and its potential impact on global climate change is the subject of worldwide studies, political debates and international discussions. The concern led to the establishment of the Kyoto Protocol to curtail emissions and mitigate the possible global warming. The studies so far suggest that terrestrial biological sinks might be the low cost options for carbon sequestration, which can be used to partially offset the industrial CO2 emissions globally. In past, the effectiveness of terrestrial sink and the quantitative estimates of their sink strengths have relied mainly on the measurements of changes in carbon stocks across the world. Recent developments in flux tower based measurement techniques such as Eddy Covariance for assessing the CO2, H2O and energy fluxes provide tools for quantifying the net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of CO2 on a continuous basis. These near real time measurements, when integrated with remote sensing, enable the up-scaling of the carbon fluxes to regional scale. More than 470 towers exist worldwide as of now. Indian subcontinent was not having any tower-based CO2 flux measurement system so far. The Indian Space Research Organization under its Geosphere Biosphere Programme is funding five eddy covariance towers for terrestrial CO2 flux measurements in different ecological regions of the country. The tower sites already planned are: (i) a mixed forest plantation (Dalbergia sissoo, Acacia catechu, Holoptelia integrifolia) at Haldwani in collaboration with DISAFRI, University of Tuscia, Italy and the Indian Council for Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE), Dehradun, (ii) a sal (Shorea robusta) forest in Doon valley Himalayan state of Uttarakhand in northern India, (ii) a teak (Tectona grandis) mixed forest at Betul in Madhya Pradesh in central India, (iv) an old teak plantation at Dandeli, and (v) a semi-evergreen forest at Nagarhole in Karnataka state in southern India. The three towers have been procured and the eddy covariance equipment installation on Haldwani tower will be completed this month. The equipment for ground based studies such as soil respiration system, soil moisture and temperature measurement system, PAR sensor, hemi view, light use efficiency measurement system etc. have been already procured. The spatial database containing a variety of information on soil types, rainfall, temperature, forest cover PAR, vegetation indices etc. has been prepared using remote sensing and other means. The temporal ground inventory of the vegetation and soil parameters is also under progress. Each site will involve a team leader, one research student and one master degree student. The Forest Departments of above mentioned states of India are actively collaborating in this research. Various universities and research institutions have also expressed interest to cooperate in the programme.

Comparing Multiple Scales of CH4 Fluxes in a Boreal Transition Forest - from Soil-Chambers to Eddy Covariance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Savage, K. E.; Shoemaker, J.; Hollinger, D. Y.

2017-12-01

Boreal-transition forests contain a range of soil moisture conditions, from drier "uplands" to embedded wetlands, with transitional soils in between. This creates a complex topography of methane (CH4) producing and consuming patches. Seasonally, CH4 production in wet environments can be orders of magnitude greater than methane uptake rates in drier soils, as well as being much more episodic. The spatial and temporal variability in flux magnitudes from these drainage conditions creates a challenge for constraining the contribution of these forests to the global CH4 cycle. Ground based chambers capture small-scale fluxes, and are often distributed to capture specific soil conditions. Soil chambers have been the primary tool for assessing CH4 fluxes from natural soils, with observations being scaled up to represent broader regions. The study of CH4 biogeochemistry lacked meso-scale measurements to provide checks between the global atmospheric data and the soil chambers. Recent advances in the technology of fast response CH4 analyzers have led to increased use of the eddy-flux covariance (EC) method to capture CH4 fluxes over a larger landscape-scale. The EC method captures net exchange at the top of the vegetation canopy, across a footprint of varying size, dependent on wind-speed, direction, surface roughness, turbulence, sensor height and atmospheric stability. Simultaneous deployment of EC and soil chambers provide a critical means to reconcile bottom up with top down approaches to quantify CH4 fluxes. Two years of CH4 flux data from an EC tower in Howland forest, a boreal-transition forest in north-central Maine, USA, are compared with concurrent automated soil chamber data collected within the tower footprint and distributed among soil drainage classes. An EC footprint model was used to determine a daily and sub-daily tower footprint. Using a published soil analysis of the Howland tower area, and Lidar imagery of tree canopy, we explore various strategies for upscaling chamber fluxes: footprint estimates, aerial weighting by drainage class, and canopy density; and compare to measurements from the EC tower. Analyzing simultaneous flux data from both scales over multiple years, will enable us to evaluate these methodologies and enhance our understanding of CH4 biogeochemistry at all scales.

Influence of Land Cover Heterogeneity, Land-Use Change and Management on the Regional Carbon Cycle in the Upper Midwest USA as Evaluated by High-Density Observations and a Dynamic Ecosystem Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Desai, A. R.; Bolstad, P. V.; Moorcroft, P. R.; Davis, K. J.

2005-12-01

The interplay between land use change, forest management and land cover variability complicates the ability to characterize regional scale (10-1000 km) exchange of carbon dioxide between the land surface and atmosphere in heterogeneous landscapes. An attempt was made to observe and model these factors and their influence on the regional carbon cycle across the upper Midwest USA. A high density of eddy-covariance carbon flux, micrometeorology, carbon dioxide mixing ratio, stand-scale biometry and canopy component flux observations have been occurring in this area as part of the Chequamegon Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study. Observations limited to sampling only dominant stands and coarse-resolution biogeochemical models limited to biome-scale parameterization neither accurately capture the variability of carbon fluxes measured by the network of eddy covariance towers nor match the regional-scale carbon flux inferred from very tall tower eddy covariance measurements and multi-site upscaling. Analysis of plot level biometric data, U.S. Forest Service Forest Inventory Analysis data and high-resolution land cover data around the tall tower revealed significant variations in vegetation type, stand age, canopy stocking and structure. Wetlands, clearcuts and recent natural disturbances occur in characteristic small non-uniformly distributed patches that aggregate to form more than 30% of the landscape. The Ecosystem Demography model, a dynamic ecosystem model that incorporates vegetation heterogeneity, canopy structure, stand age, disturbance, land use change and forest management, was parameterized with regional biometric data and meteorology, historical records of land management and high-resolution satellite land cover maps. The model will be used to examine the significance of past land use change, natural disturbance history and current forest management in explaining landscape structure and regional carbon fluxes observed in the region today.

A Carbon Flux Super Site. New Insights and Innovative Atmosphere-Terrestrial Carbon Exchange Measurements and Modeling

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Leclerc, Monique Y.

2014-11-17

This final report presents the main activities and results of the project “A Carbon Flux Super Site: New Insights and Innovative Atmosphere-Terrestrial Carbon Exchange Measurements and Modeling” from 10/1/2006 to 9/30/2014. It describes the new AmeriFlux tower site (Aiken) at Savanna River Site (SC) and instrumentation, long term eddy-covariance, sodar, microbarograph, soil and other measurements at the site, and intensive field campaigns of tracer experiment at the Carbon Flux Super Site, SC, in 2009 and at ARM-CF site, Lamont, OK, and experiments in Plains, GA. The main results on tracer experiment and modeling, on low-level jet characteristics and their impactmore » on fluxes, on gravity waves and their influence on eddy fluxes, and other results are briefly described in the report.« less

Eddy Covariance Fluxes of the NO-O3-NO2 Triad above the Forest Canopy at the ATTO Site in the Amazon Basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsokankunku, A.; Wolff, S.; Berger, M.; Zelger, M.; Dlugi, R. J. W.; Andreae, M. O.; Sörgel, M.

2017-12-01

Nitrogen monoxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) (denoted together as NOx) determine the abundance of the tropospheric oxidants OH, O3 and NO3 that regulate atmospheric self-cleaning. The three reactive trace gases NO, NO2 and O3 undergo a series of interconnected photochemical reactions and are therefore often referred to as the NO-O3-NO2 triad. Ozone deposition is mainly controlled by stomatal uptake, therefore resulting in oxidative stress for the plants. Similarly, nitrogen dioxide from above or below the canopy is deposited to leaves through stomatal uptake. NO emissions from soils contribute to above canopy O3 formation and accelerate OH recycling. Therefore, quantification of the biosphere-atmosphere exchange fluxes of these species is important for atmospheric chemistry and ecosystem research. The eddy covariance method is state of the art for direct measurements of ecosystem fluxes of trace gases. Eddy covariance measurements of NOx in pristine environments are rare because of lack of availability of instruments with the required precision to resolve concentrations characteristic of these environments with the required high time resolution. The Amazon Tall Tower Observatory (ATTO) is located in a pristine rainforest environment in the Amazon basin about 150 km northeast of the city of Manaus. It is the ideal site for studying the biosphere-atmosphere exchange of the NO-O3-NO2 triad, because of the absence of nearby anthropogenic sources. During an intensive measurement campaign in November 2015 at the ATTO site, measurements of NO, NO2 and O3 were carried out at 42 m above ground level on the 80 m walk-up tower with a fast (5 Hz) and sensitive (< 30 ppt) instrument (CLD790SR2, Eco Physics) for NO and NO2 and with 10 Hz for O3 (Enviscope GmbH). Additionally, a suite of micrometeorological instruments was installed, including a profile of 3-dimensional sonic anemometers and meteorological sensors. Vertical concentration profile measurements of NO, NO2 and O3 were available at 8 levels on the tower. From these measurements, we present eddy covariance fluxes of the NO-O3-NO2 triad. We relate the fluxes to the canopy-atmosphere exchange of the trace gases and other scalars using the profile data along the tower. Chemical and turbulent transport timescales of the triad constituents are presented and discussed.

Estimation of Net Ecosystem Carbon Exchange for the Conterminous UnitedStates by Combining MODIS and AmeriFlux Data

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Xiao, Jingfeng; Zhuang, Qianlai; Baldocchi, Dennis D.

Eddy covariance flux towers provide continuous measurements of net ecosystem carbon exchange (NEE) for a wide range of climate and biome types. However, these measurements only represent the carbon fluxes at the scale of the tower footprint. To quantify the net exchange of carbon dioxide between the terrestrial biosphere and the atmosphere for regions or continents, flux tower measurements need to be extrapolated to these large areas. Here we used remotely-sensed data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) instrument on board NASA's Terra satellite to scale up AmeriFlux NEE measurements to the continental scale. We first combined MODIS andmore » AmeriFlux data for representative U.S. ecosystems to develop a predictive NEE model using a regression tree approach. The predictive model was trained and validated using NEE data over the periods 2000-2004 and 2005-2006, respectively. We found that the model predicted NEE reasonably well at the site level. We then applied the model to the continental scale and estimated NEE for each 1 km x 1 km cell across the conterminous U.S. for each 8-day period in 2005 using spatially-explicit MODIS data. The model generally captured the expected spatial and seasonal patterns of NEE. Our study demonstrated that our empirical approach is effective for scaling up eddy flux NEE measurements to the continental scale and producing wall-to-wall NEE estimates across multiple biomes. Our estimates may provide an independent dataset from simulations with biogeochemical models and inverse modeling approaches for examining the spatiotemporal patterns of NEE and constraining terrestrial carbon budgets for large areas.« less

A model-data comparison of gross primary productivity: Results from the North American Carbon Program site synthesis

Treesearch

Kevin Schaefer; Christopher R. Schwalm; Chris Williams; M. Altaf Arain; Alan Barr; Jing M. Chen; Kenneth J. Davis; Dimitre Dimitrov; Timothy W. Hilton; David Y. Hollinger; Elyn Humphreys; Benjamin Poulter; Brett M. Raczka; Andrew D. Richardson; Alok Sahoo; Peter Thornton; Rodrigo Vargas; Hans Verbeeck; Ryan Anderson; Ian Baker; T. Andrew Black; Paul Bolstad; Jiquan Chen; Peter S. Curtis; Ankur R. Desai; Michael Dietze; Danilo Dragoni; Christopher Gough; Robert F. Grant; Lianhong Gu; Atul Jain; Chris Kucharik; Beverly Law; Shuguang Liu; Erandathie Lokipitiya; Hank A. Margolis; Roser Matamala; J. Harry McCaughey; Russ Monson; J. William Munger; Walter Oechel; Changhui Peng; David T. Price; Dan Ricciuto; William J. Riley; Nigel Roulet; Hanqin Tian; Christina Tonitto; Margaret Torn; Ensheng Weng; Xiaolu Zhou

2012-01-01

Accurately simulating gross primary productivity (GPP) in terrestrial ecosystem models is critical because errors in simulated GPP propagate through the model to introduce additional errors in simulated biomass and other fluxes. We evaluated simulated, daily average GPP from 26 models against estimated GPP at 39 eddy covariance flux tower sites across the United States...

Simulation and sensitivity analysis of carbon storage and fluxes in the New Jersey Pinelands

Treesearch

Zewei Miao; Richard G. Lathrop; Ming Xu; Inga P. La Puma; Kenneth L. Clark; John Hom; Nicholas Skowronski; Steve Van Tuyl

2011-01-01

A major challenge in modeling the carbon dynamics of vegetation communities is the proper parameterization and calibration of eco-physiological variables that are critical determinants of the ecosystem process-based model behavior. In this study, we improved and calibrated a biochemical process-based WxBGC model by using in situ AmeriFlux eddy covariance tower...

Determining the Impact of Forest Mortality in Semi-Arid Woodlands on Local and Regional Carbon Dynamics

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Litvak, Marcy

We received funds in July 2012, and with supplemental funds, this funding ended in July 2017. Our overall project goals were to quantify the consequences of pinon mortality for carbon, water and energy exchange in pinon-juniper woodlands. To do this, we have been continuously measuring carbon, water and energy exchange using eddy covariance, over two pinon-juniper woodlands in central New Mexico. In one site, we girdled 1632 trees in the 4 ha surrounding the tower in Sept 2009. The other site, only 5 km away on the same plateau, was left intact, to serve as a control. We used thismore » paired tower approach so we could directly evaluate the differences between how fluxes from disturbed and intact woodlands respond to the exact same climate conditions. In addition to eddy covariance measured fluxes from the two woodlands, we also made sap flux measurements, biomass, gas exchange, and soil respiration fluxes simultaneously in the two sites. The overall objective of this proposal is to measure the carbon and climate forcing consequences of widespread coniferous mortality events in the Southwestern US.« less

A gap-filling model for eddy covariance CO2 flux: Estimating carbon assimilated by a subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest at the Lien-Hua-Chih flux observation site

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lan, C. Y.; Li, M. H.; Chen, Y. Y.

2016-12-01

Appropriate estimations of gaps appeared in eddy covariance (EC) flux observations are critical to the reliability of long-term EC applications. In this study we present a semi-parametric multivariate gap-filling model for tower-based measurement of CO2 flux. The raw EC data passing QC/QA was separated into two groups, clear sky, having net radiation greater than 50 W/m2, and nighttime/cloudy. For the clear sky conditions, the principle component analysis (PCA) was used to resolve the multicollinearity relationships among various environmental variables, including net radiation, wind speed, vapor pressure deficit, soil moisture deficit, leaf area index, and soil temperature, in association with CO2 assimilated by forest. After the principal domains were determined by the PCA, the relationships between CO2 fluxes and selected PCs (key factors) were built up by nonlinear interpolations to estimate the gap-filled CO2 flux. In view of limited photosynthesis at nighttime/cloudy conditions, respiration rate of the forest ecosystem was estimated by the Lloyd-Tylor equation. Artificial gaps were randomly selected to exam the applicability of our PCA approach. Based on tower-based measurement of CO2 flux at the Lien-Hua-Chih site, a total of 5.8 ton-C/ha/yr was assimilated in 2012.

Evaluation of Growing Season Milestones, Using Eddy Covariance Time-Series of Net Ecosystem Exchange

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pastorello, G.; Faybishenko, B.; Poindexter, C.; Menzer, O.; Agarwal, D.; Papale, D.; Baldocchi, D. D.

2014-12-01

Common methods for determining timing of plants' developmental events, such as direct observation and remote sensing of NDVI, usually produce data of temporal resolution on the order of one week or more. This limitation can make observing subtle trends across years difficult. The goal of this presentation is to demonstrate a conceptual approach and a computational technique to quantify seasonal, annual and long-term phenological indices and patterns, based on continuous eddy covariance measurements of net ecosystem exchange (NEE) measured at eddy covariance towers in the AmeriFlux network. Using a comprehensive time series analysis of NEE fluxes in different climatic zones, we determined multiple characteristics (and their confidence intervals) of the growing season including: the initiation day—the day when canopy photosynthesis development starts, the photosynthesis stabilization day - the day when the development process of canopy photosynthesis starts to slow down and gradually moves toward stabilization, and the growing season effective termination day. We also determined the spring photosynthetic development velocity and the fall photosynthetic development velocity. The results of calculations using NEE were compared with those from temperature and precipitation data measured at the same AmeriFlux tower stations, as well as with the in-situ directly observed phenological records. The results of calculations of phenological indices from the NEE time-series collected at AmeriFlux sites can be used to constrain the application of other time- and labor-intensive sensing methods and to reduce the uncertainty in identifying trends in the timing of phenological indices.

Understanding of Coupled Terrestrial Carbon, Nitrogen and Water Dynamics—An Overview

PubMed Central

Chen, Baozhang; Coops, Nicholas C.

2009-01-01

Coupled terrestrial carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and hydrological processes play a crucial role in the climate system, providing both positive and negative feedbacks to climate change. In this review we summarize published research results to gain an increased understanding of the dynamics between vegetation and atmosphere processes. A variety of methods, including monitoring (e.g., eddy covariance flux tower, remote sensing, etc.) and modeling (i.e., ecosystem, hydrology and atmospheric inversion modeling) the terrestrial carbon and water budgeting, are evaluated and compared. We highlight two major research areas where additional research could be focused: (i) Conceptually, the hydrological and biogeochemical processes are closely linked, however, the coupling processes between terrestrial C, N and hydrological processes are far from well understood; and (ii) there are significant uncertainties in estimates of the components of the C balance, especially at landscape and regional scales. To address these two questions, a synthetic research framework is needed which includes both bottom-up and top-down approaches integrating scalable (footprint and ecosystem) models and a spatially nested hierarchy of observations which include multispectral remote sensing, inventories, existing regional clusters of eddy-covariance flux towers and CO2 mixing ratio towers and chambers. PMID:22291528

Understanding of coupled terrestrial carbon, nitrogen and water dynamics-an overview.

PubMed

Chen, Baozhang; Coops, Nicholas C

2009-01-01

Coupled terrestrial carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and hydrological processes play a crucial role in the climate system, providing both positive and negative feedbacks to climate change. In this review we summarize published research results to gain an increased understanding of the dynamics between vegetation and atmosphere processes. A variety of methods, including monitoring (e.g., eddy covariance flux tower, remote sensing, etc.) and modeling (i.e., ecosystem, hydrology and atmospheric inversion modeling) the terrestrial carbon and water budgeting, are evaluated and compared. We highlight two major research areas where additional research could be focused: (i) Conceptually, the hydrological and biogeochemical processes are closely linked, however, the coupling processes between terrestrial C, N and hydrological processes are far from well understood; and (ii) there are significant uncertainties in estimates of the components of the C balance, especially at landscape and regional scales. To address these two questions, a synthetic research framework is needed which includes both bottom-up and top-down approaches integrating scalable (footprint and ecosystem) models and a spatially nested hierarchy of observations which include multispectral remote sensing, inventories, existing regional clusters of eddy-covariance flux towers and CO(2) mixing ratio towers and chambers.

An eddy covariance system to characterize the atmospheric surface layer and turbulent latent heat fluxes over a debris-covered Himalayan glacier.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Litt, Maxime; Steiner, Jakob F.; Stigter, Emmy E.; Immerzeel, Walter; Shea, Joseph Michael

2017-04-01

Over debris-covered glaciers, water content variations in the debris layer can drive significant changes in its thermal conductivity and significantly impact melt rates. Since sublimation and evaporation are favoured in high-altitude conditions, e.g., low atmospheric pressure and high wind speeds, they are expected to strongly influence the water balance of the debris-layer. Dedicated latent heat fluxes measurements at the debris surface are essential to characterize the debris heat conductivity in order to assess underlying ice melt. Furthermore, the contribution of the turbulent fluxes in the surface energy balance over debris covered glacier remains uncertain since they are generally evaluated through similarity methods which might not be valid in complex terrain. We present the first results of a 15-day eddy-covariance experiment installed at the end of the monsoon (September-October) on a 3-m tower above the debris-covered Lirung glacier in Nepal. The tower also included measurements of the 4 radiation components. The eddy covariance measurements allowed for the characterization of the turbulence in the atmospheric surface layer, as well as the direct measurements of evaporation, sublimation and turbulent sensible heat fluxes. The experiment helps us to evaluate the contribution of turbulent fluxes to the surface energy balance over this debris-covered glacier, through a precise characterization of the overlying turbulent atmospheric surface layer. It also helps to study the role of the debris-layer water content changes through evaporation and sublimation and its feedback on heat conduction in this layer. The large observed turbulent fluxes play a significant role in the energy balance at the debris surface and significantly influence debris moisture, conductivity and subsequently underlying ice melt.

How do towers measure anything?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fitzjarrald, D. R.

2001-05-01

Limitations to achieving plausible long-term observational values for heat, water vapor and CO2 fluxes at the individual sites in the tower flux networks are discussed. a) Operational difficulties mean that few sites that operate over years obtain data more than 70-80% of the time. To satisfy modelers, "gap-filling" techniques-models in themselves are called upon to provide seamless data sets. b) The observational energy balance regularly does not close by up to 20% of available energy, net radiation minus the ground heat. Most studies report that the sum of sensible and latent heat flux does not account for the observed available energy. c) CO2 eddy fluxes are sometimes judged to be "ecologically incorrect" if comparisons with rival measurement techniques lead to implausible amounts of uptake. There is perceived to be "missing flux" problem, one that might result from averaging in the definition of the eddy flux ensemble mean. They might as well reflect loss of scalars horizontally in subcanopy flows, especially at night. Some of the increasingly elaborate theoretical corrections being proposed to rectify these problems will be critiqued, from the point of view of the humble field observer. Many of these corrections rely on there being accurate estimates of the mean vertical velocity, for example, a notoriously difficult measurement to make. Selected examples from recent work at ASRC will serve to illustrate major points.

Arctic regional methane fluxes by ecotope as derived using eddy covariance from a low-flying aircraft

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sayres, David S.; Dobosy, Ronald; Healy, Claire; Dumas, Edward; Kochendorfer, John; Munster, Jason; Wilkerson, Jordan; Baker, Bruce; Anderson, James G.

2017-07-01

The Arctic terrestrial and sub-sea permafrost region contains approximately 30 % of the global carbon stock, and therefore understanding Arctic methane emissions and how they might change with a changing climate is important for quantifying the global methane budget and understanding its growth in the atmosphere. Here we present measurements from a new in situ flux observation system designed for use on a small, low-flying aircraft that was deployed over the North Slope of Alaska during August 2013. The system combines a small methane instrument based on integrated cavity output spectroscopy (ICOS) with an air turbulence probe to calculate methane fluxes based on eddy covariance. We group surface fluxes by land class using a map based on LandSat Thematic Mapper (TM) data with 30 m resolution. We find that wet sedge areas dominate the methane fluxes with a mean flux of 2.1 µg m-2 s-1 during the first part of August. Methane emissions from the Sagavanirktok River have the second highest at almost 1 µg m-2 s-1. During the second half of August, after soil temperatures had cooled by 7 °C, methane emissions fell to between 0 and 0.5 µg m-2 s-1 for all areas measured. We compare the aircraft measurements with an eddy covariance flux tower located in a wet sedge area and show that the two measurements agree quantitatively when the footprints of both overlap. However, fluxes from sedge vary at times by a factor of 2 or more even within a few kilometers of the tower demonstrating the importance of making regional measurements to map out methane emissions spatial heterogeneity. Aircraft measurements of surface flux can play an important role in bridging the gap between ground-based measurements and regional measurements from remote sensing instruments and models.

Methane fluxes above the Hainich forest by True Eddy Accumulation and Eddy Covariance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Siebicke, Lukas; Gentsch, Lydia; Knohl, Alexander

2016-04-01

Understanding the role of forests for the global methane cycle requires quantifying vegetation-atmosphere exchange of methane, however observations of turbulent methane fluxes remain scarce. Here we measured turbulent fluxes of methane (CH4) above a beech-dominated old-growth forest in the Hainich National Park, Germany, and validated three different measurement approaches: True Eddy Accumulation (TEA, closed-path laser spectroscopy), and eddy covariance (EC, open-path and closed-path laser spectroscopy, respectively). The Hainich flux tower is a long-term Fluxnet and ICOS site with turbulent fluxes and ecosystem observations spanning more than 15 years. The current study is likely the first application of True Eddy Accumulation (TEA) for the measurement of turbulent exchange of methane and one of the very few studies comparing open-path and closed-path eddy covariance (EC) setups side-by-side. We observed uptake of methane by the forest during the day (a methane sink with a maximum rate of 0.03 μmol m-2 s-1 at noon) and no or small fluxes of methane from the forest to the atmosphere at night (a methane source of typically less than 0.01 μmol m-2 s-1) based on continuous True Eddy Accumulation measurements in September 2015. First results comparing TEA to EC CO2 fluxes suggest that True Eddy Accumulation is a valid option for turbulent flux quantifications using slow response gas analysers (here CRDS laser spectroscopy, other potential techniques include mass spectroscopy). The TEA system was one order of magnitude more energy efficient compared to closed-path eddy covariance. The open-path eddy covariance setup required the least amount of user interaction but is often constrained by low signal-to-noise ratios obtained when measuring methane fluxes over forests. Closed-path eddy covariance showed good signal-to-noise ratios in the lab, however in the field it required significant amounts of user intervention in addition to a high power consumption. We conclude, based on preliminary evidence, that the Hainich forest acted as a moderate net sink for methane during the investigation. This supports earlier findings from chamber measurements at the Hainich forest site and is similar to findings from other forest sites. Our observations will be continued through 2016 and beyond to provide longer-term methane flux time series spanning entire seasons. However, the current data set already provides a basis for further consolidating methods of measurements and analysis of turbulent methane fluxes using eddy covariance and true eddy accumulation.

Reconciling Eddy Flux and Tree Ring Estimates of Forest Water-Use Efficiency

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wehr, R. A.; Belmecheri, S.; Commane, R.; Munger, J. W.; Wofsy, S. C.; Saleska, S. R.

2016-12-01

Eddy flux measurements of ecosystem-atmosphere CO2 and water vapor exchange suggest that rising atmospheric CO2 levels have caused plant endogenous water-use efficiency (WUE) to increase strongly over the last 20 years at sites including the Harvard Forest.1 On the other hand, tree ring 13C isotope measurements at the Harvard Forest seem to suggest that endogenous WUE has not increased.2 Several potential reasons for this discrepancy have been proposed,2,3 including: (1) the definitional difference between the "inherent WUE" calculated from eddy fluxes and the "intrinsic WUE" calculated from tree rings, (2) neglect of factors that affect the isotopic composition of tree ring carbon (e.g. mesophyll conductance, photorespiration, post-photosynthetic fractionation), and (3) temporal mismatch between the instantaneous CO2 flux and seasonally-integrated tree ring carbon. Here we test those proposed explanations by combining tree-ring 13C measurements, 13CO2 eddy flux measurements, and recently developed estimates of transpiration, photosynthesis, and canopy stomatal conductance. We first compute both inherent and intrinsic WUE from eddy flux data and show that their definitional difference does not explain the discrepancy between eddy flux and tree ring estimates of WUE. We further investigate the impact of mesophyll conductance, photorespiration, and mitochondrial respiration on the seasonal isotopic composition of assimilated carbon to elucidate the mismatch between eddy flux- and tree ring-derived water use efficiencies. 1. Keenan, T. F. et al. Increase in forest water-use efficiency as atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations rise. Nature 499, 324-327 (2013). 2. Belmecheri, S. et al. Tree-ring δ13C tracks flux tower ecosystem productivity estimates in a NE temperate forest. Environ. Res. Lett. 9, 074011 (2014). 3. Seibt, U. et al. Carbon isotopes and water use efficiency: sense and sensitivity. Oecologia 155, 441-454 (2008).

Observational analysis of air-sea fluxes and sea water temperature offshore South China Sea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bi, X.; Huang, J.; Gao, Z.; Liu, Y.

2017-12-01

This paper investigates the air-sea fluxes (momentum flux, sensible heat flux and latent heat flux) from eddy covariance method based on data collected at an offshore observation tower in the South China Sea from January 2009 to December 2016 and sea water temperature (SWT) on six different levels based on data collected from November 2011 to June 2013. The depth of water at the tower over the sea averages about 15 m. This study presents the in-situ measurements of continuous air-sea fluxes and SWT at different depths. Seasonal and diurnal variations in air-sea fluxes and SWT on different depths are examined. Results show that air-sea fluxes and all SWT changed seasonally; sea-land breeze circulation appears all the year round. Unlike winters where SWT on different depths are fairly consistent, the difference between sea surface temperature (SST) and sea temperature at 10 m water depth fluctuates dramatically and the maximum value reaches 7 °C during summer.

Aerodynamic roughness: A simple and alternative metric to detect the seasonality of canopy structure using flux-tower data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chu, H.; Baldocchi, D. D.

2017-12-01

FLUXNET - the global network of eddy covariance tower sites provides valuable datasets of the direct and in situ measurements of fluxes and ancillary variables that are used across different disciplines and applications. Aerodynamic roughness (i.e., roughness length, zero plane displacement height) are one of the potential parameters that can be derived from flux-tower data and are crucial for the applications of land surface models and flux footprint models. As aerodynamic roughness are tightly associated with canopy structures (e.g., canopy height, leaf area), such parameters could potentially serve as an alternative metric for detecting the change of canopy structure (e.g., change of leaf areas in deciduous ecosystems). This study proposes a simple approach for deriving aerodynamic roughness from flux-tower data, and tests their suitability and robustness in detecting the seasonality of canopy structure. We run tests across a broad range of deciduous forests, and compare the seasonality derived from aerodynamic roughness (i.e., starting and ending dates of leaf-on period and peak-foliage period) against those obtained from remote sensing or in situ leaf area measurements. Our findings show aerodynamic roughness generally captures the timing of changes of leaf areas in deciduous forests. Yet, caution needs to be exercised while interpreting the absolute values of the roughness estimates.

Regional comparison of tundra carbon budget response over the Alaska North Slope to varying environmental conditions as informed by in situ and flux tower measurements, remote sensing and biophysical modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shirley, S.; Watts, J. D.; Kimball, J. S.; Zhang, Z.; Poulter, B.; Klene, A. E.; Jones, L. A.; Kim, Y.; Oechel, W. C.; Zona, D.; Euskirchen, E. S.

2017-12-01

A warming Arctic climate is contributing to shifts in landscape moisture and temperature regimes, a shortening of the non-frozen season, and increases in the depth of annual active layer. The changing environmental conditions make it difficult to determine whether tundra ecosystems are a carbon sink or source. At present, eddy covariance flux towers and biophysical measurements within the tower footprint provide the most direct assessment of change to the tundra carbon balance. However, these measurements have a limited spatial footprint and exist over relatively short timescales. Thus, terrestrial ecosystem models are needed to provide an improved understanding of how changes in landscape environmental conditions impact regional carbon fluxes. This study examines the primary drivers thought to affect the magnitude and variability of tundra-atmosphere CO2 and CH4 fluxes over the Alaska North Slope. Also investigated is the ability of biophysical models to capture seasonal flux characteristics over the 9 tundra tower sites examined. First, we apply a regression tree approach to ascertain which remotely sensed environmental variables best explain observed variability in the tower fluxes. Next, we compare flux estimates obtained from multiple process models including Terrestrial Carbon Flux (TCF) and the Lund-Potsdam-Jena Wald Schnee und Landschaft (LPJ-wsl), and Soil Moisture Active Passive Level 4 Carbon (SMAP L4_C) products. Our results indicate that out of 7 variables examined vegetation greenness, temperature, and moisture are more significant predictors of carbon flux magnitude over the tundra tower sites. This study found that satellite data-driven models, due to the ability of remote sensing instruments to capture the physical principles and processes driving tundra carbon flux, are more effective at estimating the magnitude and spatiotemporal variability of CO2 and CH4 fluxes in northern high latitude ecosystems.

Measuring fluxes of trace gases and energy between ecosystems and the atmosphere - the state and future of the eddy covariance method.

PubMed

Baldocchi, Dennis

2014-12-01

The application of the eddy covariance flux method to measure fluxes of trace gas and energy between ecosystems and the atmosphere has exploded over the past 25 years. This opinion paper provides a perspective on the contributions and future opportunities of the eddy covariance method. First, the paper discusses the pros and cons of this method relative to other methods used to measure the exchange of trace gases between ecosystems and the atmosphere. Second, it discusses how the use of eddy covariance method has grown and evolved. Today, more than 400 flux measurement sites are operating world-wide and the duration of the time series exceed a decade at dozens of sites. Networks of tower sites now enable scientists to ask scientific questions related to climatic and ecological gradients, disturbance, changes in land use, and management. The paper ends with discussions on where the field of flux measurement is heading. Topics discussed include role of open access data sharing and data mining, in this new era of big data, and opportunities new sensors that measure a variety of trace gases, like volatile organic carbon compounds, methane and nitrous oxide, and aerosols, may yield. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Mapping AmeriFlux footprints: Towards knowing the flux source area across a network of towers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Menzer, O.; Pastorello, G.; Metzger, S.; Poindexter, C.; Agarwal, D.; Papale, D.

2014-12-01

The AmeriFlux network collects long-term carbon, water and energy flux measurements obtained with the eddy covariance method. In order to attribute fluxes to specific areas of the land surface, flux source calculations are essential. Consequently, footprint models can support flux up-scaling exercises to larger regions, often based on remote sensing data. However, flux footprints are not currently being routinely calculated; different approaches exist but have not been standardized. In part, this is due to varying instrumentation and data processing methods at the site level. The goal of this work is to map tower footprints for a future standardized AmeriFlux product to be generated at the network level. These footprints can be estimated by analytical models, Lagrangian simulations, and large-eddy simulations. However, for many sites, the datasets currently submitted to central databases generally do not include all variables required. The AmeriFlux network is moving to collection of raw data and expansion of the variables requested from sites, giving the possibility to calculate all parameters and variables needed to run most of the available footprint models. In this pilot study, we are applying state of the art footprint models across a subset of AmeriFlux sites, to evaluate the feasibility and merit of developing standardized footprint results. In addition to comparing outcomes from several footprint models, we will attempt to verify and validate the results in two ways: (i) Verification of our footprint calculations at sites where footprints have been experimentally estimated. (ii) Validation at towers situated in heterogeneous landscapes: here, variations in the observed fluxes are expected to correlate with spatiotemporal variations of the source area composition. Once implemented, the footprint results can be used as additional information within the AmeriFlux database that can support data interpretation and data assimilation. Lastly, we will explore the expandability of this approach to other flux networks by collaborating with and including sites from the ICOS and NEON networks in our analyses. This can enable utilizing the footprint model output to improve network interoperability, thus further promoting synthesis analyses and understanding of system-level questions in the future.

Ozone and carbon dioxide fluxes in a subalpine spruce-fir forest ecosystem

Treesearch

Karl Zeller

1995-01-01

RMFRES RWU 4452 has made several ozone (O3) and carbon dioxide (CO2) trace gas flux measurements in the Snowy Range, WY GLEES research area over the past few years. These measurements were made using the micrometeorological eddy correlation technique at two sites: one 6 m above tree canopy height on the Brooklyn tower (ozone only); and the other below canopy height, 1-...

Deriving a light use efficiency model from eddy covariance flux data for predicting daily gross primary production across biomes

USGS Publications Warehouse

Yuan, W.; Liu, S.; Zhou, G.; Tieszen, L.L.; Baldocchi, D.; Bernhofer, C.; Gholz, H.; Goldstein, Allen H.; Goulden, M.L.; Hollinger, D.Y.; Hu, Y.; Law, B.E.; Stoy, Paul C.; Vesala, T.; Wofsy, S.C.

2007-01-01

The quantitative simulation of gross primary production (GPP) at various spatial and temporal scales has been a major challenge in quantifying the global carbon cycle. We developed a light use efficiency (LUE) daily GPP model from eddy covariance (EC) measurements. The model, called EC-LUE, is driven by only four variables: normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), air temperature, and the Bowen ratio of sensible to latent heat flux (used to calculate moisture stress). The EC-LUE model relies on two assumptions: First, that the fraction of absorbed PAR (fPAR) is a linear function of NDVI; Second, that the realized light use efficiency, calculated from a biome-independent invariant potential LUE, is controlled by air temperature or soil moisture, whichever is most limiting. The EC-LUE model was calibrated and validated using 24,349 daily GPP estimates derived from 28 eddy covariance flux towers from the AmeriFlux and EuroFlux networks, covering a variety of forests, grasslands and savannas. The model explained 85% and 77% of the observed variations of daily GPP for all the calibration and validation sites, respectively. A comparison with GPP calculated from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) indicated that the EC-LUE model predicted GPP that better matched tower data across these sites. The realized LUE was predominantly controlled by moisture conditions throughout the growing season, and controlled by temperature only at the beginning and end of the growing season. The EC-LUE model is an alternative approach that makes it possible to map daily GPP over large areas because (1) the potential LUE is invariant across various land cover types and (2) all driving forces of the model can be derived from remote sensing data or existing climate observation networks.

AmeriFlux US-LPH Little Prospect Hill

DOE Data Explorer

Hadley, Julian [Ecovative Design, LLC

2016-01-01

This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-LPH Little Prospect Hill. Site Description - The site was cleared for pasture, but not deeply plowed or planted, in the 18th and 19th centuries. Agriculture on the site was abandoned near the end of the 19th century. The forest within 200 to 300 m of the eddy covariance tower to the NW, W, SW, and S burned in an intense fire in 1957, which left few or no surviving trees.

Carbon dioxide fluxes dynamics comparison in Moscow urban forest and adjacent urban areas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yaroslavtsev, Alexis; Meshalkina, Joulia; Mazirov, Ilya; Vasenev, Ivan

2017-04-01

In the beginning of the 2014 in northern district of Moscow was installed eddy covariance tower on the edge of Timiryazevskiy urban forest and Timiryazevskiy district of Moscow. Tower 34m high was constructed inside the territory of LOD (Lesnaya Opytnaya Dacha) experimental station in the south-eastern part of the forest. Main tree species of urban forest and neighboring urban areas are Acer Plantanoides, Tilia cordata, Betula pendula, Quercus robur, Pinus sylvestris. Forest itself is mixed with some small plots dominated only by deciduous or coniferous species, whether trees in urban areas was mainly deciduous. Mean canopy height is about 30m. in both forest and urban areas. The soil cover of the studied sections is represented by sod-podzolic soils with different degree of development of the humus horizon. All soils have well-developed profile of sod-podzolic soil with low power litter (only in forest area) and developed humus-accumulative horizon with high humus content (3,24%) Carbon dioxide daily fluxes from investigated area was calculated for six months of 2014 (from April till October) utilizing eddy covariance method. Most (90%) of fluxes footprints was no longer than 500m for all wind directions during the time of monitoring. Forest in 500m radius around tower is a zone of active recreation with several roads and wide path network. On the other hand closest to tower urban area characterized by a low-rise buildings (in most cases no more than 5 floors) which are mainly administration ones and have wide green areas around them very few roads and low traffic. As a result difference in calculated fluxes was not so dramatic, as it was expected. Diurnal carbon dioxide fluxes dynamics was pretty the same for all months except August, due to long period without precipitation and higher soil moisture under the forest canopy. Estimated daily fluxes values was higher in forest areas for the whole period of investigation, except August, and ranged from -2 to 8 g C CO2 d-1 m-2 with mean about 2,5 g C CO2 d-1 m-2 .

Eddy-Covariance and auxiliary measurements, NGEE-Barrow, 2012-2013

DOE Data Explorer

Torn, Margaret; Billesbach, Dave; Raz-Yaseef, Naama

2014-03-24

The EC tower is operated as part of the Next Generation Ecosystem Experiment-Arctic (NGEE) at Barrow, Alaska. The tower is collecting flux data from the beginning of the thaw season, early June, and until conditions are completely frozen, early November. The tower is equipped with a Gill R3-50 Sonic Anemometer, LI-7700 (CH4) sensor, a LI-7500A (CO2/H2O) sensor, and radiation sensors (Kipp and Zonen CNR-4 (four component radiometer), two LiCor LI-190 quantum sensors (PAR upwelling and downwelling), and a down-looking Apogee SI-111 infrared radiometer (surface temperature)). The sensors are remotely controlled, and communication with the tower allows us to retrieve information in real time.

Drivers of surface moisture flux variations in northern terrestrial regions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fischer, R.; Walsh, J. E.

2017-12-01

The wetness of the high-latitude land surface is strongly dependent on the difference between precipitation (P) and evapotranspiration (ET). Variations of ET over daily, seasonal and interannual timescales are poorly documented, as are their relationships to key drivers. A combination of regional climate model output and eddy covariance measurements from five flux tower sites in Alaska are used to test the hypothesis that temperature is the key driver of ET in tundra regions underlain by permafrost, while precipitation plays a greater role in boreal forest areas. At the tundra sites, both the flux tower data and the model simulations show that daily and warm-season totals of ET are largely temperature driven, although daily ET also shows a negative correlation with P. At the boreal forest sites, P is the main driver of year-to-year variations of the seasonally integrated net moisture flux, although ET does not correlate strongly with either P or T. A short period of negative P-ET typically occurs during the warm season in the flux tower data. The model depicts a stronger hydrologic cycle (larger P, larger ET) relative to the measurements at all the sites.

Modeling Energy and Mass Fluxes Over a Vineyard Using the Acasa Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marras, S.; Bellucco, V.; Pyles, D.; Falk, M.; Sirca, C.; Duce, P.; Snyder, R. L.; Paw U, K.; Spano, D.

2012-12-01

Energy and mass fluxes are widely monitored over natural ecosystems by the Eddy Covariance (EC) towers within the FLUXNET monitoring network. Only a few studies focused on EC measurements over tree crops and vines, and there is a lack of information useful to parameterize crop and flux models over such systems. The aim of this study was to improve our knowledge about the performance of the land surface model ACASA (Advanced Canopy-Atmosphere-Soil Algorithm) in estimating energy, water, and carbon fluxes over a typical Mediterranean vineyard located in Southern Sardinia (Italy). ACASA estimates turbulent fluxes per 20 canopy layers (10 layers within and 10 above the canopy) and 15 soil layers, using third-order closure equations. CO2 fluxes are estimated using a combination of Ball-Berry and Farquhar equations. The model parameters derived from literature, from a previous work conducted in Tuscany (Italy) and from direct measurements collected in the experimental site of this study. An Eddy Covariance measurement tower was installed to continuously monitor sensible and latent heat, and CO2 fluxes, in conjunction with a net radiometer, and soil heat flux plates from June 2009. A meteorological station was also set up for ancillary measurements. Model performance was evaluated by RMSE and linear regression statistics. Results for the energy balance components and CO2 exchanges will be presented. Detailed analysis was devoted to evaluate the model ability in estimating the vineyard evapotranspiration. This term of the energy balance is, in fact, important for farmers since they are mainly interested in quantify crop water requirements for a better irrigation management.

Modelling carbon fluxes of forest and grassland ecosystems in Western Europe using the CARAIB dynamic vegetation model: evaluation against eddy covariance data.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Henrot, Alexandra-Jane; François, Louis; Dury, Marie; Hambuckers, Alain; Jacquemin, Ingrid; Minet, Julien; Tychon, Bernard; Heinesch, Bernard; Horemans, Joanna; Deckmyn, Gaby

2015-04-01

Eddy covariance measurements are an essential resource to understand how ecosystem carbon fluxes react in response to climate change, and to help to evaluate and validate the performance of land surface and vegetation models at regional and global scale. In the framework of the MASC project (« Modelling and Assessing Surface Change impacts on Belgian and Western European climate »), vegetation dynamics and carbon fluxes of forest and grassland ecosystems simulated by the CARAIB dynamic vegetation model (Dury et al., iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, 4:82-99, 2011) are evaluated and validated by comparison of the model predictions with eddy covariance data. Here carbon fluxes (e.g. net ecosystem exchange (NEE), gross primary productivity (GPP), and ecosystem respiration (RECO)) and evapotranspiration (ET) simulated with the CARAIB model are compared with the fluxes measured at several eddy covariance flux tower sites in Belgium and Western Europe, chosen from the FLUXNET global network (http://fluxnet.ornl.gov/). CARAIB is forced either with surface atmospheric variables derived from the global CRU climatology, or with in situ meteorological data. Several tree (e.g. Pinus sylvestris, Fagus sylvatica, Picea abies) and grass species (e.g. Poaceae, Asteraceae) are simulated, depending on the species encountered on the studied sites. The aim of our work is to assess the model ability to reproduce the daily, seasonal and interannual variablility of carbon fluxes and the carbon dynamics of forest and grassland ecosystems in Belgium and Western Europe.

The GEWEX LandFlux project: Evaluation of model evaporation using tower-based and globally gridded forcing data

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McCabe, M. F.; Ershadi, A.; Jimenez, C.

Determining the spatial distribution and temporal development of evaporation at regional and global scales is required to improve our understanding of the coupled water and energy cycles and to better monitor any changes in observed trends and variability of linked hydrological processes. With recent international efforts guiding the development of long-term and globally distributed flux estimates, continued product assessments are required to inform upon the selection of suitable model structures and also to establish the appropriateness of these multi-model simulations for global application. In support of the objectives of the Global Energy and Water Cycle Exchanges (GEWEX) LandFlux project, fourmore » commonly used evaporation models are evaluated against data from tower-based eddy-covariance observations, distributed across a range of biomes and climate zones. The selected schemes include the Surface Energy Balance System (SEBS) approach, the Priestley–Taylor Jet Propulsion Laboratory (PT-JPL) model, the Penman–Monteith-based Mu model (PM-Mu) and the Global Land Evaporation Amsterdam Model (GLEAM). Here we seek to examine the fidelity of global evaporation simulations by examining the multi-model response to varying sources of forcing data. To do this, we perform parallel and collocated model simulations using tower-based data together with a global-scale grid-based forcing product. Through quantifying the multi-model response to high-quality tower data, a better understanding of the subsequent model response to the coarse-scale globally gridded data that underlies the LandFlux product can be obtained, while also providing a relative evaluation and assessment of model performance. Using surface flux observations from 45 globally distributed eddy-covariance stations as independent metrics of performance, the tower-based analysis indicated that PT-JPL provided the highest overall statistical performance (0.72; 61 W m –2; 0.65), followed closely by GLEAM (0.68; 64 W m –2; 0.62), with values in parentheses representing the R 2, RMSD and Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE), respectively. PM-Mu (0.51; 78 W m –2; 0.45) tended to underestimate fluxes, while SEBS (0.72; 101 W m –2; 0.24) overestimated values relative to observations. A focused analysis across specific biome types and climate zones showed considerable variability in the performance of all models, with no single model consistently able to outperform any other. Results also indicated that the global gridded data tended to reduce the performance for all of the studied models when compared to the tower data, likely a response to scale mismatch and issues related to forcing quality. Rather than relying on any single model simulation, the spatial and temporal variability at both the tower- and grid-scale highlighted the potential benefits of developing an ensemble or blended evaporation product for global-scale LandFlux applications. Hence, challenges related to the robust assessment of the LandFlux product are also discussed.« less

The GEWEX LandFlux project: Evaluation of model evaporation using tower-based and globally gridded forcing data

DOE PAGES

McCabe, M. F.; Ershadi, A.; Jimenez, C.; ...

2016-01-26

Determining the spatial distribution and temporal development of evaporation at regional and global scales is required to improve our understanding of the coupled water and energy cycles and to better monitor any changes in observed trends and variability of linked hydrological processes. With recent international efforts guiding the development of long-term and globally distributed flux estimates, continued product assessments are required to inform upon the selection of suitable model structures and also to establish the appropriateness of these multi-model simulations for global application. In support of the objectives of the Global Energy and Water Cycle Exchanges (GEWEX) LandFlux project, fourmore » commonly used evaporation models are evaluated against data from tower-based eddy-covariance observations, distributed across a range of biomes and climate zones. The selected schemes include the Surface Energy Balance System (SEBS) approach, the Priestley–Taylor Jet Propulsion Laboratory (PT-JPL) model, the Penman–Monteith-based Mu model (PM-Mu) and the Global Land Evaporation Amsterdam Model (GLEAM). Here we seek to examine the fidelity of global evaporation simulations by examining the multi-model response to varying sources of forcing data. To do this, we perform parallel and collocated model simulations using tower-based data together with a global-scale grid-based forcing product. Through quantifying the multi-model response to high-quality tower data, a better understanding of the subsequent model response to the coarse-scale globally gridded data that underlies the LandFlux product can be obtained, while also providing a relative evaluation and assessment of model performance. Using surface flux observations from 45 globally distributed eddy-covariance stations as independent metrics of performance, the tower-based analysis indicated that PT-JPL provided the highest overall statistical performance (0.72; 61 W m –2; 0.65), followed closely by GLEAM (0.68; 64 W m –2; 0.62), with values in parentheses representing the R 2, RMSD and Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE), respectively. PM-Mu (0.51; 78 W m –2; 0.45) tended to underestimate fluxes, while SEBS (0.72; 101 W m –2; 0.24) overestimated values relative to observations. A focused analysis across specific biome types and climate zones showed considerable variability in the performance of all models, with no single model consistently able to outperform any other. Results also indicated that the global gridded data tended to reduce the performance for all of the studied models when compared to the tower data, likely a response to scale mismatch and issues related to forcing quality. Rather than relying on any single model simulation, the spatial and temporal variability at both the tower- and grid-scale highlighted the potential benefits of developing an ensemble or blended evaporation product for global-scale LandFlux applications. Hence, challenges related to the robust assessment of the LandFlux product are also discussed.« less

Evaluation of MODIS NPP and GPP products across multiple biomes.

Treesearch

David P. Turner; William D. Ritts; Warren B. Cohen; Stith T. Gower; Steve W. Running; Maosheng Zhao; Marcos H. Costa; Al A. Kirschbaum; Jay M. Ham; Scott R. Saleska; Douglas E. Ahl

2006-01-01

Estimates of daily gross primary production (GPP) and annual net primary production (NPP) at the 1 km spatial resolution are now produced operationally for the global terrestrial surface using imagery from the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) sensor. Ecosystem-level measurements of GPP at eddy covariance flux towers and plot-level measurements of...

Elucidating Carbon Exchange at the Regional Scale Via Airborne Eddy Covariance Flux Measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hannun, R. A.; Wolfe, G. M.; Kawa, S. R.; Newman, P. A.; Hanisco, T. F.; Diskin, G. S.; DiGangi, J. P.; Nowak, J. B.; Barrick, J. D. W.; Thornhill, K. L., II; Noormets, A.; Vargas, R.; Clark, K. L.; Kustas, W. P.

2017-12-01

Direct flux observations from aircraft provide a unique tool for probing greenhouse gas (GHG) sources and sinks on a regional scale. Airborne eddy covariance, which relies on high-frequency, simultaneous measurements of fluctuations in concentration and vertical wind speed, is a robust method for quantifying surface-atmosphere exchange. We have assembled and flown an instrument payload onboard the NASA C-23 Sherpa aircraft capable of measuring CO2, CH4, H2O, and heat fluxes. Flights for the Carbon Airborne Flux Experiment (CARAFE) took place during September 2016 and May 2017 based out of Wallops Flight Facility, VA. Flight tracks covered a variety of ecosystems and land-use types in the Mid-Atlantic, including forests, croplands, and wetlands. Carbon fluxes are derived using eddy covariance and wavelet analysis. Our results show a strong drawdown of CO2 and near-zero CH4 emissions from crops and dry-land forest, but seasonally strong CH4 flux from wetland forest. CARAFE flux data will also be compared with observations from several flux towers along the flight path to complement the airborne measurements. We will further assess the effects of land surface type and seasonal variability in carbon exchange. Regional-scale flux observations from CARAFE supply a useful constraint for improving top-down and bottom up estimates of carbon sources and sinks.

Evaluation of Two Energy Balance Closure Parametrizations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eder, Fabian; De Roo, Frederik; Kohnert, Katrin; Desjardins, Raymond L.; Schmid, Hans Peter; Mauder, Matthias

2014-05-01

A general lack of energy balance closure indicates that tower-based eddy-covariance (EC) measurements underestimate turbulent heat fluxes, which calls for robust correction schemes. Two parametrization approaches that can be found in the literature were tested using data from the Canadian Twin Otter research aircraft and from tower-based measurements of the German Terrestrial Environmental Observatories (TERENO) programme. Our analysis shows that the approach of Huang et al. (Boundary-Layer Meteorol 127:273-292, 2008), based on large-eddy simulation, is not applicable to typical near-surface flux measurements because it was developed for heights above the surface layer and over homogeneous terrain. The biggest shortcoming of this parametrization is that the grid resolution of the model was too coarse so that the surface layer, where EC measurements are usually made, is not properly resolved. The empirical approach of Panin and Bernhofer (Izvestiya Atmos Oceanic Phys 44:701-716, 2008) considers landscape-level roughness heterogeneities that induce secondary circulations and at least gives a qualitative estimate of the energy balance closure. However, it does not consider any feature of landscape-scale heterogeneity other than surface roughness, such as surface temperature, surface moisture or topography. The failures of both approaches might indicate that the influence of mesoscale structures is not a sufficient explanation for the energy balance closure problem. However, our analysis of different wind-direction sectors shows that the upwind landscape-scale heterogeneity indeed influences the energy balance closure determined from tower flux data. We also analyzed the aircraft measurements with respect to the partitioning of the "missing energy" between sensible and latent heat fluxes and we could confirm the assumption of scalar similarity only for Bowen ratios 1.

Constraining ecosystem processes from tower fluxes and atmospheric profiles.

PubMed

Hill, T C; Williams, M; Woodward, F I; Moncrieff, J B

2011-07-01

The planetary boundary layer (PBL) provides an important link between the scales and processes resolved by global atmospheric sampling/modeling and site-based flux measurements. The PBL is in direct contact with the land surface, both driving and responding to ecosystem processes. Measurements within the PBL (e.g., by radiosondes, aircraft profiles, and flask measurements) have a footprint, and thus an integrating scale, on the order of 1-100 km. We use the coupled atmosphere-biosphere model (CAB) and a Bayesian data assimilation framework to investigate the amount of biosphere process information that can be inferred from PBL measurements. We investigate the information content of PBL measurements in a two-stage study. First, we demonstrate consistency between the coupled model (CAB) and measurements, by comparing the model to eddy covariance flux tower measurements (i.e., water and carbon fluxes) and also PBL scalar profile measurements (i.e., water, carbon dioxide, and temperature) from Canadian boreal forest. Second, we use the CAB model in a set of Bayesian inversions experiments using synthetic data for a single day. In the synthetic experiment, leaf area and respiration were relatively well constrained, whereas surface albedo and plant hydraulic conductance were only moderately constrained. Finally, the abilities of the PBL profiles and the eddy covariance data to constrain the parameters were largely similar and only slightly lower than the combination of both observations.

Assessing the Impacts of Land-Use Change and Ecological Restoration on CH4 and CO2 Fluxes in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, California: Findings from a Regional Network of Eddy Covariance Towers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Knox, S. H.; Sturtevant, C. S.; Oikawa, P. Y.; Matthes, J. H.; Koteen, L. E.; Anderson, F. E.; Verfaillie, J. G.; Baldocchi, D. D.

2014-12-01

The new generation of open-path, low power, laser spectrometers has allowed us to measure methane (CH4) fluxes continuously in remote regions and answer new and exciting questions on the spatial and temporal variability of greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes using networks of eddy covariance (EC) towers. Our research is focused in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta where we have installed a regional network of flux towers to assess the impacts of land-use change and ecological restoration on CH4 and CO2 fluxes. The Delta was drained for agriculture over a century ago and has since has experienced high rates of subsidence. It is recognized that agriculture on drained peat soils in the Delta is unsustainable in the long-term, and to help reverse subsidence and capture carbon (C) there is an interest in restoring drained land-use types to flooded conditions. However, flooding increases CH4 emissions. We conducted multiple years of simultaneous EC measurements at drained agricultural peatlands (a pasture, a corn field and an alfalfa field) and flooded land-use types (a rice paddy and 3 restored wetlands) to assess the impact of drained to flooded land-use change on CO2 and CH4 fluxes. Since these sites are all within 20 km of each other, they share the same basic meteorology, enabling a direct comparison of differences in the C and GHG budgets between sites. Using a multi-tower approach we found that converting drained agricultural peatlands to flooded land-use types can help reverse soil subsidence and reduce GHG emissions from the Delta. Furthermore, there is a growing interest in wetland restoration in California to generate C credits for both the voluntary C market and the state's cap-and-trade program. However, information on GHG fluxes from restored wetlands is lacking. Using multi-year measurements of GHG fluxes from restored wetlands of varying ages, our research also aims to understand how CO2 and CH4 fluxes from restored wetlands vary during ecosystem development, determine the daily and seasonal forcings controlling these fluxes, and assess management strategies that can help minimize CH4 fluxes and maximize C uptake in restored wetlands. Our multi-year multi-site research program is beginning to answer these questions and bridge understanding between biometeorology, biogeochemistry and climate policy.

Can CO2 Turbulent Flux Be Measured by Lidar? A Preliminary Study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gilbert, Fabien; Koch, Grady; Beyon, Jeffrey Y.; Hilton, Timothy W.; Davis, Kenneth J.; Andrews, Arlyn; Flamant, Pierre H.; Singh, Upendra N.

2011-01-01

The vertical profiling ofCO2 turbulent fluxes in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) is investigated using a coherent differential absorption lidar (CDIAL) operated nearby a tall tower in Wisconsin during June 2007. A CDIAL can perform simultaneous range-resolved CO2 DIAL and velocity measurements. The lidar eddy covariance technique is presented. The aims of the study are (i) an assessment of performance and current limitation of available CDIAL for CO2 turbulent fluxes and (ii) the derivation of instrument specifications to build a future CDIAL to perform accurate range-resolved CO2 fluxes. Experimental lidar CO2 mixing ratio and vertical velocity profiles are successfully compared with in situ sensors measurements. Time and space integral scales of turbulence in the ABL are addressed that result in limitation for time averaging and range accumulation. A first attempt to infer CO2 fluxes using an eddy covariance technique with currently available 2-mm CDIAL dataset is reported.

Contribution of trees and grasses to ecosystem fluxes of water, carbon, and energy throughout the seasons under different nutrient availability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

El-Madany, T. S.; Migliavacca, M.; Perez-Priego, O.; Luo, Y.; Moreno, G.; Carrara, A.; Kolle, O.; Reichstein, M.

2017-12-01

In semi-arid savanna type ecosystems, the carbon and water cycle are closely related to each other. Water availability is the main driver for the development and phenology of the vegetation, especially for annual plants. Depending on tree density, nutrient availability and species the contribution of the tree- and the herbaceous layer to ecosystem fluxes can vary substantially. We present data from an ecosystem scale nutrient manipulation experiment within a Mediterranean savanna type ecosystem which is used for cattle. The footprint areas of two out of three ecosystem eddy co-variance (EC) towers were fertilized with nitrogen (NT) and nitrogen plus phosphorous (NPT) while the third one served as the control tower (CT). At each ecosystem EC-tower an additional herbaceous layer tower was installed that only sampled fluxes from the herbaceous layer. Under certain assumptions flux differences between the ecosystem EC and the herbaceous layer EC systems can be considered as the contribution of the trees to the ecosystem fluxes. Based on phenology of the herbaceous layer estimated through green-chromatic-coordinates from digital imagery the year was separated into spring, senescence, regreening, and winter. The focus of the analysis is (i) the evaluation of the method and how it works throughout the different seasons and (ii) the quantification of the contribution of trees and grasses to ecosystem fluxes of water, carbon, and energy under different environmental conditions and nutrient stoichiometry. The contribution of the trees to total ecosystem fluxes is variable in time. Especially, during the beginning of the senescence period high evapotranspiration rates and largest carbon uptake are measured while the contribution to sensible heat fluxes is largest during the end of the summer. During the regreening and winter the contribution of ET is relatively constant around 0.25 mm d-1. During the peak of the greenness ET and carbon flux of the herbaceous EC tower are sometimes higher than fluxes measured by the ecosystem tower which is most likely caused by the mismatch in footprints. Whenever the herbaceous layer is active it contributes clearly more to the fluxes as compared to the trees.

Turbulent fluxes by "Conditional Eddy Sampling"

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Siebicke, Lukas

2015-04-01

Turbulent flux measurements are key to understanding ecosystem scale energy and matter exchange, including atmospheric trace gases. While the eddy covariance approach has evolved as an invaluable tool to quantify fluxes of e.g. CO2 and H2O continuously, it is limited to very few atmospheric constituents for which sufficiently fast analyzers exist. High instrument cost, lack of field-readiness or high power consumption (e.g. many recent laser-based systems requiring strong vacuum) further impair application to other tracers. Alternative micrometeorological approaches such as conditional sampling might overcome major limitations. Although the idea of eddy accumulation has already been proposed by Desjardin in 1972 (Desjardin, 1977), at the time it could not be realized for trace gases. Major simplifications by Businger and Oncley (1990) lead to it's widespread application as 'Relaxed Eddy Accumulation' (REA). However, those simplifications (flux gradient similarity with constant flow rate sampling irrespective of vertical wind velocity and introduction of a deadband around zero vertical wind velocity) have degraded eddy accumulation to an indirect method, introducing issues of scalar similarity and often lack of suitable scalar flux proxies. Here we present a real implementation of a true eddy accumulation system according to the original concept. Key to our approach, which we call 'Conditional Eddy Sampling' (CES), is the mathematical formulation of conditional sampling in it's true form of a direct eddy flux measurement paired with a performant real implementation. Dedicated hardware controlled by near-real-time software allows full signal recovery at 10 or 20 Hz, very fast valve switching, instant vertical wind velocity proportional flow rate control, virtually no deadband and adaptive power management. Demonstrated system performance often exceeds requirements for flux measurements by orders of magnitude. The system's exceptionally low power consumption is ideal for the field (one to two orders of magnitude lower compared to current closed-path laser based eddy covariance systems). Potential applications include fluxes of CO2, CH4, N2O, VOCs and other tracers. Finally we assess the flux accuracy of the Conditional Eddy Sampling (CES) approach as in our real implementation relative to alternative techniques including eddy covariance (EC) and relaxed eddy accumulation (REA). We further quantify various sources of instrument and method specific measurement errors. This comparison uses real measurements of 20 Hz turbulent time series of 3D wind velocity, sonic temperature and CO2 mixing ratio over a mixed decidious forest at the 'ICOS' flux tower site 'Hainich', Germany. Results from a simulation using real wind and CO2 timeseries from the Hainich site from 30 April to 3 November 2014 and real instrument performance suggest that the maximum flux estimates error (50% and 75% error quantiles) from Conditional Eddy Sampling (CES) relative to the true flux is 1.3% and 10%, respectively for monthly net fluxes, 1.6% and 7%, respectively for daily net fluxes and 8% and 35%, respectively for 30-minute CO2 flux estimates. Those results from CES are promising and outperform our REA estimates by about a factor of 50 assuming REA with constant b value. Results include flux time series from the EC, CES and REA approaches from 30-min to annual resolution.

Quantifying Water and Energy Fluxes Over Different Urban Land Covers in Phoenix, Arizona

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Templeton, Nicole P.; Vivoni, Enrique R.; Wang, Zhi-Hua; Schreiner-McGraw, Adam P.

2018-02-01

The impact of urbanization on water and energy fluxes varies according to the characteristics of the urban patch type. Nevertheless, urban flux observations are limited, particularly in arid climates, given the wide variety of land cover present in cities. To help address this need, a mobile eddy covariance tower was deployed at three locations in Phoenix, Arizona, to sample the surface energy balance at a parking lot, a xeric landscaping (irrigated trees with gravel) and a mesic landscaping (irrigated turf grass). These deployments were compared to a stationary eddy covariance tower in a suburban neighborhood. A comparison of the observations revealed key differences between the mobile and reference sites tied to the urban land cover within the measurement footprints. For instance, the net radiation varied substantially among the sites in manners consistent with albedo and shallow soil temperature differences. The partitioning of available energy between sensible and latent heat fluxes was modulated strongly by the presence of outdoor water use, with the irrigated turf grass exhibiting the highest evaporative fraction. At this site, we identified a lack of sensitivity of turbulent flux partitioning to precipitation events, which suggests that frequent outdoor water use removes water limitations in an arid climate, thus leading to mesic conditions. Other urban land covers with less irrigation, however, exhibited sensitivity to the occurrence of precipitation, as expected for an arid climate. As a result, quantifying the frequency and magnitude of outdoor water use is critical for understanding evapotranspiration losses in arid urban areas.

Eddy covariance measurement of isoprene fluxes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guenther, Alex B.; Hills, Alan J.

1998-06-01

A system has been developed to directly measure isoprene flux above a forest canopy by eddy covariance using the combination of a fast response, real-time isoprene sensor and sonic anemometer. This system is suitable for making nearly unattended, long-term, and continuous measurements of isoprene fluxes. Isoprene detection is based on chemiluminescence between isoprene and reactant ozone, which produces green light at 500 nm. The sensor has a noise level (1σ) of 450 pptv for a 1-s integration which is dominated by random high-frequency noise that does not significantly degrade eddy covariance flux measurements. Interference from the flux of other compounds is primarily due to the emission of monoterpenes, propene, ethene, and methyl butenol and the deposition of methacrolein and methyl vinyl ketone. The average total interference for North American landscapes in midday summer is estimated to be about 5% for emissions and -3% for deposition fluxes. In only a few North American landscapes, where isoprene emissions are very low and methyl butenol emissions are high, are interferences predicted to be significant. The system was field tested on a tower above a mixed deciduous forest canopy (Duke Forest, North Carolina, U.S.A.) dominated by oak trees, which are strong isoprene emitters. Isoprene fluxes were estimated for 307 half-hour sampling periods over 10 days. Daytime fluxes ranging from 1 to 14 mg C m-2 h-1 were strongly correlated with light and temperature. The daytime mean flux of 6 mg C m-2 h-1 is similar to previous estimates determined by relaxed eddy accumulation by Geron et al [1997] at this site. Nighttime fluxes were near zero (0.01±0.03 mg C m-2 h-1).

Strong tidal modulation of net ecosystem exchange in a salt marsh in North Inlet, South Carolina

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

O'Halloran, T. L.; Smith, E. M.; Bogoev, I.

2017-12-01

Along the southeastern US, intertidal salt marshes represent a critical habitat at the interface of the terrestrial and marine environments and perform a variety of ecological functions and services that make them of great economic importance for coastal communities They provide essential fish and shellfish habitat, with a majority of all commercially- and recreationally important fish species being dependent on intertidal marsh habitat during some portion of their life cycle. The penaeid shrimp industry, South Carolina's most economically important fishery, would cease to exist without the critical nursery function provided by intertidal salt marshes. Smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) is a keystone species in the high salinity marshes of the southeastern U.S., and its functioning is essential to the health and survival of salt marshes under rising sea levels. To better quantify and facilitate prediction of future salt marsh productivity, in May of 2017, we established a new integrated eddy covariance tower system to measure the net ecosystem exchange of carbon in a salt marsh in coastal South Carolina. The tower site is co-located with long-term, ongoing measurements as part of the North Inlet-Winyah Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (NI-WB NERR). Current sampling conducted within the eddy flux footprint includes: annual measures of the vegetation community at the time of peak biomass; bi-monthly measures of sediment elevation at Sediment Elevation Tables (SETs) located at the upper and lower ends of the flux footprint; monthly sediment porewater salinity and nutrient (ammonium, orthophosphate) and sulfide concentrations; and biannual sediment elevation surveys by RTK-GPS. A suite of water quality measurements are made every 15 minutes in the main creek that floods the marsh platform in the flux footprint. Here we present our first six months of observations investigating the abiotic drivers of productivity on daily (intratidal) to monthly timescales as determined by the eddy covariance fluxes. Comparisons with other tidal marsh eddy flux observations across the eastern U.S. are presented for context. Initial results suggest our measured net ecosystem exchange may contain the strongest tidal signal reported to date, which could result from the relatively low elevation of our site.

Delta-Flux: An eddy covariance network for a climate-smart Lower Mississippi Basin

USGS Publications Warehouse

Runkle, Benjamin R. K.; Rigby, James R.; Reba, Michele L.; Anapalli, Saseendran S.; Bhattacharjee, Joydeep; Krauss, Ken W.; Liang, Lu; Locke, Martin A.; Novick, Kimberly A.; Sui, Ruixiu; Suvočarev, Kosana; White, Paul M.

2017-01-01

Networks of remotely monitored research sites are increasingly the tool used to study regional agricultural impacts on carbon and water fluxes. However, key national networks such as the National Ecological Observatory Network and AmeriFlux lack contributions from the Lower Mississippi River Basin (LMRB), a highly productive agricultural area with opportunities for soil carbon sequestration through conservation practices. The authors describe the rationale to create the new Delta-Flux network, which will coordinate efforts to quantify carbon and water budgets at seventeen eddy covariance flux tower sites in the LMRB. The network structure will facilitate climate-smart management strategies based on production-scale and continuous measurements of carbon and water fluxes from the landscape to the atmosphere under different soil and water management conditions. The seventeen instrumented field sites are expected to monitor fluxes within the most characteristic landscapes of the target area: row-crop fields, pasture, grasslands, forests, and marshes. The network participants are committed to open collaboration and efficient regionalization of site-level findings to support sustainable agricultural and forestry management and conservation of natural resources.

Upscaling surface energy fluxes over the North Slope of Alaska using airborne eddy-covariance measurements and environmental response functions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Serafimovich, Andrei; Metzger, Stefan; Hartmann, Jörg; Kohnert, Katrin; Zona, Donatella; Sachs, Torsten

2018-03-01

The objective of this study was to upscale airborne flux measurements of sensible heat and latent heat and to develop high resolution flux maps. In order to support the evaluation of coupled atmospheric/land-surface models we investigated spatial patterns of energy fluxes in relation to land-surface properties. We used airborne eddy-covariance measurements acquired by the POLAR 5 research aircraft in June-July 2012 to analyze surface fluxes. Footprint-weighted surface properties were then related to 21 529 sensible heat flux observations and 25 608 latent heat flux observations using both remote sensing and modelled data. A boosted regression tree technique was used to estimate environmental response functions between spatially and temporally resolved flux observations and corresponding biophysical and meteorological drivers. In order to improve the spatial coverage and spatial representativeness of energy fluxes we used relationships extracted across heterogeneous Arctic landscapes to infer high-resolution surface energy flux maps, thus directly upscaling the observational data. These maps of projected sensible heat and latent heat fluxes were used to assess energy partitioning in northern ecosystems and to determine the dominant energy exchange processes in permafrost areas. This allowed us to estimate energy fluxes for specific types of land cover, taking into account meteorological conditions. Airborne and modelled fluxes were then compared with measurements from an eddy-covariance tower near Atqasuk. Our results are an important contribution for the advanced, scale-dependent quantification of surface energy fluxes and provide new insights into the processes affecting these fluxes for the main vegetation types in high-latitude permafrost areas.

Evaluating the relationships between solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence from Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 and gross primary productivity from eddy covariance flux towers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, X.; Xiao, J.; He, B.

2017-12-01

Solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) opens a new perspective on the monitoring of vegetation photosynthesis from space, and has been recently used to estimate gross primary productivity (GPP). However, previous studies on SIF were mainly based on satellite observations from the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT) and Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment-2 (GOME-2), and the evaluation of these coarse-resolution SIF measurements using GPP derived from eddy covariance (EC) flux towers has been hindered by the scale mismatch between satellite and tower footprints. We use new far-red SIF observations from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) satellite with much finer spatial resolution and GPP data from EC flux towers from 2014 to 2016 to examine the relationship between GPP and SIF for temperate forests. The OCO-2 SIF tracked tower GPP fairly well, and had strong correlation with tower GPP at both retrieval bands (757nm and 771nm) and both instantaneous (mid-day) and daily timescales. Daily SIF at 757nm (SIF757) exhibited much stronger correlation with tower GPP compared to MODIS enhanced vegetation index (EVI) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) derived from either Terra or Aqua and had a similarly strong relationship as EVI based on the bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) corrected reflectance product (Terra+Aqua). Absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (APAR) explained 85% of the variance in SIF757, while the product of APAR and two environmental scalars - fTmin and fVPD (representing minimum temperature stress and water stress) explained slightly higher variance (92%) in SIF757. This suggests that SIF mainly depends on APAR and also contains information on light use efficiency (LUE) reflecting environmental stresses and physiological or biochemical variations of vegetation. The hyperbolic model based on SIF757 estimated GPP well (R2=0.81, p<0.0001; RMSE=1.11 gC m-2 d-1), and its performance was comparable to or slightly better than that of a LUE-based GPP model - the MODSI GPP algorithm. Our findings demonstrate the strong predictive ability of OCO-2 SIF in estimating GPP for temperate forests and its potential in future ecosystem functioning and carbon cycling studies.

Empirically constrained estimates of Alaskan regional Net Ecosystem Exchange of CO2, 2012-2014

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Commane, R.; Lindaas, J.; Benmergui, J. S.; Luus, K. A.; Chang, R. Y. W.; Miller, S. M.; Henderson, J.; Karion, A.; Miller, J. B.; Sweeney, C.; Miller, C. E.; Lin, J. C.; Oechel, W. C.; Zona, D.; Euskirchen, E. S.; Iwata, H.; Ueyama, M.; Harazono, Y.; Veraverbeke, S.; Randerson, J. T.; Daube, B. C.; Pittman, J. V.; Wofsy, S. C.

2015-12-01

We present data-driven estimates of the regional net ecosystem exchange of CO2 across Alaska for three years (2012-2014) derived from CARVE (Carbon in the Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment) aircraft measurements. Integrating optimized estimates of annual NEE, we find that the Alaskan region was a small sink of CO2 during 2012 and 2014, but a significant source of CO2 in 2013, even before including emissions from the large forest fire season during 2013. We investigate the drivers of this interannual variability, and the larger spring and fall emissions of CO2 in 2013. To determine the optimized fluxes, we couple the Polar Weather Research and Forecasting (PWRF) model with the Stochastic Time-Inverted Lagrangian Transport (STILT) model, to produce footprints of surface influence that we convolve with a remote-sensing driven model of NEE across Alaska, the Polar Vegetation Photosynthesis and Respiration Model (Polar-VPRM). For each month we calculate a spatially explicit additive flux (ΔF) by minimizing the difference between the measured profiles of the aircraft CO2 data and the modeled profiles, using a framework that combines a uniform correction at regional scales and a Bayesian inversion of residuals at smaller scales. A rigorous estimate of total uncertainty (including atmospheric transport, measurement error, etc.) was made with a combination of maximum likelihood estimation and Monte Carlo error propagation. Our optimized fluxes are consistent with other measurements on multiple spatial scales, including CO2 mixing ratios from the CARVE Tower near Fairbanks and eddy covariance flux towers in both boreal and tundra ecosystems across Alaska. For times outside the aircraft observations (Dec-April) we use the un-optimized polar-VPRM, which has shown good agreement with both tall towers and eddy flux data outside the growing season. This approach allows us to robustly estimate the annual CO2 budget for Alaska and investigate the drivers of both the seasonal cycle and the interannual variability of CO2 for the region.

Multi-scale Modeling of Energy Balance Fluxes in a Dense Tamarisk Riparian Forest

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Neale, C. M.; Santos, C. A.; Watts, D.; Osterberg, J.; Hipps, L. E.; Sritharan, S. I.

2008-12-01

Remote sensing of energy balance fluxes has become operationally more viable over the last 10 years with the development of more robust multi-layer models and the availability of quasi-real time satellite imagery from most sensors. Riparian corridors in semi-arid and arid areas present a challenge to satellite based techniques for estimating evapotranspiration due to issues of scale and pixel resolution, especially when using the thermal infrared bands. This paper will present energy balance measurement and modeling results over a Salt Cedar (Tamarix Ramosissima) forest in the Cibola National Wildlife Refuge along the Colorado River south of Blythe, CA. The research site encompasses a 600 hectare area populated by mostly Tamarisk stands of varying density. Three Bowen ratio systems are installed on tall towers within varying densities of forest cover in the upwind footprint and growing under varying depths to the water table. An additional eddy covariance tower is installed alongside a Bowen ratio system on one of the towers. Flux data has been gathered continuously since early 2007. In the summer of 2007, a Scintec large aperture scintillometer was installed between two of the towers over 1 km apart and has been working continuously along with the flux towers. Two intensive field campaigns were organized in June 2007 and May 2008 to coincide with LANDSAT TM5, MODIS and ASTER overpasses. High resolution multispectral and thermal imagery was acquired at the same time with the USU airborne system to provide information for the up- scaling of the energy balance fluxes from tower to satellite scales. The paper will present comparisons between the different energy balance measuring techniques under the highly advective conditions of the experimental site, concentrating on the scintillometer data. Preliminary results of remotely sensed modeling of the fluxes at different scales and model complexity will also be presented.

AmeriFlux US-KFS Kansas Field Station

DOE Data Explorer

Brunsell, Nathaniel [Kansas University

2016-01-01

This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-KFS Kansas Field Station. Site Description - The study is an abandoned grassland at the Kansas Field Station and Ecological Reserves. The site is located within the tallgrass prairie-deciduous forest ecotonal area. The site was subjected to intensive agriculture from the 1940s through the late 1960s. In the mid-1970s, the site was planted with the cool-season grass Bromus inermis and used as a hay meadow until 1987. Then, mowing and burning approximately every five years maintained it as a grassland until 2007, when the eddy flux tower was installed.

On the estimate of the transpiration in Mediterranean heterogeneous ecosystems with the coupled use of eddy covariance and sap flow techniques.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Corona, Roberto; Curreli, Matteo; Montaldo, Nicola; Oren, Ram

2013-04-01

Mediterranean ecosystems are commonly heterogeneous savanna-like ecosystems, with contrasting plant functional types (PFT) competing for the water use. Mediterranean regions suffer water scarcity due to the dry climate conditions. In semi-arid regions evapotranspiration (ET) is the leading loss term of the root-zone water budget with a yearly magnitude that may be roughly equal to the precipitation. Despite the attention these ecosystems are receiving, a general lack of knowledge persists about the estimate of ET and the relationship between ET and the plant survival strategies for the different PFTs under water stress. During the dry summers these water-limited heterogeneous ecosystems are mainly characterized by a simple dual PFT-landscapes with strong-resistant woody vegetation and bare soil since grass died. In these conditions due to the low signal of the land surface fluxes captured by the sonic anemometer and gas analyzer the widely used eddy covariance may fail and its ET estimate is not robust enough. In these conditions the use of the sap flow technique may have a key role, because theoretically it provides a direct estimate of the woody vegetation transpiration. Through the coupled use of the sap flow sensor observations, a 2D foot print model of the eddy covariance tower and high resolution satellite images for the estimate of the foot print land cover map, the eddy covariance measurements can be correctly interpreted, and ET components (bare soil evaporation and woody vegetation transpiration) can be separated. The case study is at the Orroli site in Sardinia (Italy). The site landscape is a mixture of Mediterranean patchy vegetation types: trees, including wild olives and cork oaks, different shrubs and herbaceous species. An extensive field campaign started in 2004. Land-surface fluxes and CO2 fluxes are estimated by an eddy covariance technique based micrometeorological tower. Soil moisture profiles were also continuously estimated using water content reflectometers and gravimetric method, and periodically leaf area index (LAI) PFTs are estimated. From 2012 sap flow sensors based on the thermal Dissipation Method are installed on numerous trees around the tower. Preliminary results show first the need of careful use sap flow sensors outputs which are affected by errors in the estimates of their main parameters, mainly allometric relationships between, for instance, sapwood area, diameter, canopy cover area, which affect the upscale of the local tree measurements to the site plot larger scale. Finally we demonstrate that the sap flow sensors are essential for the estimate of ET in such dry conditions, typical of Mediterranean ecosystems.

Climate change and fire management in the mid-Atlantic region

Treesearch

Kenneth L. Clark; Nicholas Skowronski; Heidi Renninger; Robert Scheller

2014-01-01

In this review, we summarize the potential impacts of climate change on wildfire activity in the mid-Atlantic region, and then consider how the beneficial uses of prescribed fire could conflict with mitigation needs for climate change, focusing on patters of carbon (C) sequestration by forests in the region. We use a synthesis of field studies, eddy flux tower...

Environmental variation is directly responsible for short- but not long-term variation in forest-atmosphere carbon exchange

Treesearch

Andrew D. Richardson; David Y. Hollinger; John D. Aber; Scott V. Ollinger; Bobby H. Braswell

2007-01-01

Tower-based eddy covariance measurements of forest-atmosphere carbon dioxide (CO2) exchange from many sites around the world indicate that there is considerable year-to-year variation in net ecosystem exchange (NEE). Here, we use a statistical modeling approach to partition the interannual variability in NEE (and its component fluxes, ecosystem...

Estimating parameters of a forest ecosystem C model with measurements of stocks and fluxes as joint constraints

Treesearch

Andrew D. Richardson; Mathew Williams; David Y. Hollinger; David J.P. Moore; D. Bryan Dail; Eric A. Davidson; Neal A. Scott; Robert S. Evans; Holly. Hughes

2010-01-01

We conducted an inverse modeling analysis, using a variety of data streams (tower-based eddy covariance measurements of net ecosystem exchange, NEE, of CO2, chamber-based measurements of soil respiration, and ancillary ecological measurements of leaf area index, litterfall, and woody biomass increment) to estimate parameters and initial carbon (C...

Integrative measurements focusing on carbon, energy and water fluxes at the forest site 'Hohes Holz' and the grassland 'Grosses Bruch'

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rebmann, Corinna; Claudia, Schütze; Sara, Marañón-Jiménez; Sebastian, Gimper; Matthias, Zink; Luis, Samaniego; Matthias, Cuntz

2017-04-01

The reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the optimization of Carbon sequestration by ecosystems have become priority objectives for current climate change policies. In this context, the long term research project TERENO and the research infrastructure ICOS have been established. The eddy covariance technique allows obtaining an integrative estimate of the ecosystem carbon, water and energy balances at the ecosystem level. The relative contributions of evaporation and transpiration as well as carbon sources and sinks need, however, to be determined separately for thorough process understanding. Two different ecosystem observatories have recently been established in the Magdeburger Börde: a deciduous forest (Hohes Holz) and a meadow (Grosses Bruch). A comprehensive system of instrumentation provides continuous data for the evaluation of energy, water and carbon fluxes at the 1500 ha large forest site, including a 50 m high eddy covariance (EC) tower for micrometeorological investigations in different heights above and below canopy, throughfall and stem flow sensors, a soil moisture and temperature sensor network, soil respiration chambers, sap flow sensors, and ancillary analysis of trees such a dendrometer and leaf area index measurements. Eddy covariance measurements allow the assessment of the carbon (Net Ecosystem Exchange, NEE) and water balance at the ecosystem scale. To better understand the contributing processes we partition water und carbon fluxes of the forest ecosystem by different methods. Tower-based data of NEE are therefore complemented and validated by continuous automatic and manual campaign measurements of soil effluxes and their drivers. Water fluxes into the ecosystem are partitioned by stem flow and throughfall measurements and a distributed soil moisture network. Gap fraction in the forest has a strong influence on the distribution on the water fluxes and is therefore determined on a regular basis. Since the establishment of the flux sites, two abnormally dry years (2015 and 2016) occurred. Fluxes from these years are evaluated in detail here. These data are additionally used to evaluate the drought assessment of the German Drought Monitor (www.ufz.de/droughtmonitor).

Characterizing spatial and temporal variability in methane gas-flux dynamics of subtropical wetlands in the Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sirianni, M.; Comas, X.; Shoemaker, B.

2017-12-01

Wetland methane emissions are highly variable both in space and time, and are controlled by changes in certain biogeochemical controls (i.e. organic matter availability; redox potential) and/or other environmental factors (i.e. soil temperature; water level). Consequently, hot spots (areas with disproportionally high emissions) may develop where biogeochemical and environmental conditions are especially conducive for enhancing certain microbial processes such as methanogenesis. The Big Cypress National Preserve is a collection of subtropical wetlands in southwestern Florida, including extensive forested (cypress, pine, hardwood) and sawgrass ecosystems that dry and flood annually in response to rainfall. In addition to rainfall, hydroperiod, fire regime, elevation above mean sea level, dominant vegetation type and underlying geological controls contribute to the development and evolution of organic and calcitic soils found throughout the Preserve. Currently, the U.S. Geological Survey employs eddy covariance methods within the Preserve to quantify carbon and methane exchanges over several spatially extensive vegetation communities. While eddy covariance towers are a convenient tool for measuring gas exchanges at the ecosystem scale, their spatially extensive footprint (hundreds of meters) may mask smaller scale spatial variabilities that may be conducive to the development of hot spots. Similarly, temporal resolution (i.e. sampling effort) at scales smaller that the eddy covariance measurement footprint is important since low resolution data may overlook rapid emission events and the temporal variability of discrete hot spots. In this work, we intend to estimate small-scale contributions of organic and calcitic soils to gas exchanges measured by the eddy covariance towers using a unique combination of ground penetrating radar (GPR), capacitance probes, gas traps, and time-lapse photography. By using an array of methods that vary in spatio-temporal resolution, we hope to better understand the uncertainties associated with measuring wetland methane fluxes across different spatial and temporal scales. Our results have implications for characterizing and refining methane flux estimates in subtropical peat soils that could be used for climate models.

Annual sums of carbon dioxide exchange over a heterogeneous urban landscape through machine learning based gap-filling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Menzer, Olaf; Meiring, Wendy; Kyriakidis, Phaedon C.; McFadden, Joseph P.

2015-01-01

A small, but growing, number of flux towers in urban environments measure surface-atmospheric exchanges of carbon dioxide by the eddy covariance method. As in all eddy covariance studies, obtaining annual sums of urban CO2 exchange requires imputation of data gaps due to low turbulence and non-stationary conditions, adverse weather, and instrument failures. Gap-filling approaches that are widely used for measurements from towers in natural vegetation are based on light and temperature response models. However, they do not account for key features of the urban environment including tower footprint heterogeneity and localized CO2 sources. Here, we present a novel gap-filling modeling framework that uses machine learning to select explanatory variables, such as continuous traffic counts and temporal variables, and then constrains models separately for spatially classified subsets of the data. We applied the modeling framework to a three year time series of measurements from a tall broadcast tower in a suburban neighborhood of Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA. The gap-filling performance was similar to that reported for natural measurement sites, explaining 64% to 88% of the variability in the fluxes. Simulated carbon budgets were in good agreement with an ecophysiological bottom-up study at the same site. Total annual carbon dioxide flux sums for the tower site ranged from 1064 to 1382 g C m-2 yr-1, across different years and different gap-filling methods. Bias errors of annual sums resulting from gap-filling did not exceed 18 g C m-2 yr-1 and random uncertainties did not exceed ±44 g C m-2 yr-1 (or ±3.8% of the annual flux). Regardless of the gap-filling method used, the year-to-year differences in carbon exchange at this site were small. In contrast, the modeled annual sums of CO2 exchange differed by a factor of two depending on wind direction. This indicated that the modeled time series captured the spatial variability in both the biogenic and anthropogenic CO2 sources and sinks in a reproducible way. The gap-filling approach developed here may also be useful for inhomogeneous sites other than urban areas, such as logged forests or ecosystems under disturbance from fire or pests.

The influence of idealized surface heterogeneity on virtual turbulent flux measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

De Roo, Frederik; Mauder, Matthias

2018-04-01

The imbalance of the surface energy budget in eddy-covariance measurements is still an unsolved problem. A possible cause is the presence of land surface heterogeneity, which affects the boundary-layer turbulence. To investigate the impact of surface variables on the partitioning of the energy budget of flux measurements in the surface layer under convective conditions, we set up a systematic parameter study by means of large-eddy simulation. For the study we use a virtual control volume approach, which allows the determination of advection by the mean flow, flux-divergence and storage terms of the energy budget at the virtual measurement site, in addition to the standard turbulent flux. We focus on the heterogeneity of the surface fluxes and keep the topography flat. The surface fluxes vary locally in intensity and these patches have different length scales. Intensity and length scales can vary for the two horizontal dimensions but follow an idealized chessboard pattern. Our main focus lies on surface heterogeneity of the kilometer scale, and one order of magnitude smaller. For these two length scales, we investigate the average response of the fluxes at a number of virtual towers, when varying the heterogeneity length within the length scale and when varying the contrast between the different patches. For each simulation, virtual measurement towers were positioned at functionally different positions (e.g., downdraft region, updraft region, at border between domains, etc.). As the storage term is always small, the non-closure is given by the sum of the advection by the mean flow and the flux-divergence. Remarkably, the missing flux can be described by either the advection by the mean flow or the flux-divergence separately, because the latter two have a high correlation with each other. For kilometer scale heterogeneity, we notice a clear dependence of the updrafts and downdrafts on the surface heterogeneity and likewise we also see a dependence of the energy partitioning on the tower location. For the hectometer scale, we do not notice such a clear dependence. Finally, we seek correlators for the energy balance ratio in the simulations. The correlation with the friction velocity is less pronounced than previously found, but this is likely due to our concentration on effectively strongly to freely convective conditions.

Uncertainty analysis of the Operational Simplified Surface Energy Balance (SSEBop) model at multiple flux tower sites

USGS Publications Warehouse

Chen, Mingshi; Senay, Gabriel B.; Singh, Ramesh K.; Verdin, James P.

2016-01-01

Evapotranspiration (ET) is an important component of the water cycle – ET from the land surface returns approximately 60% of the global precipitation back to the atmosphere. ET also plays an important role in energy transport among the biosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere. Current regional to global and daily to annual ET estimation relies mainly on surface energy balance (SEB) ET models or statistical and empirical methods driven by remote sensing data and various climatological databases. These models have uncertainties due to inevitable input errors, poorly defined parameters, and inadequate model structures. The eddy covariance measurements on water, energy, and carbon fluxes at the AmeriFlux tower sites provide an opportunity to assess the ET modeling uncertainties. In this study, we focused on uncertainty analysis of the Operational Simplified Surface Energy Balance (SSEBop) model for ET estimation at multiple AmeriFlux tower sites with diverse land cover characteristics and climatic conditions. The 8-day composite 1-km MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) land surface temperature (LST) was used as input land surface temperature for the SSEBop algorithms. The other input data were taken from the AmeriFlux database. Results of statistical analysis indicated that the SSEBop model performed well in estimating ET with an R2 of 0.86 between estimated ET and eddy covariance measurements at 42 AmeriFlux tower sites during 2001–2007. It was encouraging to see that the best performance was observed for croplands, where R2 was 0.92 with a root mean square error of 13 mm/month. The uncertainties or random errors from input variables and parameters of the SSEBop model led to monthly ET estimates with relative errors less than 20% across multiple flux tower sites distributed across different biomes. This uncertainty of the SSEBop model lies within the error range of other SEB models, suggesting systematic error or bias of the SSEBop model is within the normal range. This finding implies that the simplified parameterization of the SSEBop model did not significantly affect the accuracy of the ET estimate while increasing the ease of model setup for operational applications. The sensitivity analysis indicated that the SSEBop model is most sensitive to input variables, land surface temperature (LST) and reference ET (ETo); and parameters, differential temperature (dT), and maximum ET scalar (Kmax), particularly during the non-growing season and in dry areas. In summary, the uncertainty assessment verifies that the SSEBop model is a reliable and robust method for large-area ET estimation. The SSEBop model estimates can be further improved by reducing errors in two input variables (ETo and LST) and two key parameters (Kmax and dT).

Understanding the relationship between vegetation phenology and productivity across key dryland ecosystem types through the integration of PhenoCam, satellite, and eddy covariance data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yan, D.; Scott, R. L.; Moore, D. J.; Biederman, J. A.; Smith, W. K.

2017-12-01

Land surface phenology (LSP) - defined as remotely sensed seasonal variations in vegetation greenness - is intrinsically linked to seasonal carbon uptake, and is thus commonly used as a proxy for vegetation productivity (gross primary productivity; GPP). Yet, the relationship between LSP and GPP remains uncertain, particularly for understudied dryland ecosystems characterized by relatively large spatial and temporal variability. Here, we explored the relationship between LSP and the phenology of GPP for three dominant dryland ecosystem types, and we evaluated how these relationships change as a function of spatial and temporal scale. We focused on three long-term dryland eddy covariance flux tower sites: Walnut Gulch Lucky Hills Shrubland (WHS), Walnut Gulch Kendall Grassland (WKG), and Santa Rita Mesquite (SRM). We analyzed daily canopy-level, 16-day 30m, and 8-day 500m time series of greenness indices from PhenoCam, Landsat 7 ETM+/Landsat 8 OLI, and MODIS, respectively. We first quantified the impact of spatial scale by temporally resampling canopy-level PhenoCam, 30m Landsat, and 500m MODIS to 16-day intervals and then comparing against flux tower GPP estimates. We next quantified the impact of temporal scale by spatially resampling daily PhenoCam, 16-day Landsat, and 8-day MODIS to 500m time series and then comparing against flux tower GPP estimates. We find evidence of critical periods of decoupling between LSP and the phenology of GPP that vary according to the spatial and temporal scale, and as a function of ecosystem type. Our results provide key insight into dryland LSP and GPP dynamics that can be used in future efforts to improve ecosystem process models and satellite-based vegetation productivity algorithms.

Tundra is a consistent source of CO 2 at a site with progressive permafrost thaw during 6 years of chamber and eddy covariance measurements: Tundra CO 2 Fluxes

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Celis, Gerardo; Mauritz, Marguerite; Bracho, Rosvel

Current and future warming of high-latitude ecosystems will play an important role in climate change through feedbacks to the global carbon cycle. This study compares 6 years of CO 2 flux measurements in moist acidic tundra using autochambers and eddy covariance (Tower) approaches. Here, we found that the tundra was an annual source of CO 2 to the atmosphere as indicated by net ecosystem exchange using both methods with a combined mean of 105 ± 17 g CO 2 C m-2 y-1 across methods and years (Tower 87 ± 17 and Autochamber 123 ± 14). Furthermore, the difference between methodsmore » was largest early in the observation period, with Autochambers indicated a greater CO 2 source to the atmosphere. This discrepancy diminished through time, and in the final year the Autochambers measured a greater sink strength than tower. Active layer thickness was a significant driver of net ecosystem carbon exchange, gross ecosystem primary productivity, and Reco and could account for differences between Autochamber and Tower. The stronger source initially attributed lower summer season gross primary production (GPP) during the first 3 years, coupled with lower ecosystem respiration (Reco) during the first year. The combined suppression of GPP and Reco in the first year of Autochamber measurements could be the result of the experimental setup. Root damage associated with Autochamber soil collar installation may have lowered the plant community's capacity to fix C, but recovered within 3 years. And while this ecosystem was a consistent CO 2 sink during the summer, CO 2 emissions during the nonsummer months offset summer CO 2 uptake each year.« less

Tundra is a consistent source of CO 2 at a site with progressive permafrost thaw during 6 years of chamber and eddy covariance measurements: Tundra CO 2 Fluxes

DOE PAGES

Celis, Gerardo; Mauritz, Marguerite; Bracho, Rosvel; ...

2017-06-28

Current and future warming of high-latitude ecosystems will play an important role in climate change through feedbacks to the global carbon cycle. This study compares 6 years of CO 2 flux measurements in moist acidic tundra using autochambers and eddy covariance (Tower) approaches. Here, we found that the tundra was an annual source of CO 2 to the atmosphere as indicated by net ecosystem exchange using both methods with a combined mean of 105 ± 17 g CO 2 C m-2 y-1 across methods and years (Tower 87 ± 17 and Autochamber 123 ± 14). Furthermore, the difference between methodsmore » was largest early in the observation period, with Autochambers indicated a greater CO 2 source to the atmosphere. This discrepancy diminished through time, and in the final year the Autochambers measured a greater sink strength than tower. Active layer thickness was a significant driver of net ecosystem carbon exchange, gross ecosystem primary productivity, and Reco and could account for differences between Autochamber and Tower. The stronger source initially attributed lower summer season gross primary production (GPP) during the first 3 years, coupled with lower ecosystem respiration (Reco) during the first year. The combined suppression of GPP and Reco in the first year of Autochamber measurements could be the result of the experimental setup. Root damage associated with Autochamber soil collar installation may have lowered the plant community's capacity to fix C, but recovered within 3 years. And while this ecosystem was a consistent CO 2 sink during the summer, CO 2 emissions during the nonsummer months offset summer CO 2 uptake each year.« less

Combined chamber-tower approach: Using eddy covariance measurements to cross-validate carbon fluxes modeled from manual chamber campaigns

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brümmer, C.; Moffat, A. M.; Huth, V.; Augustin, J.; Herbst, M.; Kutsch, W. L.

2016-12-01

Manual carbon dioxide flux measurements with closed chambers at scheduled campaigns are a versatile method to study management effects at small scales in multiple-plot experiments. The eddy covariance technique has the advantage of quasi-continuous measurements but requires large homogeneous areas of a few hectares. To evaluate the uncertainties associated with interpolating from individual campaigns to the whole vegetation period, we installed both techniques at an agricultural site in Northern Germany. The presented comparison covers two cropping seasons, winter oilseed rape in 2012/13 and winter wheat in 2013/14. Modeling half-hourly carbon fluxes from campaigns is commonly performed based on non-linear regressions for the light response and respiration. The daily averages of net CO2 modeled from chamber data deviated from eddy covariance measurements in the range of ± 5 g C m-2 day-1. To understand the observed differences and to disentangle the effects, we performed four additional setups (expert versus default settings of the non-linear regressions based algorithm, purely empirical modeling with artificial neural networks versus non-linear regressions, cross-validating using eddy covariance measurements as campaign fluxes, weekly versus monthly scheduling of campaigns) to model the half-hourly carbon fluxes for the whole vegetation period. The good agreement of the seasonal course of net CO2 at plot and field scale for our agricultural site demonstrates that both techniques are robust and yield consistent results at seasonal time scale even for a managed ecosystem with high temporal dynamics in the fluxes. This allows combining the respective advantages of factorial experiments at plot scale with dense time series data at field scale. Furthermore, the information from the quasi-continuous eddy covariance measurements can be used to derive vegetation proxies to support the interpolation of carbon fluxes in-between the manual chamber campaigns.

Optical Sensing of Ecosystem Carbon Fluxes from Tower-mounted Spectrometers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huemmrich, K. F.; Corp, L. A.; Middleton, E.; Cook, B.; Campbell, P. K. E.; Zhang, Q.; Hom, M.; Russ, A.; Kustas, W. P.

2016-12-01

Optical sampling of spectral reflectance and solar induced fluorescence provide information on the physiological status of vegetation that can be used to infer stress responses and estimates of production. To fully understand these measurements requires descriptions of temporal and bidirectional variability. The NASA FUSION tower-mounted system consists of two dual channel, upward and downward looking, spectrometers used to simultaneously collect high spectral resolution measurements of reflected and fluoresced light from vegetation canopies at multiple view angles. This comprehensive tower measurement dataset can provide insights into interpretation of satellite or aircraft observations. Data were collected in the Optimizing Production Inputs for Economic and Environmental Enhancement (OPE3) cornfields (39.03°N, 76.85°W) at USDA Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in conjunction with CO2 eddy covariance fluxes throughout the growing season. Estimates of chlorophyll fluorescence, combined with measures of vegetation pigment content and the Photosynthetic Reflectance Index (PRI) derived from the spectral reflectance are compared with CO2 fluxes over diurnal periods for multiple days. We find significant bidirectional effects. The relationships among the different optical measurements indicate that they are providing different types of information on the vegetation and that combinations of these measurements provide improved retrievals of CO2 fluxes than any index alone.

True eddy accumulation and eddy covariance methods and instruments intercomparison for fluxes of CO2, CH4 and H2O above the Hainich Forest

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Siebicke, Lukas

2017-04-01

The eddy covariance (EC) method is state-of-the-art in directly measuring vegetation-atmosphere exchange of CO2 and H2O at ecosystem scale. However, the EC method is currently limited to a small number of atmospheric tracers by the lack of suitable fast-response analyzers or poor signal-to-noise ratios. High resource and power demands may further restrict the number of spatial sampling points. True eddy accumulation (TEA) is an alternative method for direct and continuous flux observations. Key advantages are the applicability to a wider range of air constituents such as greenhouse gases, isotopes, volatile organic compounds and aerosols using slow-response analyzers. In contrast to relaxed eddy accumulation (REA), true eddy accumulation (Desjardins, 1977) has the advantage of being a direct method which does not require proxies. True Eddy Accumulation has the potential to overcome above mentioned limitations of eddy covariance but has hardly ever been successfully demonstrated in practice in the past. This study presents flux measurements using an innovative approach to true eddy accumulation by directly, continuously and automatically measuring trace gas fluxes using a flow-through system. We merge high-frequency flux contributions from TEA with low-frequency covariances from the same sensors. We show flux measurements of CO2, CH4 and H2O by TEA and EC above an old-growth forest at the ICOS flux tower site "Hainich" (DE-Hai). We compare and evaluate the performance of the two direct turbulent flux measurement methods eddy covariance and true eddy accumulation using side-by-side trace gas flux observations. We further compare performance of seven instrument complexes, i.e. combinations of sonic anemometers and trace gas analyzers. We compare gas analyzers types of open-path, enclosed-path and closed-path design. We further differentiate data from two gas analysis technologies: infrared gas analysis (IRGA) and laser spectrometry (open path and CRDS closed-path laser spectrometers). We present results of CO2 and H2O fluxes from the following six instruments, i.e. combinations of sonic anemometers/gas analyzers (and methods): METEK-uSonic3/Picarro-G2301 (TEA), METEK-uSonic3/LI-7500 (EC), Gill-R3/LI-6262 (EC), Gill-R3/LI-7200 (EC), Gill-HS/LI-7200 (EC), Gill-R3/LGR-FGGA (EC). Further, we present results of much more difficult to measure CH4 fluxes from the following three instruments, i.e. combinations of sonic anemometers/gas analyzers (and methods): METEK-uSonic3/Picarro-G2301 (TEA), Gill-R3/LI-7700 (EC), Gill-R3/LGR-FGGA (EC). We observed that CO2, CH4 and H2O fluxes from the side-by-side measurements by true eddy accumulation and eddy covariance methods correlated well. Secondly, the difference between the TEA and EC methods using the same sonic anemometer but different gas analyzer was often smaller than the mismatch of the various side-by-side eddy covariance measurements using different sonic anemometers and gas analyzers. Signal-to-noise ratios of CH4 fluxes from the true eddy accumulation system system were superior to both eddy covariance sensors (open-path LI-7700 and closed-path CRDS LGR-FGGA sensors). We conclude that our novel implementation of the true eddy accumulation method demonstrated high signal-to-noise ratios, applicability to slow-response gas analyzers, small power consumption and direct proxy-free ecosystem-scale trace gas flux measurements of CO2, CH4 and H2O. The current results suggest that true eddy accumulation would be suitable and should be applied as the method-of-choice for direct flux measurements of a large number of atmospheric constituents beyond CO2 and H2O, including isotopes, aerosols, volatile organic compounds and other trace gases for which eddy covariance might not be a viable alternative. We will further develop true eddy accumulation as a novel approach using multiplexed systems for spatially distributed flux measurements.

Coupling Flux Towers and Networks with Proximal and Remote Sensing Data: New Tools to Collect and Share Time-Synchronized Hourly Fluxes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burba, George; Avenson, Tom; Burkart, Andreas; Gamon, John; Guan, Kaiyu; Julitta, Tommaso; Pastorello, Gilberto; Sakowska, Karolina

2017-04-01

Multiple hundreds of flux towers are presently operational as standalone projects and as parts of larger networks. However, the vast majority of these towers do not allow straight-forward coupling with satellite data, and even fewer have optical sensors for validation of satellite products and upscaling from field to regional levels. In 2016, new tools to collect, process, and share time-synchronized flux data from multiple towers were developed and deployed globally. Originally designed to automate site and data management, these new tools can also be effective in coupling tower data with satellite data due to the following present capabilities: Fully automated FluxSuite system combines hardware, software and web-services, and does not require an expert to run it It can be incorporated into a new flux station or added to a present station, using weatherized remotely-accessible microcomputer, SmartFlux2 It utilizes EddyPro software to calculate fully-processed fluxes and footprints in near-realtime, alongside radiation, optical, weather and soil data All site data are merged into a single quality-controlled file timed using PTP time protocol Data from optical sensors can be integrated into this complete dataset via compatible dataloggers Multiple stations can be linked into time-synchronized network with automated reports and email alerts visible to PIs in real-time Remote sensing researchers without stations can form "virtual networks" of stations by collaborating with tower PIs from different physical networks The present system can then be utilized to couple ground data with satellite data via the following proposed concept: GPS-driven PTP protocol will synchronize instrumentation within the station, different stations with each other, and all of these to satellite data to precisely align optical and flux data in time Footprint size and coordinates computed and stored with flux data will help correctly align footprints and satellite motion to precisely align optical and flux data in space Current flux towers can be augmented with ground optical sensors and use standard routines to deliver continuous products (e.g. SIF, PRI, NDVI, etc.) based on automated field spectrometers (e.g., FloX and RoX, etc.) and other optical systems Schedule can be developed to point ground optical sensor into the footprint, or to run leaf chamber measurements in the footprint, at the same time with the satellite or UAV above the footprint Full snapshot of the satellite pixel can then be constructed including leaf-level, ground optical sensor, and flux measurements from the same footprint area closely coupled with the satellite measurements to help interpret satellite data, validate models, and improve upscaling Several dozens of new towers already operational globally can be readily adapted for the proposed concept. In addition, over 500 active traditional towers can be updated to synchronize their data with satellite measurements. This presentation will show how FluxSuite system is used by major networks, and describe the concept of how this approach can be utilized to couple satellite and tower data.

Evaluating Water and Energy Fluxes across Three Land Cover Types in a Desert Urban Environment through a Mobile Eddy Covariance Platform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pierini, N.; Vivoni, E. R.; Schreiner-McGraw, A.; Lopez-Castrillo, I.

2015-12-01

The urbanization process transforms a natural landscape into a built environment with many engineered surfaces, leading to significant impacts on surface energy and water fluxes across multiple spatial and temporal scales. Nevertheless, the effects of different urban land covers on energy and water fluxes has been rarely quantified across the large varieties of construction materials, landscaping and vegetation types, and industrial, commercial and residential areas in cities. In this study, we deployed a mobile eddy covariance tower at three different locations in the Phoenix, Arizona, metropolitan area to capture a variety of urban land covers. The three locations each represent a common urban class in Phoenix: 1) a dense, xeric landscape (gravel cover and native plants with drip-irrigation systems near tall buildings); 2) a high-density urban site (asphalt-paved parking lot near a high-traffic intersection); and 3) a suburban mesic landscape (sprinkler-irrigated turf grass in a suburban neighborhood). At each site, we measured meteorological variables, including air temperature and relative humidity at three heights, precipitation and pressure, surface temperature, and soil moisture and temperature (where applicable), to complement the eddy covariance measurements of radiation, energy, carbon dioxide and water vapor fluxes. We evaluated the tower footprint at each site to characterize the contributing surface area to the flux measurements, including engineered and landscaping elements, as a function of time for each deployment. The different sites allowed us to compare how turbulent fluxes of water vapor and carbon dioxide vary for these representative urban land covers, in particular with respect to the role of precipitation events and irrigation. While the deployments covered different seasons, from winter to summer in 2015, the variety of daily conditions allowed quantification of the differential response to precipitation events during the winter, pre-monsoon, and monsoon seasons in relation to irrigation input or lack thereof. As desert urban areas continue to grow worldwide, it is essential to gain an improved understanding of how the energy and water balances vary across the built environment and their implications on urban climate, energy, hydrologic conditions, and air quality.

Eddy covariance flux measurements of net ecosystem carbon dioxide exchange from a lowland peatland flux tower network in England and Wales

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morrison, Ross; Balzter, Heiko; Burden, Annette; Callaghan, Nathan; Cumming, Alenander; Dixon, Simon; Evans, Jonathan; Kaduk, Joerg; Page, Susan; Pan, Gong; Rayment, Mark; Ridley, Luke; Rylett, Daniel; Worrall, Fred; Evans, Christopher

2016-04-01

Peatlands store disproportionately large amounts of soil carbon relative to other terrestrial ecosystems. Over recent decades, the large amount of carbon stored as peat has proved vulnerable to a range of land use pressures as well as the increasing impacts of climate change. In temperate Europe and elsewhere, large tracts of lowland peatland have been drained and converted to agricultural land use. Such changes have resulted in widespread losses of lowland peatland habitat, land subsidence across extensive areas and the transfer of historically accumulated soil carbon to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (CO2). More recently, there has been growth in activities aiming to reduce these impacts through improved land management and peatland restoration. Despite a long history of productive land use and management, the magnitude and controls on greenhouse gas emissions from lowland peatland environments remain poorly quantified. Here, results of surface-atmosphere measurements of net ecosystem CO2 exchange (NEE) from a network of seven eddy covariance (EC) flux towers located at a range of lowland peatland ecosystems across the United Kingdom (UK) are presented. This spatially-dense peatland flux tower network forms part of a wider observation programme aiming to quantify carbon, water and greenhouse gas balances for lowland peatlands across the UK. EC measurements totalling over seventeen site years were obtained at sites exhibiting large differences in vegetation cover, hydrological functioning and land management. The sites in the network show remarkable spatial and temporal variability in NEE. Across sites, annual NEE ranged from a net sink of -194 ±38 g CO2-C m-2 yr-1 to a net source of 784±70 g CO2-C m-2 yr-1. The results suggest that semi-natural sites remain net sinks for atmospheric CO2. Sites that are drained for intensive agricultural production range from a small net sink to the largest observed source for atmospheric CO2 within the flux tower network. Extensively managed grassland and a site that was restored from intensive arable land use represent modest CO2 sources. Temporal variations in CO2 fluxes at sites with permanent vegetation cover are coupled to seasonal and interannual variations in weather conditions and phenology. The type of crop produced and agricultural management drive large temporal differences in the CO2 fluxes of croplands on drained lowland peat soils. The main environmental controls on the spatial and temporal variations in CO2 exchange processes will be discussed.

Modeling light use efficiency in a subtropical mangrove forest equipped with CO2 eddy covariance

USGS Publications Warehouse

Barr, J.G.; Engel, V.; Fuentes, J.D.; Fuller, D.O.; Kwon, H.

2013-01-01

Despite the importance of mangrove ecosystems in the global carbon budget, the relationships between environmental drivers and carbon dynamics in these forests remain poorly understood. This limited understanding is partly a result of the challenges associated with in situ flux studies. Tower-based CO2 eddy covariance (EC) systems are installed in only a few mangrove forests worldwide, and the longest EC record from the Florida Everglades contains less than 9 years of observations. A primary goal of the present study was to develop a methodology to estimate canopy-scale photosynthetic light use efficiency in this forest. These tower-based observations represent a basis for associating CO2 fluxes with canopy light use properties, and thus provide the means for utilizing satellite-based reflectance data for larger scale investigations. We present a model for mangrove canopy light use efficiency utilizing the enhanced green vegetation index (EVI) derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) that is capable of predicting changes in mangrove forest CO2 fluxes caused by a hurricane disturbance and changes in regional environmental conditions, including temperature and salinity. Model parameters are solved for in a Bayesian framework. The model structure requires estimates of ecosystem respiration (RE), and we present the first ever tower-based estimates of mangrove forest RE derived from nighttime CO2 fluxes. Our investigation is also the first to show the effects of salinity on mangrove forest CO2 uptake, which declines 5% per each 10 parts per thousand (ppt) increase in salinity. Light use efficiency in this forest declines with increasing daily photosynthetic active radiation, which is an important departure from the assumption of constant light use efficiency typically applied in satellite-driven models. The model developed here provides a framework for estimating CO2 uptake by these forests from reflectance data and information about environmental conditions.

FLUXNET to MODIS: Connecting the dots to capture heterogenious biosphere metabolism

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Woods, K. D.; Schwalm, C.; Huntzinger, D. N.; Massey, R.; Poulter, B.; Kolb, T.

2015-12-01

Eddy co-variance flux towers provide our most widely distributed network of direct observations for land-atmosphere carbon exchange. Carbon flux sensitivity analysis is a method that uses in situ networks to understand how ecosystems respond to changes in climatic variables. Flux towers concurrently observe key ecosystem metabolic processes (e..g. gross primary productivity) and micrometeorological variation, but only over small footprints. Remotely sensed vegetation indices from MODIS offer continuous observations of the vegetated land surface, but are less direct, as they are based on light use efficiency algorithms, and not on the ground observations. The marriage of these two data products offers an opportunity to validate remotely sensed indices with in situ observations and translate information derived from tower sites to globally gridded products. Here we provide correlations between Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Leaf Area Index (LAI) and MODIS gross primary production with FLUXNET derived estimates of gross primary production, respiration and net ecosystem exchange. We demonstrate remotely sensed vegetation products which have been transformed to gridded estimates of terrestrial biosphere metabolism on a regional-to-global scale. We demonstrate anomalies in gross primary production, respiration, and net ecosystem exchange as predicted by both MODIS-carbon flux sensitivities and meteorological driver-carbon flux sensitivities. We apply these sensitivities to recent extreme climatic events and demonstrate both our ability to capture changes in biosphere metabolism, and differences in the calculation of carbon flux anomalies based on method. The quantification of co-variation in these two methods of observation is important as it informs both how remotely sensed vegetation indices are correlated with on the ground tower observations, and with what certainty we can expand these observations and relationships.

NEON's eddy-covariance: interoperable flux data products, software and services for you, now

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Metzger, S.; Desai, A. R.; Durden, D.; Hartmann, J.; Li, J.; Luo, H.; Durden, N. P.; Sachs, T.; Serafimovich, A.; Sturtevant, C.; Xu, K.

2017-12-01

Networks of eddy-covariance (EC) towers such as AmeriFlux, ICOS and NEON are vital for providing the necessary distributed observations to address interactions at the soil-vegetation-atmosphere interface. NEON, close to full operation with 47 tower sites, will represent the largest single-provider EC network globally. Its standardized observation and data processing suite is designed specifically for inter-site comparability and analysis of feedbacks across multiple spatial and temporal scales. Furthermore, NEON coordinates EC with rich contextual observations such as airborne remote sensing and in-situ sampling bouts. In January 2018 NEON enters its operational phase, and EC data products, software and services become fully available to the science community at large. These resources strive to incorporate lessons-learned through collaborations with AmeriFlux, ICOS, LTER and others, to suggest novel systemic solutions, and to synergize ongoing research efforts across science communities. Here, we present an overview of the ongoing product release, alongside efforts to integrate and collaborate with existing infrastructures, networks and communities. Near-real-time heat, water and carbon cycle observations in "basic" and "expanded", self-describing HDF5 formats become accessible from the NEON Data Portal, including an Application Program Interface. Subsequently, they are ingested into the AmeriFlux processing pipeline, together with inclusion in FLUXNET globally harmonized data releases. Software for reproducible, extensible and portable data analysis and science operations management also becomes available. This includes the eddy4R family of R-packages underlying the data product generation, together with the ability to directly participate in open development via GitHub version control and DockerHub image hosting. In addition, templates for science operations management include a web-based field maintenance application and a graphical user interface to simplify problem tracking and resolution along the entire data chain. We hope that this presentation can initiate further collaboration and synergies in challenge areas, and would appreciate input and discussion on continued development.

New gap-filling and partitioning technique for H2O eddy fluxes measured over forests

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kang, Minseok; Kim, Joon; Malla Thakuri, Bindu; Chun, Junghwa; Cho, Chunho

2018-01-01

The continuous measurement of H2O fluxes using the eddy covariance (EC) technique is still challenging for forests because of large amounts of wet canopy evaporation (EWC), which occur during and following rain events when the EC systems rarely work correctly. We propose a new gap-filling and partitioning technique for the H2O fluxes: a model-statistics hybrid (MSH) method. It enables the recovery of the missing EWC in the traditional gap-filling method and the partitioning of the evapotranspiration (ET) into transpiration and (wet canopy) evaporation. We tested and validated the new method using the data sets from two flux towers, which are located at forests in hilly and complex terrains. The MSH reasonably recovered the missing EWC of 16-41 mm yr-1 and separated it from the ET (14-23 % of the annual ET). Additionally, we illustrated certain advantages of the proposed technique which enable us to understand better how ET responds to environmental changes and how the water cycle is connected to the carbon cycle in a forest ecosystem.

Strong links between teleconnections and ecosystem exchange found at a Pacific Northwest old-growth forest from flux tower and MODIS EVI data

Treesearch

Sonia Wharton; Laura Chasmer; Matthias Falk; Kyaw Tha Paw U

2009-01-01

Variability in three Pacific teleconnection patterns are examined to see if net carbon exchange at a low-elevation, old-growth forest is affected by climatic changes associated with these periodicities. Examined are the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), Pacific/North American Oscillation (PNA) and EI Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). We use 9 years of eddy covariance...

FLORIDA TOWER FOOTPRINT EXPERIMENTS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

WATSON,T.B.; DIETZ, R.N.; WILKE, R.

2007-01-01

The Florida Footprint experiments were a series of field programs in which perfluorocarbon tracers were released in different configurations centered on a flux tower to generate a data set that can be used to test transport and dispersion models. These models are used to determine the sources of the CO{sub 2} that cause the fluxes measured at eddy covariance towers. Experiments were conducted in a managed slash pine forest, 10 km northeast of Gainesville, Florida, in 2002, 2004, and 2006 and in atmospheric conditions that ranged from well mixed, to very stable, including the transition period between convective conditions atmore » midday to stable conditions after sun set. There were a total of 15 experiments. The characteristics of the PFTs, details of sampling and analysis methods, quality control measures, and analytical statistics including confidence limits are presented. Details of the field programs including tracer release rates, tracer source configurations, and configuration of the samplers are discussed. The result of this experiment is a high quality, well documented tracer and meteorological data set that can be used to improve and validate canopy dispersion models.« less

Comparing ecosystem and soil respiration: Review and key challenges of tower-based and soil measurements

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Barba, Josep; Cueva, Alejandro; Bahn, Michael

The net ecosystem exchange (NEE) is the difference between ecosystem CO 2 assimilation and CO 2 losses to the atmosphere. Ecosystem respiration (Reco), the efflux of CO 2 from the ecosystem to the atmosphere, includes the soil-to-atmosphere carbon flux (i.e., soil respiration; Rsoil) and aboveground plant respiration. Therefore, Rsoil is a fraction of Reco and theoretically has to be smaller than Reco at daily, seasonal, and annual scales. But, several studies estimating Reco with the eddy covariance technique and measuring Rsoil within the footprint of the tower have reported higher Rsoil than Reco at different time scales. Here, we comparemore » four different and contrasting ecosystems (from forest to grasslands, and from boreal to semiarid) to test if measurements of Reco are consistently higher than Rsoil. In general, both fluxes showed similar temporal patterns, but Reco was not consistently higher than Rsoil from daily to annual scales across sites. We also identified several issues that apply for measuring NEE and measuring/upscaling Rsoil that could result in an underestimation of Reco and/or an overestimation of Rsoil. These issues are discussed based on (a) nighttime measurements of NEE, (b) Rsoil measurements, and (c) the interpretation of the functional relationships of these fluxes with temperature (i.e., Q10). Finally, we highlight that there is still a need for better integration of Rsoil with eddy covariance measurements to address challenges related to the spatial and temporal variability of Reco and Rsoil.« less

Comparing ecosystem and soil respiration: Review and key challenges of tower-based and soil measurements

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Barba, Josep; Cueva, Alejandro; Bahn, Michael

The net ecosystem exchange (NEE) is the difference between ecosystem CO2 assimilation and CO2 losses to the atmosphere. Ecosystem respiration (Reco), the efflux of CO2 from the ecosystem to the atmosphere, includes the soil-to-atmosphere carbon flux (i.e., soil respiration; Rsoil) and aboveground plant respiration. Therefore, Rsoil is a fraction of Reco and by definition has to be smaller than Reco at annual, seasonal and daily scales. However, several studies estimating Reco with the eddy covariance technique and measuring Rsoil within the footprint of the tower have reported higher Rsoil than Reco at different time scales. Here, we compare four differentmore » and contrasting ecosystems (from forest to grasslands, and from boreal to semiarid) to study whether, and under what conditions, measurements of Reco are lower than Rsoil. In general, both fluxes showed similar temporal patterns, but Reco was not consistently higher than Rsoil from daily to annual scales across sites. We identified several issues that apply for measuring NEE and measuring/upscaling Rsoil that could result in an underestimation of Reco and/or an overestimation of Rsoil. These issues are discussed based on (a) nighttime measurements of NEE, (b) Rsoil measurements, and (c) the interpretation of the functional relationships of these fluxes with temperature (i.e., Q10). We highlight that there is still a need for better integration of Rsoil with eddy covariance measurements to address challenges related to spatial and temporal variability of Reco and Rsoil.« less

Comparing ecosystem and soil respiration: Review and key challenges of tower-based and soil measurements

DOE PAGES

Barba, Josep; Cueva, Alejandro; Bahn, Michael; ...

2017-11-01

The net ecosystem exchange (NEE) is the difference between ecosystem CO 2 assimilation and CO 2 losses to the atmosphere. Ecosystem respiration (Reco), the efflux of CO 2 from the ecosystem to the atmosphere, includes the soil-to-atmosphere carbon flux (i.e., soil respiration; Rsoil) and aboveground plant respiration. Therefore, Rsoil is a fraction of Reco and theoretically has to be smaller than Reco at daily, seasonal, and annual scales. But, several studies estimating Reco with the eddy covariance technique and measuring Rsoil within the footprint of the tower have reported higher Rsoil than Reco at different time scales. Here, we comparemore » four different and contrasting ecosystems (from forest to grasslands, and from boreal to semiarid) to test if measurements of Reco are consistently higher than Rsoil. In general, both fluxes showed similar temporal patterns, but Reco was not consistently higher than Rsoil from daily to annual scales across sites. We also identified several issues that apply for measuring NEE and measuring/upscaling Rsoil that could result in an underestimation of Reco and/or an overestimation of Rsoil. These issues are discussed based on (a) nighttime measurements of NEE, (b) Rsoil measurements, and (c) the interpretation of the functional relationships of these fluxes with temperature (i.e., Q10). Finally, we highlight that there is still a need for better integration of Rsoil with eddy covariance measurements to address challenges related to the spatial and temporal variability of Reco and Rsoil.« less

Moving across scales: Challenges and opportunities in upscaling carbon fluxes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Naithani, K. J.

2016-12-01

Light use efficiency (LUE) type models are commonly used to upscale terrestrial C fluxes and estimate regional and global C budgets. Model parameters are often estimated for each land cover type (LCT) using flux observations from one or more eddy covariance towers, and then spatially extrapolated by integrating land cover, meteorological, and remotely sensed data. Decisions regarding the type of input data (spatial resolution of land cover data, spatial and temporal length of flux data), representation of landscape structure (land use vs. disturbance regime), and the type of modeling framework (common risk vs. hierarchical) all influence the estimates CO2 fluxes and the associated uncertainties, but are rarely considered together. This work presents a synthesis of past and present efforts for upscaling CO2 fluxes and associated uncertainties in the ChEAS (Chequamegon Ecosystem Atmosphere Study) region in northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. This work highlights two key future research needs. First, the characterization of uncertainties due to all of the abovementioned factors reflects only a (hopefully relevant) subset the overall uncertainties. Second, interactions among these factors are likely critical, but are poorly represented by the tower network at landscape scales. Yet, results indicate significant spatial and temporal heterogeneity of uncertainty in CO2 fluxes which can inform carbon management efforts and prioritize data needs.

[Monitoring temporal dynamics in leaf area index of the temperate broadleaved deciduous forest in Maoershan region, Northeast China with tower-based radiation measurements.

PubMed

Liu, Fan; Wang, Chuan Kuan; Wang, Xing Chang

2016-08-01

Broadband vegetation indices (BVIs) derived from routine radiation measurements on eddy flux towers have the advantage of high temporal resolutions, and thus have the potential to obtain detailed information of dynamics in canopy leaf area index (LAI). Taking the temperate broadleaved deciduous forest around the Maoershan flux tower in Northeast China as a case, we investigated the controlling factors and smoothing method of four BVI time-series, i.e., broadband norma-lized difference vegetation index (NDVI B ), broadband enhanced vegetation index (EVI B ), the ratio of the near-infrared radiation reflectance to photosynthetically active radiation reflectance (SR NP ), and the ratio of the shortwave radiation reflectance to photosynthetically active radiation reflectance (SR SP ). We compared the seasonal courses of the BVIs with the LAI based on litterfall collection method. The values for each BVI were slightly different among the three calculation methods by Huemmrich, Wilson, and Jenkins, but showed similar seasonal patterns. The diurnal variations in BVIs were mainly influenced by the solar elevation and the angle between the solar elevation and slope, but the BVIs were relatively stable around 12:30. The noise of daily BVI time-series could be effectively smoothed by a threshold of clearness index (K). The seasonal courses of BVIs for each time of day around the noon had similar patterns, but their thresholds of K and the percen-tages of remaining data were different. Therefore, the daily values of BVIs might be optimized based on the smoothing and the proportion of remaining data. The NDVI B was closely correlated linearly with the LAI derived from the litterfall collection method, while the EVI B , SR NP , and SR SP had a logarithmic relationship with the LAI. The NDVI B had the advantage in tracking the seasonal dyna-mics in LAI and extrapolating LAI to a broader scale. Given that most eddy flux towers had equipped with energy balance measurements, a network of monitoring canopy LAI could be readily achieved if the reflectance of photosynthetically active radiation was measured synchronously.

Landscape-level terrestrial methane flux observed from a very tall tower

USGS Publications Warehouse

Desai, Ankur R.; Xu, Ke; Tian, Hanqin; Weishampel, Peter; Thom, Jonthan; Baumann, Daniel D.; Andrews, Arlyn E.; Cook, Bruce D.; King, Jennifer Y.; Kolka, Randall

2015-01-01

Simulating the magnitude and variability of terrestrial methane sources and sinks poses a challenge to ecosystem models because the biophysical and biogeochemical processes that lead to methane emissions from terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems are, by their nature, episodic and spatially disjunct. As a consequence, model predictions of regional methane emissions based on field campaigns from short eddy covariance towers or static chambers have large uncertainties, because measurements focused on a particular known source of methane emission will be biased compared to regional estimates with regards to magnitude, spatial scale, or frequency of these emissions. Given the relatively large importance of predicting future terrestrial methane fluxes for constraining future atmospheric methane growth rates, a clear need exists to reduce spatiotemporal uncertainties. In 2010, an Ameriflux tower (US-PFa) near Park Falls, WI, USA, was instrumented with closed-path methane flux measurements at 122 m above ground in a mixed wetland–upland landscape representative of the Great Lakes region. Two years of flux observations revealed an average annual methane (CH4) efflux of 785 ± 75 mg CCH4 m−2 yr−1, compared to a mean CO2 sink of −80 g CCO2 m−2 yr−1, a ratio of 1% in magnitude on a mole basis. Interannual variability in methane flux was 30% of the mean flux and driven by suppression of methane emissions during dry conditions in late summer 2012. Though relatively small, the magnitude of the methane source from the very tall tower measurements was mostly within the range previously measured using static chambers at nearby wetlands, but larger than a simple scaling of those fluxes to the tower footprint. Seasonal patterns in methane fluxes were similar to those simulated in the Dynamic Land Ecosystem Model (DLEM), but magnitude depends on model parameterization and input data, especially regarding wetland extent. The model was unable to simulate short-term (sub-weekly) variability. Temperature was found to be a stronger driver of regional CH4flux than moisture availability or net ecosystem production at the daily to monthly scale. Taken together, these results emphasize the multi-timescale dependence of drivers of regional methane flux and the importance of long, continuous time series for their characterization.

Carbon budget and its response to environmental factors in young and mature poplar plantations along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, China

Treesearch

Jinxing Zhou; Yuan Wei; Jun Yang; Xiaohui Yang; Zeping Jiang; Jiquan Chen; Asko Noormets; Xiaosong Zhao

2012-01-01

Although poplar forest is the dominant plantation type in China, there is uncertainty about the carbon budget of these forests across the country. The observations, performed in 2006, of two eddy covariance flux towers on a young poplar plantation (Yueyang, Hunan province) and a mature poplar plantation (Huaining, Anhui province) provide an opportunity to understand...

Turbulent CO2 Flux Measurements by Lidar: Length Scales, Results and Comparison with In-Situ Sensors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gilbert, Fabien; Koch, Grady J.; Beyon, Jeffrey Y.; Hilton, Timothy W.; Davis, Kenneth J.; Andrews, Arlyn; Ismail, Syed; Singh, Upendra N.

2009-01-01

The vertical CO2 flux in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) is investigated with a Doppler differential absorption lidar (DIAL). The instrument was operated next to the WLEF instrumented tall tower in Park Falls, Wisconsin during three days and nights in June 2007. Profiles of turbulent CO2 mixing ratio and vertical velocity fluctuations are measured by in-situ sensors and Doppler DIAL. Time and space scales of turbulence are precisely defined in the ABL. The eddy-covariance method is applied to calculate turbulent CO2 flux both by lidar and in-situ sensors. We show preliminary mean lidar CO2 flux measurements in the ABL with a time and space resolution of 6 h and 1500 m respectively. The flux instrumental errors decrease linearly with the standard deviation of the CO2 data, as expected. Although turbulent fluctuations of CO2 are negligible with respect to the mean (0.1 %), we show that the eddy-covariance method can provide 2-h, 150-m range resolved CO2 flux estimates as long as the CO2 mixing ratio instrumental error is no greater than 10 ppm and the vertical velocity error is lower than the natural fluctuations over a time resolution of 10 s.

Use of digital webcam images to track spring green-up in a deciduous broadleaf forest.

PubMed

Richardson, Andrew D; Jenkins, Julian P; Braswell, Bobby H; Hollinger, David Y; Ollinger, Scott V; Smith, Marie-Louise

2007-05-01

Understanding relationships between canopy structure and the seasonal dynamics of photosynthetic uptake of CO(2) by forest canopies requires improved knowledge of canopy phenology at eddy covariance flux tower sites. We investigated whether digital webcam images could be used to monitor the trajectory of spring green-up in a deciduous northern hardwood forest. A standard, commercially available webcam was mounted at the top of the eddy covariance tower at the Bartlett AmeriFlux site. Images were collected each day around midday. Red, green, and blue color channel brightness data for a 640 x 100-pixel region-of-interest were extracted from each image. We evaluated the green-up signal extracted from webcam images against changes in the fraction of incident photosynthetically active radiation that is absorbed by the canopy (f (APAR)), a broadband normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and the light-saturated rate of canopy photosynthesis (A(max)), inferred from eddy flux measurements. The relative brightness of the green channel (green %) was relatively stable through the winter months. A steady rising trend in green % began around day 120 and continued through day 160, at which point a stable plateau was reached. The relative brightness of the blue channel (blue %) also responded to spring green-up, although there was more day-to-day variation in the signal because blue % was more sensitive to changes in the quality (spectral distribution) of incident radiation. Seasonal changes in blue % were most similar to those in f (APAR) and broadband NDVI, whereas changes in green % proceeded more slowly, and were drawn out over a longer period of time. Changes in A(max) lagged green-up by at least a week. We conclude that webcams offer an inexpensive means by which phenological changes in the canopy state can be quantified. A network of cameras could offer a novel opportunity to implement a regional or national phenology monitoring program.

Forest Surface Energy Balance and Evapotranspiration Estimated From Four Eddy Covariance Towers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rabbani, G. A.; Adam, J. C.; Elliot, W. J.; Liu, H.

2016-12-01

Evapotranspiration (ET), which refers to the combined effect of surface water evaporation and plant transpiration, is one of the vital elements of the global water balance. It is also an important process for plants, providing water, nutrient, and cooling needs, and helping to regulate carbon dioxide entry through open/closure of the plant's stomata. Quantifying ET in forested environments is an ongoing research area. Complex physiological responses with climatic variation, combined with difficulty in making wide-spread measurements, makes ET one of the least understood components of a forest water balance. The objective of this study is to estimate ET and energy balance closure by using flux net data from eddy covariance towers. ET is estimated for different forest types with multiple age classes during the years of 2011, 2012 and 2013. We studied two coniferous forests (F1, F2), one deciduous forest (F3) and one mixed forest (F4) in Washington, Wyoming, Wisconsin and New Jersey, respectively. Label 2 (Data checked and formatted by Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center) gap filled flux data were collected from the AmeriFlux database (ameriflux.ornl.gov). Discrepancies between turbulent fluxes and available energy are investigated. Among the studied forests, the highest and lowest average monthly ET are exhibited by the mixed forest (F4) and coniferous forest (F1) in 2012 which are 2,692 and 633 mm/month, respectively. Difference in average monthly ET can be an implication of substantial age difference between these two types of forest. The regression analysis showed significant correlation between turbulent fluxes and available energy (R2=0.91) for mixed forest where the discrepancy varied from 5-11%. Conversely, for coniferous and deciduous forests, the discrepancy varied from 46-49% and 28%, respectively, with almost similar correlation between the fluxes (0.86 and 0.84, respectively). This study will facilitate an improved understanding of how forest type and age pose differences in ET and surface energy components.

Improving ecosystem-scale modeling of evapotranspiration using ecological mechanisms that account for compensatory responses following disturbance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Millar, David J.; Ewers, Brent E.; Mackay, D. Scott; Peckham, Scott; Reed, David E.; Sekoni, Adewale

2017-09-01

Mountain pine beetle outbreaks in western North America have led to extensive forest mortality, justifiably generating interest in improving our understanding of how this type of ecological disturbance affects hydrological cycles. While observational studies and simulations have been used to elucidate the effects of mountain beetle mortality on hydrological fluxes, an ecologically mechanistic model of forest evapotranspiration (ET) evaluated against field data has yet to be developed. In this work, we use the Terrestrial Regional Ecosystem Exchange Simulator (TREES) to incorporate the ecohydrological impacts of mountain pine beetle disturbance on ET for a lodgepole pine-dominated forest equipped with an eddy covariance tower. An existing degree-day model was incorporated that predicted the life cycle of mountain pine beetles, along with an empirically derived submodel that allowed sap flux to decline as a function of temperature-dependent blue stain fungal growth. The eddy covariance footprint was divided into multiple cohorts for multiple growing seasons, including representations of recently attacked trees and the compensatory effects of regenerating understory, using two different spatial scaling methods. Our results showed that using a multiple cohort approach matched eddy covariance-measured ecosystem-scale ET fluxes well, and showed improved performance compared to model simulations assuming a binary framework of only areas of live and dead overstory. Cumulative growing season ecosystem-scale ET fluxes were 8 - 29% greater using the multicohort approach during years in which beetle attacks occurred, highlighting the importance of including compensatory ecological mechanism in ET models.

Coupling tree rings and eddy covariance to estimate long-term above and belowground carbon storage at the stand level

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dye, A.; Alexander, M. R.; Bishop, D.; Pederson, N.; Hessl, A. E.

2016-12-01

Storage of carbon in terrestrial plants and soils directly reduces atmospheric carbon concentration, and it is thereby imperative to improve our understanding of where carbon is being stored and released in an ecosystem and how storages and releases are changing over time. At data-rich sites, coupling alternative measurements of carbon flux can improve this understanding. Here, we present a methodology to inversely model stand-level net storage and release of above- and belowground carbon over a period of 1-2 decades using co-located tree-ring plots and eddy covariance towers at three eastern U.S. forests. We reconstructed annual aboveground wood production (aNPP) from tree rings collected near eddy covariance towers. We compared our aNPP reconstructions with annual tower NEE to address whether interannual variations are correlated. Despite modest correlation, we observed magnitude differences between both records that vary annually. We interpret these differences as indicative of changes in belowground carbon storage, i.e. an aNPP:NEE ratio > 1 indicates a net release of belowground carbon and a ratio < 1 a net storage of belowground carbon. For this interpretation, we assume the following: a) carbon not directed to above or belowground pools is insignificant, b) carbon not stored above ground is stored below ground, and c) mature trees do not add to a storage pool at a higher level every year. While the offset between biometric aNPP and tower NEE could partially be attributed to the diversion of assimilated carbon to nonstructural carbohydrates instead of growth, we argue that this becomes a less important factor over longer time scales in a mature tree. Our approach does not quantify belowground NPP or allocation, but we present a method for estimating belowground carbon storage and release at the stand level, an otherwise difficult task at this scale due to heterogeneity across the stand.

Spatiotemporal heterogeneity in carbon exchange at a restored peatland in Alberta, Canada

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

MacDonald, Scott; Strachan, Ian; Strack, Maria

2017-04-01

Boreal peatlands store a substantial portion of Earth's soil carbon, but the commercial peat extraction process upsets this carbon-sink dynamic. A best-practices restoration process has been developed that aims to return the vegetation and ecosystem functions of post-extraction peatlands. This includes the blocking and infilling of ditches, leveling of the peatland surface and re-introduction of vegetation through the moss layer transfer technique. The dynamics of carbon gas exchange in these restored peatlands are still poorly understood. We investigated ecosystem-scale and microscale carbon flux in a recently restored, post-extraction peatland near Seba Beach, Alberta, Canada. Two eddy covariance (EC) towers continuously measured CO2 and CH4 fluxes in hydrologically distinct parts of the peatland site. Here, we report on growing season measurements made during the fourth year following extraction. Regular static chamber measurements during June-August 2016 were also taken to study gas fluxes across an infilled drainage ditch on the site. Results suggest that if the peatland restoration process successfully returns high water table position, strong carbon uptake may be attained within several years of restoration. However, differences in peatland topography resulted spatial heterogeneity in carbon dynamics at this restored site. A gradient of revegetation success and attendant carbon-flux dynamics were observed, with much stronger net uptake of CO2 and substantial CH4 efflux measured at the tower with higher vegetation cover. Revegetation elsewhere was much sparser, and thus low CO2 uptake rates persisted at much of the peatland, though these conditions conversely inhibited substantial CH4 efflux. More broadly, the contrast in flux data between our two EC towers at the site suggests that attention be made to the selection of representative carbon flux values in similar restored peatlands.

Using Leaf Chlorophyll to Parameterize Light-Use-Efficiency Within a Thermal-Based Carbon, Water and Energy Exchange Model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Houlborg, Rasmus; Anderson, Martha C.; Daughtry, C. S. T.; Kustas, W. P.; Rodell, Matthew

2010-01-01

Chlorophylls absorb photosynthetically active radiation and thus function as vital pigments for photosynthesis, which makes leaf chlorophyll content (C(sub ab) useful for monitoring vegetation productivity and an important indicator of the overall plant physiological condition. This study investigates the utility of integrating remotely sensed estimates of C(sub ab) into a thermal-based Two-Source Energy Balance (TSEB) model that estimates land-surface CO2 and energy fluxes using an analytical, light-use-efficiency (LUE) based model of canopy resistance. The LUE model component computes canopy-scale carbon assimilation and transpiration fluxes and incorporates LUE modifications from a nominal (species-dependent) value (LUE(sub n)) in response to short term variations in environmental conditions, However LUE(sub n) may need adjustment on a daily timescale to accommodate changes in plant phenology, physiological condition and nutrient status. Day to day variations in LUE(sub n) were assessed for a heterogeneous corn crop field in Maryland, U,S.A. through model calibration with eddy covariance CO2 flux tower observations. The optimized daily LUE(sub n) values were then compared to estimates of C(sub ab) integrated from gridded maps of chlorophyll content weighted over the tower flux source area. The time continuous maps of daily C(sub ab) over the study field were generated by focusing in-situ measurements with retrievals generated with an integrated radiative transfer modeling tool (accurate to within +/-10%) using at-sensor radiances in green, red and near-infrared wavelengths acquired with an aircraft imaging system. The resultant daily changes in C(sub ab) within the tower flux source area generally correlated well with corresponding changes in daily calibrated LUE(sub n) derived from the tower flux data, and hourly water, energy and carbon flux estimation accuracies from TSEB were significantly improved when using C(sub ab) for delineating spatio-temporal variations in LUE(sub n). The results demonstrate the synergy between thermal infrared and shortwave reflective wavebands in producing valuable remote sensing data for operational monitoring of carbon and water fluxes.

The role of optimality in characterizing CO2 seepage from geological carbon sequestration sites

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cortis, Andrea; Oldenburg, Curtis M.; Benson, Sally M.

Storage of large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}) in deep geological formations for greenhouse gas mitigation is gaining momentum and moving from its conceptual and testing stages towards widespread application. In this work we explore various optimization strategies for characterizing surface leakage (seepage) using near-surface measurement approaches such as accumulation chambers and eddy covariance towers. Seepage characterization objectives and limitations need to be defined carefully from the outset especially in light of large natural background variations that can mask seepage. The cost and sensitivity of seepage detection are related to four critical length scales pertaining to the size ofmore » the: (1) region that needs to be monitored; (2) footprint of the measurement approach, and (3) main seepage zone; and (4) region in which concentrations or fluxes are influenced by seepage. Seepage characterization objectives may include one or all of the tasks of detecting, locating, and quantifying seepage. Each of these tasks has its own optimal strategy. Detecting and locating seepage in a region in which there is no expected or preferred location for seepage nor existing evidence for seepage requires monitoring on a fixed grid, e.g., using eddy covariance towers. The fixed-grid approaches needed to detect seepage are expected to require large numbers of eddy covariance towers for large-scale geologic CO{sub 2} storage. Once seepage has been detected and roughly located, seepage zones and features can be optimally pinpointed through a dynamic search strategy, e.g., employing accumulation chambers and/or soil-gas sampling. Quantification of seepage rates can be done through measurements on a localized fixed grid once the seepage is pinpointed. Background measurements are essential for seepage detection in natural ecosystems. Artificial neural networks are considered as regression models useful for distinguishing natural system behavior from anomalous behavior suggestive of CO{sub 2} seepage without need for detailed understanding of natural system processes. Because of the local extrema in CO{sub 2} fluxes and concentrations in natural systems, simple steepest-descent algorithms are not effective and evolutionary computation algorithms are proposed as a paradigm for dynamic monitoring networks to pinpoint CO{sub 2} seepage areas.« less

Vegetation chlorophyll estimates in the Amazon from multi-angle MODIS observations and canopy reflectance model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hilker, Thomas; Galvão, Lênio Soares; Aragão, Luiz E. O. C.; de Moura, Yhasmin M.; do Amaral, Cibele H.; Lyapustin, Alexei I.; Wu, Jin; Albert, Loren P.; Ferreira, Marciel José; Anderson, Liana O.; dos Santos, Victor A. H. F.; Prohaska, Neill; Tribuzy, Edgard; Barbosa Ceron, João Vitor; Saleska, Scott R.; Wang, Yujie; de Carvalho Gonçalves, José Francisco; de Oliveira Junior, Raimundo Cosme; Cardoso Rodrigues, João Victor Figueiredo; Garcia, Maquelle Neves

2017-06-01

As a preparatory study for future hyperspectral missions that can measure canopy chemistry, we introduce a novel approach to investigate whether multi-angle Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data can be used to generate a preliminary database with long-term estimates of chlorophyll. MODIS monthly chlorophyll estimates between 2000 and 2015, derived from a fully coupled canopy reflectance model (ProSAIL), were inspected for consistency with eddy covariance fluxes, tower-based hyperspectral images and chlorophyll measurements. MODIS chlorophyll estimates from the inverse model showed strong seasonal variations across two flux-tower sites in central and eastern Amazon. Marked increases in chlorophyll concentrations were observed during the early dry season. Remotely sensed chlorophyll concentrations were correlated to field measurements (r2 = 0.73 and r2 = 0.98) but the data deviated from the 1:1 line with root mean square errors (RMSE) ranging from 0.355 μg cm-2 (Tapajós tower) to 0.470 μg cm-2 (Manaus tower). The chlorophyll estimates were consistent with flux tower measurements of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and net ecosystem productivity (NEP). We also applied ProSAIL to mono-angle hyperspectral observations from a camera installed on a tower to scale modeled chlorophyll pigments to MODIS observations (r2 = 0.73). Chlorophyll pigment concentrations (ChlA+B) were correlated to changes in the amount of young and mature leaf area per month (0.59 ≤ r2 ≤ 0.64). Increases in MODIS observed ChlA+B were preceded by increased PAR during the dry season (0.61 ≤ r2 ≤ 0.62) and followed by changes in net carbon uptake. We conclude that, at these two sites, changes in LAI, coupled with changes in leaf chlorophyll, are comparable with seasonality of plant productivity. Our results allowed the preliminary development of a 15-year time series of chlorophyll estimates over the Amazon to support canopy chemistry studies using future hyperspectral sensors.

OzFlux data: network integration from collection to curation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Isaac, Peter; Cleverly, James; McHugh, Ian; van Gorsel, Eva; Ewenz, Cacilia; Beringer, Jason

2017-06-01

Measurement of the exchange of energy and mass between the surface and the atmospheric boundary-layer by the eddy covariance technique has undergone great change in the last 2 decades. Early studies of these exchanges were confined to brief field campaigns in carefully controlled conditions followed by months of data analysis. Current practice is to run tower-based eddy covariance systems continuously over several years due to the need for continuous monitoring as part of a global effort to develop local-, regional-, continental- and global-scale budgets of carbon, water and energy. Efficient methods of processing the increased quantities of data are needed to maximise the time available for analysis and interpretation. Standardised methods are needed to remove differences in data processing as possible contributors to observed spatial variability. Furthermore, public availability of these data sets assists with undertaking global research efforts. The OzFlux data path has been developed (i) to provide a standard set of quality control and post-processing tools across the network, thereby facilitating inter-site integration and spatial comparisons; (ii) to increase the time available to researchers for analysis and interpretation by reducing the time spent collecting and processing data; (iii) to propagate both data and metadata to the final product; and (iv) to facilitate the use of the OzFlux data by adopting a standard file format and making the data available from web-based portals. Discovery of the OzFlux data set is facilitated through incorporation in FLUXNET data syntheses and the publication of collection metadata via the RIF-CS format. This paper serves two purposes. The first is to describe the data sets, along with their quality control and post-processing, for the other papers of this Special Issue. The second is to provide an example of one solution to the data collection and curation challenges that are encountered by similar flux tower networks worldwide.

Evaluation of a lower-powered analyzer and sampling system for eddy-covariance measurements of nitrous oxide fluxes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brown, Shannon E.; Sargent, Steve; Wagner-Riddle, Claudia

2018-03-01

Nitrous oxide (N2O) fluxes measured using the eddy-covariance method capture the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of N2O emissions. Most closed-path trace-gas analyzers for eddy-covariance measurements have large-volume, multi-pass absorption cells that necessitate high flow rates for ample frequency response, thus requiring high-power sample pumps. Other sampling system components, including rain caps, filters, dryers, and tubing, can also degrade system frequency response. This field trial tested the performance of a closed-path eddy-covariance system for N2O flux measurements with improvements to use less power while maintaining the frequency response. The new system consists of a thermoelectrically cooled tunable diode laser absorption spectrometer configured to measure both N2O and carbon dioxide (CO2). The system features a relatively small, single-pass sample cell (200 mL) that provides good frequency response with a lower-powered pump ( ˜ 250 W). A new filterless intake removes particulates from the sample air stream with no additional mixing volume that could degrade frequency response. A single-tube dryer removes water vapour from the sample to avoid the need for density or spectroscopic corrections, while maintaining frequency response. This eddy-covariance system was collocated with a previous tunable diode laser absorption spectrometer model to compare N2O and CO2 flux measurements for two full growing seasons (May 2015 to October 2016) in a fertilized cornfield in Southern Ontario, Canada. Both spectrometers were placed outdoors at the base of the sampling tower, demonstrating ruggedness for a range of environmental conditions (minimum to maximum daily temperature range: -26.1 to 31.6 °C). The new system rarely required maintenance. An in situ frequency-response test demonstrated that the cutoff frequency of the new system was better than the old system (3.5 Hz compared to 2.30 Hz) and similar to that of a closed-path CO2 eddy-covariance system (4.05 Hz), using shorter tubing and no dryer, that was also collocated at the site. Values of the N2O fluxes were similar between the two spectrometer systems (slope = 1.01, r2 = 0.96); CO2 fluxes as measured by the short-tubed eddy-covariance system and the two spectrometer systems correlated well (slope = 1.03, r2 = 0.998). The new lower-powered tunable diode laser absorption spectrometer configuration with the filterless intake and single-tube dryer showed promise for deployment in remote areas.

Investigating physical controls on methane and carbon ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Reservoirs are a globally important source of carbon to the atmosphere. Several recent studies have found that both carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) emissions from reservoirs are currently being underestimated by up to 50%. This underestimation is due to inadequate characterization of both spatial variability (e.g. ebullition and CO2 surface water concentration hot spots) and temporal variability (e.g. diurnal patterns, seasonal differences, and pulses driven by weather events or other disturbances). Use of the eddy covariance technique to measure CO2 and CH4 fluxes over reservoirs can help address the issues of spatial and temporal coverage. Here we present results from two eddy covariance measurement campaigns monitoring CO2 and CH4 fluxes over reservoirs in southwestern Ohio, US. The first campaign was part of a study looking at the effects of water level drawdown on reservoir methane ebullition. The eddy covariance results showed a clear response of CH4 emissions to the change in water level, increasing from a baseline of 3440 mg CH4 m-2 d-1 to a maximum of 6740 mg CH4 m-2 d-1 during the drawdown. These results agreed well with the emission rates measured via bubble samplers deployed in the same area as the tower. Conversely, the CO2 fluxes did not show a strong response to the drawdown. In the second campaign the eddy covariance system was deployed longer term at a mid-sized (2.4 km2) lake. Analyses of diurnal patterns in CO2 and CH4 emissions as well

Effect of environmental conditions on the relationship between solar-induced fluorescence and gross primary productivity at an OzFlux grassland site

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Verma, Manish; Schimel, David; Evans, Bradley; Frankenberg, Christian; Beringer, Jason; Drewry, Darren T.; Magney, Troy; Marang, Ian; Hutley, Lindsay; Moore, Caitlin; Eldering, Annmarie

2017-03-01

Recent studies have utilized coarse spatial and temporal resolution remotely sensed solar-induced fluorescence (SIF) for modeling terrestrial gross primary productivity (GPP) at regional scales. Although these studies have demonstrated the potential of SIF, there have been concerns about the ecophysiological basis of the relationship between SIF and GPP in different environmental conditions. Launched in 2014, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) has enabled fine-scale (1.3 by 2.5 km) retrievals of SIF that are comparable with measurements recorded at eddy covariance towers. In this study, we examine the effect of environmental conditions on the relationship of OCO-2 SIF with tower GPP over the course of a growing season at a well-characterized natural grassland site. Combining OCO-2 SIF and eddy covariance tower data with a canopy radiative transfer and an ecosystem model, we also assess the potential of OCO-2 SIF to constrain the estimates of Vcmax, one of the most important parameters in ecosystem models. Based on the results, we suggest that although environmental conditions play a role in determining the nature of relationship between SIF and GPP, overall, the linear relationship is more robust at ecosystem scale than the theory based on leaf-level processes might suggest. Our study also shows that the ability of SIF to constrain Vcmax is weak at the selected site.

eddy4R 0.2.0: a DevOps model for community-extensible processing and analysis of eddy-covariance data based on R, Git, Docker, and HDF5

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Metzger, Stefan; Durden, David; Sturtevant, Cove; Luo, Hongyan; Pingintha-Durden, Natchaya; Sachs, Torsten; Serafimovich, Andrei; Hartmann, Jörg; Li, Jiahong; Xu, Ke; Desai, Ankur R.

2017-08-01

Large differences in instrumentation, site setup, data format, and operating system stymie the adoption of a universal computational environment for processing and analyzing eddy-covariance (EC) data. This results in limited software applicability and extensibility in addition to often substantial inconsistencies in flux estimates. Addressing these concerns, this paper presents the systematic development of portable, reproducible, and extensible EC software achieved by adopting a development and systems operation (DevOps) approach. This software development model is used for the creation of the eddy4R family of EC code packages in the open-source R language for statistical computing. These packages are community developed, iterated via the Git distributed version control system, and wrapped into a portable and reproducible Docker filesystem that is independent of the underlying host operating system. The HDF5 hierarchical data format then provides a streamlined mechanism for highly compressed and fully self-documented data ingest and output. The usefulness of the DevOps approach was evaluated for three test applications. First, the resultant EC processing software was used to analyze standard flux tower data from the first EC instruments installed at a National Ecological Observatory (NEON) field site. Second, through an aircraft test application, we demonstrate the modular extensibility of eddy4R to analyze EC data from other platforms. Third, an intercomparison with commercial-grade software showed excellent agreement (R2 = 1.0 for CO2 flux). In conjunction with this study, a Docker image containing the first two eddy4R packages and an executable example workflow, as well as first NEON EC data products are released publicly. We conclude by describing the work remaining to arrive at the automated generation of science-grade EC fluxes and benefits to the science community at large. This software development model is applicable beyond EC and more generally builds the capacity to deploy complex algorithms developed by scientists in an efficient and scalable manner. In addition, modularity permits meeting project milestones while retaining extensibility with time.

Observations of Nitrogen Oxides Diurnal Variations and Eddy Covariance Fluxes above a Mixed Hardwood Forest during the 2016 PROPHET-AMOS Campaign

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shi, Q.; Kavassalis, S.; Moravek, A.; Steiner, A.; Murphy, J. G.

2017-12-01

Nitrogen oxides (NOx = NO + NO2) are important constituents in the atmosphere because they can control ozone production and undergo oxidation reactions with other species. Deposition and emission of NOx can impact the ecosystem by influencing the nitrogen cycle, vegetation health and forest carbon storage. Exchange of NOx between the atmosphere and biosphere is poorly understood due to a lack of direct observations. Here, we present results of nitrogen oxides observations and eddy covariance fluxes above a forest from the 2016 PROPHET-AMOS summer field campaign using a custom built AQD NOxy instrument. This field site is in a mixed deciduous and coniferous forest located in northern Michigan, with a research tower available for above-canopy measurements. Observations made at 29 m show the mixing ratio of NO and NO2 ranges from 0 to 640 ppt and 68 to 3600 ppt respectively. The night-time NO mixing ratio is close to zero, while NO2 builds up to a median of around 700 ppt. A maximum mixing ratio of NO resulting from photolysis of NO2 is frequently observed in the early morning. Median midday NO and NO2 mixing ratios are 50 ppt and 500 ppt. Fluxes calculated by eddy covariance showed an upward flux of NO2 and a downward flux of NO, which is an example of chemical flux divergence due to fast chemistry and diminished solar radiation below the canopy. Daytime fluxes of NO and NO2 peak at similar times in the morning, resulting in a net downward NOx flux with a maximum around 2.5 ppt m/s. To better explain NOx flux observations in this forest, results are compared to previous measurements of the total deposition budget of reactive nitrogen oxides, as well as results from 1-D canopy model FORCAsT.

Estimating Turbulent Surface Fluxes from Small Unmanned Aircraft: Evaluation of Current Abilities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Boer, G.; Lawrence, D.; Elston, J.; Cassano, J. J.; Mack, J.; Wildmann, N.; Nigro, M. A.; Ivey, M.; Wolfe, D. E.; Muschinski, A.

2014-12-01

Heat transfer between the atmosphere and Earth's surface represents a key component to understanding Earth energy balance, making it important in understanding and simulating climate. Arguably, the oceanic air-sea interface and Polar sea-ice-air interface are amongst the most challenging in which to measure these fluxes. This difficulty results partially from challenges associated with infrastructure deployment on these surfaces and partially from an inability to obtain spatially representative values over a potentially inhomogeneous surface. Traditionally sensible (temperature) and latent (moisture) fluxes are estimated using one of several techniques. A preferred method involves eddy-correlation where cross-correlation between anomalies in vertical motion (w) and temperature (T) or moisture (q) is used to estimate heat transfer. High-frequency measurements of these quantities can be derived using tower-mounted instrumentation. Such systems have historically been deployed over land surfaces or on ships and buoys to calculate fluxes at the air-land or air-sea interface, but such deployments are expensive and challenging to execute, resulting in a lack of spatially diverse measurements. A second ("bulk") technique involves the observation of horizontal windspeed, temperature and moisture at a given altitude over an extended time period in order to estimate the surface fluxes. Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) represent a unique platform from which to derive these fluxes. These sUAS can be small ( 1 m), lightweight ( 700 g), low cost ( $2000) and relatively easy to deploy to remote locations and over inhomogeneous surfaces. We will give an overview of the ability of sUAS to provide measurements necessary for estimating surface turbulent fluxes. This discussion is based on flights in the vicinity of the 1000 ft. Boulder Atmospheric Observatory (BAO) tower, and over the US Department of Energy facility at Oliktok Point, Alaska. We will present initial comparisons between UAS-derived turbulent fluxes and those derived from tower-based instrumentation and discuss differences in the context of sensor technology and flight patterns employed to collect data.

Modeling surface energy fluxes from a patchwork of fields with different soils and crops

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Klein, Christian; Thieme, Christoph; Heinlein, Florian; Priesack, Eckart

2017-04-01

Agroecosystems are a dominant terrestrial land-use on planet earth and cover about 36% of the ice-free surface (12% pasture, 26% agriculture) [Foley2011]. Within this land use type, management practices vary strongly due to climate, cultural preferences, degree of industrialization, soil properties, crop rotations, field sizes, degree of land use sustainability, water availability, sowing and harvest dates, tillage, etc. These management practices influence abiotic environmental factors like water flow and heat transport within the ecosystem leading to changes of land surface fluxes. The relevance of vegetation (e.g. crops), ground cover, and soil properties to the moisture and energy exchanges between the land surface and the atmosphere is well known [McPherson 2007], but the impact of vegetation growth dynamics on energy fluxes is only partly understood [Gayler et al. 2014]. Thus, the structure of turbulence and the albedo evolve during the cropping period and large variations of heat can be measured on the field scale [Aubinet2012]. One issue of local distributed mixture of different land use is the measurement process which makes it challenging to evaluate simulations. Unfortunately, for meteorological flux-measurements like the Flux-Gradient or the Eddy Covariance (EC) method, comparability with simulations only exists in the ideal case, where fields have to be completely uniform in land use and flat within the reach of the footprint. Then a model with one specific land use would have the same underlying source area as the measurement. An elegant method to avoid the shortcoming of grid cell resolution is the so called mixed approach, which was recently implemented into the ecosystem model framework Expert-N [Biernath et al. 2013]. The aim of this study was to analyze the impact of the characteristics of five managed field plots, planted with winter wheat, potato and maize on the near surface soil moistures and on the near surface energy flux exchanges of the soil-plant-atmosphere interface. The simulated energy fluxes were compared with eddy flux tower measurements between the respective fields at the research farm Scheyern, North-West of Munich, Germany. These simulations were done by coupling the ecosystem model Expert-N to an analytical footprint model [Mauder & Foken 2011] . The coupled model system has the ability to calculate the mixing ratio of the surface energy fluxes at the flux tower position. The approach accounts for the temporarily and spatially changing contributions of the patchwork of environmental land surface conditions (land use, management, soil properties) which influence the energy flux tower measurements due to the footprint dynamics. The statistical evaluation between simulation and measurements showed that the mixed approach improved the comparability in most cases. Furthermore, the management impact on single patches can be clearly detected, both in the measurements and the simulation. We conclude that reasonable simulations of energy and matter fluxes can be obtained if the heterogeneity of the land surfaces is taken into account.

Plans for an Enhanced Terrestrial and Freshwater Environmental Observation Network in South Africa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Everson, C. S.; Bond, W. J.; Moncrieff, G. R.; Everson, T. M.

2015-12-01

There is currently little information in South Africa concerning the influence of terrestrial ecosystems on biosphere-atmosphere interactions and their impact on the earth system. Climate modellers require data on energy exchanges between the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum to develop surface models of carbon, energy and water to scale up from the different biomes in South Africa, to regional and, ultimately, global scales. Atmospheric exchanges of South African biomes (ecosystems) are important due to the large and varied pant diversity they represent. The important ecosystem services (including water) delivered by these natural systems and their potential role in the long-term CO2 uptake from the atmosphere and carbon storage is a key gap in South African research. South Africa is already a water-scarce country so the predicted impacts of climate change on water resources are likely to have devastating effects. It is against this diminishing water supply that the South African government must develop innovative investments in water technologies and infrastructure to mitigate the impacts of growing water shortages due to climate change. The Department of Science and Technology of South Africa is planning a multi-million rand investment in long-term ecological infrastructure with a focus on carbon, water and energy. The terrestrial programme will comprise six to seven landscape-scale 'climate change observatories', some in urban and agricultural situations, with eddy covariance flux towers for carbon water and energy measurements, regular remote sensing, for the long-term collection of environmental, ecological and social data. The South African flux network measurement programme aims to become a key role player in the assessment of the consequences of rapid land use change and future impacts of climate change both regionally and internationally. Key words: flux towers, eddy co-variance, carbon, water and energy

Progress towards the use of publicly available data networks to conduct cross-scale historical reconstructions of carbon dynamics in US Drylands

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Washington-Allen, R. A.; Landolt, K.; Emanuel, R. E.; Therrell, M. D.; Nagle, N.; Grissino-Mayer, H. D.; Poulter, B.

2016-12-01

Emergent scale properties of water-limited or Dryland ecosystem's carbon flux are unknown at spatial scales from local to global and time scales of 10 - 1000 years or greater. The width of a tree ring is a metric of production that has been correlated with the amount of precipitation. This relationship has been used to reconstruct rainfall and fire histories in the Drylands of the southwestern US. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is globally measured by selected satellite sensors and is highly correlated with the fraction of solar radiation which is absorbed for photosynthesis by plants (FPAR), as well as with vegetation biomass, net primary productivity (NPP), and tree ring width. Publicly available web-based archives of free NDVI and tree ring data exist and have allowed historical temporal reconstructions of carbon dynamics for the past 300 to 500 years. Climate and tree ring databases have been used to spatially reconstruct drought dynamics for the last 500 years in the western US. In 2007, we hypothesized that NDVI and tree ring width could be used to spatially reconstruct carbon dynamics in US Drylands. In 2015, we succeeded with a 300-year historical spatial reconstruction of NPP in California using a Blue Oak tree ring chronology. Online eddy covariance flux tower measures of NPP are well correlated with satellite measures of NPP. This suggests that net ecosystem exchange (NEE = NPP - soil Respiration) could be historically reconstructed across Drylands. Ongoing research includes 1) scaling historical spatial reconstruction to US Drylands, 2) comparing the use of single versus multiple tree ring species (r2 = 68) and 3) use of the eddy flux tower network, remote sensing, and tree ring data to historically spatially reconstruct Dryland NEE.

OZFLUX: Water, Energy, and Carbon Cycles in Australian Terrestrial Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leuning, R.; Cleugh, H. A.; Finnigan, J. J.; Wang, Y.; Barrett, D. J.; Zegelin, S.

2001-12-01

The paper introduces the OZFLUX network which is being established to study several Australian ecosystems, discusses the analysis of eddy covariance data from tower-based flux stations, and then examines use of the flux data and a SVAT model within an atmospheric transport model to estimate regional fluxes. Lack of energy closure by eddy covariance measurements is commonly observed for Euroflux and Ameriflux installations. Reasons for the underestimates of H+ λ E may result from the way water vapor concentrations are determined using closed-path infrared gas analyzers. A comparison of open- and closed-path analyzers show that energy closure to better than 95% can be achieved with both systems when water vapor concentrations are expressed as mixing ratios in dry air, along with careful choice of the coordinate framework and the averaging periods used to calculate fluxes. Water, energy and carbon dioxide fluxes for two ecosystems are compared: 1) a 40 m tall, cool temperate Eucalyptus forest in SE Australia, and 2) a seasonally dry, tropical savanna woodland with sparsely arrayed, 10 m tall, Eucalyptus trees growing in a C4 grassland, in northern Queensland. Peak carbon dioxide uptake by the tall forest in the southern winter (T < 5\\deg C) is -10 μ mol~ m-2 s-1 compared to -2 μ mol~ m-2 s-1 for the savannah (T > 20 \\deg C), while evapotranspiration fluxes are similar (200~ W m-2). The differences arise because grasses in the savannah are dormant at this time. Seasonal carbon uptake is greatest in the summer for the temperate forest, and during the summer rainfall period from November to March for the savannah when grasses are actively growing. Fluxes measured at the two sites were used to test and parameterize the CSIRO Biosphere Model (CBM), which forms the lower boundary of a large-scale atmospheric transport model (DARLAM). We discuss the estimation of key parameters for CBM using ecological data on net primary production, and explain how, using a multiple-constraint approach, we may use DARLAM to estimate net fluxes at regional and continental scales. This involves constraining model predictions of fluxes and 4-D concentration fields, with measurements of fluxes, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations from a sparse network of towers, and surface radiances measured remotely.

Eddy-correlation measurements of fluxes of CO 2 and H 2O above a spruce stand

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ibrom, A.; Schütz, C.; Tworek, T.; Morgenstern, K.; Oltchev, A.; Falk, M.; Constantin, J.; Gravenhorst, G.

1996-12-01

Atmospheric fluxes of CO 2 and H 2O above a mature spruce stand ( Picea abies (L.) Karst.) have been investigated using the eddy- correlation technique. A closed path sensor adapted to the special requirements of long-term studies has been developed and tested. Field measurements have been performed since April 1995. Estimates of fetch showed a very narrow source area dimension under instable stratification (≤ 200 m). Fetch requirements at night are not met in some directions. Energy balance closure was influenced systematically by the wind direction indicating a substantial attenuation of the vertical wind motion by the tower (up to 40 %). Even for optimal flow directions, energy balance closure was about 88%. Intercomparison of the used ultra sonic anemometer (USAT-3) with a GILL - anemometer showed systematically lower values of vertical wind speed fluctuations (13 %). Average CO 2-fluxes ranged between -13 at noon to 3 μ mol m-2, s-1 at night in summer. In November and December the stand released CO 2 on a daily basis. A preliminary estimate of the cumulative net carbon balance over the observed period of 9 months is 4-5 t, Cha-1.

Water, Energy, and Carbon with Artificial Neural Networks (WECANN): A statistically-based estimate of global surface turbulent fluxes and gross primary productivity using solar-induced fluorescence.

PubMed

Alemohammad, Seyed Hamed; Fang, Bin; Konings, Alexandra G; Aires, Filipe; Green, Julia K; Kolassa, Jana; Miralles, Diego; Prigent, Catherine; Gentine, Pierre

2017-01-01

A new global estimate of surface turbulent fluxes, latent heat flux (LE) and sensible heat flux (H), and gross primary production (GPP) is developed using a machine learning approach informed by novel remotely sensed Solar-Induced Fluorescence (SIF) and other radiative and meteorological variables. This is the first study to jointly retrieve LE, H and GPP using SIF observations. The approach uses an artificial neural network (ANN) with a target dataset generated from three independent data sources, weighted based on triple collocation (TC) algorithm. The new retrieval, named Water, Energy, and Carbon with Artificial Neural Networks (WECANN), provides estimates of LE, H and GPP from 2007 to 2015 at 1° × 1° spatial resolution and on monthly time resolution. The quality of ANN training is assessed using the target data, and the WECANN retrievals are evaluated using eddy covariance tower estimates from FLUXNET network across various climates and conditions. When compared to eddy covariance estimates, WECANN typically outperforms other products, particularly for sensible and latent heat fluxes. Analysing WECANN retrievals across three extreme drought and heatwave events demonstrates the capability of the retrievals in capturing the extent of these events. Uncertainty estimates of the retrievals are analysed and the inter-annual variability in average global and regional fluxes show the impact of distinct climatic events - such as the 2015 El Niño - on surface turbulent fluxes and GPP.

Water, Energy, and Carbon with Artificial Neural Networks (WECANN): a statistically based estimate of global surface turbulent fluxes and gross primary productivity using solar-induced fluorescence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hamed Alemohammad, Seyed; Fang, Bin; Konings, Alexandra G.; Aires, Filipe; Green, Julia K.; Kolassa, Jana; Miralles, Diego; Prigent, Catherine; Gentine, Pierre

2017-09-01

A new global estimate of surface turbulent fluxes, latent heat flux (LE) and sensible heat flux (H), and gross primary production (GPP) is developed using a machine learning approach informed by novel remotely sensed solar-induced fluorescence (SIF) and other radiative and meteorological variables. This is the first study to jointly retrieve LE, H, and GPP using SIF observations. The approach uses an artificial neural network (ANN) with a target dataset generated from three independent data sources, weighted based on a triple collocation (TC) algorithm. The new retrieval, named Water, Energy, and Carbon with Artificial Neural Networks (WECANN), provides estimates of LE, H, and GPP from 2007 to 2015 at 1° × 1° spatial resolution and at monthly time resolution. The quality of ANN training is assessed using the target data, and the WECANN retrievals are evaluated using eddy covariance tower estimates from the FLUXNET network across various climates and conditions. When compared to eddy covariance estimates, WECANN typically outperforms other products, particularly for sensible and latent heat fluxes. Analyzing WECANN retrievals across three extreme drought and heat wave events demonstrates the capability of the retrievals to capture the extent of these events. Uncertainty estimates of the retrievals are analyzed and the interannual variability in average global and regional fluxes shows the impact of distinct climatic events - such as the 2015 El Niño - on surface turbulent fluxes and GPP.

Eddy covarianace measurements in a hyper-arid and hyper-saline mangroves ecosystem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Perri, S.; Marpu, P.; Molini, A.; Armstrong, P.

2017-12-01

The natural environment of mangroves provides a number of ecosystem services for improving water quality, supporting healthy fisheries, and protecting the coasts. Also, their carbon storage is larger than any other forest type. Several authors have recognized the importance of mangroves in global carbon cycles. However, energy, water and carbon exchanges between ecosystem and atmosphere are still not completely understood. Eddy covariance measurements are extremely valuable to understand the role of the unique stressors of costal ecosystems in gas exchange. In particular, periodic flooding and elevated soil pore water salinity influence land-atmosphere interactions. Despites the importance of flux measurements in mangroves forests, such in-situ observations are extremely rare. Our research team set up an eddy covariance tower in the Mangrove National Park of Abu Dhabi, UAE. The study site (24.4509° N, 54.4288° E) is located in a dwarf Avicennia marina ecosystem experiencing extremely high temperatures and salinity. CO2 and H2O exchanges are estimated and related to water level and salinity measurements. This unique dataset will shed some light on the net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of carbon dioxide, on energy fluxes and on evapotranspiration rates for a halophyte ecosystem under severe salt-stress and high temperature.

Evaluation of NASA's Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) Flux Pilot: Terrestrial CO2 Fluxes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fisher, J. B.; Polhamus, A.; Bowman, K. W.; Collatz, G. J.; Potter, C. S.; Lee, M.; Liu, J.; Jung, M.; Reichstein, M.

2011-12-01

NASA's Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) flux pilot project combines NASA's Earth System models in land, ocean and atmosphere to track surface CO2 fluxes. The system is constrained by atmospheric measurements of XCO2 from the Japanese GOSAT satellite, giving a "big picture" view of total CO2 in Earth's atmosphere. Combining two land models (CASA-Ames and CASA-GFED), two ocean models (ECCO2 and NOBM) and two atmospheric chemistry and inversion models (GEOS-5 and GEOS-Chem), the system brings together the stand-alone component models of the Earth System, all of which are run diagnostically constrained by a multitude of other remotely sensed data. Here, we evaluate the biospheric land surface CO2 fluxes (i.e., net ecosystem exchange, NEE) as estimated from the atmospheric flux inversion. We compare against the prior bottom-up estimates (e.g., the CASA models) as well. Our evaluation dataset is the independently derived global wall-to-wall MPI-BGC product, which uses a machine learning algorithm and model tree ensemble to "scale-up" a network of in situ CO2 flux measurements from 253 globally-distributed sites in the FLUXNET network. The measurements are based on the eddy covariance method, which uses observations of co-varying fluxes of CO2 (and water and energy) from instruments on towers extending above ecosystem canopies; the towers integrate fluxes over large spatial areas (~1 km2). We present global maps of CO2 fluxes and differences between products, summaries of fluxes by TRANSCOM region, country, latitude, and biome type, and assess the time series, including timing of minimum and maximum fluxes. This evaluation shows both where the CMS is performing well, and where improvements should be directed in further work.

AmeriFlux US-Me4 Metolius-old aged ponderosa pine

DOE Data Explorer

Law, Bev [Oregon State University

2016-01-01

This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-Me4 Metolius-old aged ponderosa pine. Site Description - The site is located on land designated as a Research Natural Area (RNA). The site is very open, with even-aged stands of old-growth trees, young trees and mixed aged stands. The eddy-flux tower footprint was classified as ~ 48% mixed aged, ~27% pure old growth and ~25% young aged stands. The data in this workbook describes the mixed aged component. A separate workbook describes the pure old growth component. Law et al (2001) Global Change Biology 7, 755-777; Law et al (2001) Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 110, 27-43; Anthoni et al (2002) Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 111, 203-222; Irvine & Law (2002) Global Change biology 8,1183-1194, Irivne et al (2004) Tree Physiology 24,753-763.

Towards a Better Understanding of Water Stores and Fluxes: Model Observation Synthesis in a Snowmelt Dominated Research Watershed

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ryken, A.; Gochis, D.; Carroll, R. W. H.; Bearup, L. A.; Williams, K. H.; Maxwell, R. M.

2017-12-01

The hydrology of high-elevation, mountainous regions is poorly represented in Earth Systems Models (ESMs). In addition to regulating downstream water delivery, these ecosystems play an important role in the storage and land-atmosphere exchange of carbon and water. Water balances are sensitive to the amount of water stored in the snowpack (SWE) and the amount of water leaving the system in the form of evapotranspiration—two pieces of the hydrologic cycle that are difficult to observe and model in heterogeneous mountainous regions due to spatially variant weather patterns. In an effort to resolve this hydrologic gap in ESMs, this study seeks to better understand the interactions between groundwater, carbon flux, and the lower atmosphere in these high-altitude environments through integration of field observations and model simulations. We compare model simulations to field observations to elucidate process performance combined with a sensitivity analysis to better understand parameter uncertainty. Observations from a meteorological station in the East River Basin are used to force an integrated single-column hydrologic model, ParFlow-CLM. This met station is co-located with an eddy covariance tower, which, along with snow surveys, is used to better constrain the water, carbon, and energy fluxes in the coupled land-atmosphere model to increase our understanding of high-altitude headwaters. Preliminary results suggest the model compares well to the eddy covariance tower and field observations, shown through both correct magnitude and timing of peak SWE along with similar magnitudes and diurnal patterns of heat and water fluxes. Initial sensitivity analysis results show that an increase in temperature leads to a decrease in peak SWE as well as an increase in latent heat revealing a sensitivity of the model to air temperature. Further sensitivity analysis will help us understand more parameter uncertainty. Through obtaining more accurate and higher resolution meteorological data and applying it to a coupled hydrologic model, this study can lead to better representation of mountainous environments in all ESMs.

Recovery strategies for fluxes affected by the Gill-Solent WindMaster-Pro "w-boost" firmware bug

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Billesbach, D. P.; Chan, S. W.; Biraud, S.; David, C. R.

2017-12-01

In late 2015 and early 2016, work done by the AmeriFlux Tech Team helped to uncover a bug in the Gill WindMaster Pro sonic anemometers used by many researchers for eddy covariance flux measurements. Gill has addressed this issue and has since sent out a notice that the vertical wind speed component (a critical piece of all eddy covariance fluxes) was being erroneously computed and reported. The problem (known as the w-boost bug) resulted in positive (upward) wind speeds being under-reported by 16.6% and negative (downward) wind speeds being under-reported by 28.9%. This has the potential to cause similar underestimates in fluxes obtained from these instruments. While the manufacturer has offered a firmware upgrade to fix this bug, there exist many data sets that have already been affected by it. Researchers who use the affected units have contributed to numerous data archives (AmeriFlux, FluxNet, ICOS, etc.), and third-party scientists have, in turn used these data in many types of research projects. The volume of affected data over such a long period of time makes a complete reprocessing of the raw data sets impractical. To address this, the AmeriFlux Tech Team has endeavored to develop a method of correcting affected fluxes using only the downloadable data sets that are available from these archives. In a previous poster, we reported preliminary results from a pair of Arctic tundra flux towers, and showed that fluxes could be underestimated by 15% to 20%. In this poster, we present results that extend our study to include a forested site in Equatorial Africa. We also have evaluated methods to estimate flux errors without accessing the raw data sets.

VOC flux measurements using a novel Relaxed Eddy Accumulation GC-FID system in urban Houston, Texas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, C.; Schade, G.; Boedeker, I.

2008-12-01

Houston experiences higher ozone production rates than most other major cities in the US, which is related to high anthropogenic VOC emissions from both area/mobile sources (car traffic) and a large number of petrochemical facilities. The EPA forecasts that Houston is likely to still violate the new 8-h NAAQS in 2020. To monitor neighborhood scale pollutant fluxes, we established a tall flux tower installation a few kilometers north of downtown Houston. We measure energy and trace gas fluxes, including VOCs from both anthropogenic and biogenic emission sources in the urban surface layer using eddy covariance and related techniques. Here, we describe a Relaxed Eddy Accumulation (REA) system combined with a dual-channel GC-FID used for VOC flux measurements, including first results. Ambient air is sampled at approximately 15 L min-1 through a 9.5 mm OD PFA line from 60 m above ground next to a sonic anemometer. Subsamples of this air stream are extracted through an ozone scrubber and pushed into two Teflon bag reservoirs, from which they are transferred to the GC pre-concentration units consisting of carbon-based adsorption traps encapsulated in heater blocks for thermal desorption. We discuss the performance of our system and selected measurement results from the 2008 spring and summer seasons in Houston. We present diurnal variations of the fluxes of the traffic tracers benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX) during different study periods. Typical BTEX fluxes ranged from -0.36 to 3.10 mg m-2 h-1 for benzene, and -0.47 to 5.04 mg m-2 h-1 for toluene, and exhibited diurnal cycles with two dominant peaks related to rush-hour traffic. A footprint analysis overlaid onto a geographic information system (GIS) will be presented to reveal the dominant emission sources and patterns in the study area.

Eddy covariance methane flux measurements over a grazed pasture: effect of cows as moving point sources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Felber, R.; Münger, A.; Neftel, A.; Ammann, C.

2015-06-01

Methane (CH4) from ruminants contributes one-third of global agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. Eddy covariance (EC) technique has been extensively used at various flux sites to investigate carbon dioxide exchange of ecosystems. Since the development of fast CH4 analyzers, the instrumentation at many flux sites has been amended for these gases. However, the application of EC over pastures is challenging due to the spatially and temporally uneven distribution of CH4 point sources induced by the grazing animals. We applied EC measurements during one grazing season over a pasture with 20 dairy cows (mean milk yield: 22.7 kg d-1) managed in a rotational grazing system. Individual cow positions were recorded by GPS trackers to attribute fluxes to animal emissions using a footprint model. Methane fluxes with cows in the footprint were up to 2 orders of magnitude higher than ecosystem fluxes without cows. Mean cow emissions of 423 ± 24 g CH4 head-1 d-1 (best estimate from this study) correspond well to animal respiration chamber measurements reported in the literature. However, a systematic effect of the distance between source and EC tower on cow emissions was found, which is attributed to the analytical footprint model used. We show that the EC method allows one to determine CH4 emissions of cows on a pasture if the data evaluation is adjusted for this purpose and if some cow distribution information is available.

Eddy covariance methane flux measurements over a grazed pasture: effect of cows as moving point sources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Felber, R.; Münger, A.; Neftel, A.; Ammann, C.

2015-02-01

Methane (CH4) from ruminants contributes one third to global agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. Eddy covariance (EC) technique has been extensively used at various flux sites to investigate carbon dioxide exchange of ecosystems. Since the development of fast CH4 analysers the instrumentation at many flux sites have been amended for these gases. However the application of EC over pastures is challenging due to the spatial and temporal uneven distribution of CH4 point sources induced by the grazing animals. We applied EC measurements during one grazing season over a pasture with 20 dairy cows (mean milk yield: 22.7 kg d-1) managed in a rotational grazing system. Individual cow positions were recorded by GPS trackers to attribute fluxes to animal emissions using a footprint model. Methane fluxes with cows in the footprint were up to two orders of magnitude higher than ecosystem fluxes without cows. Mean cow emissions of 423 ± 24 g CH4 head-1 d-1 (best guess of this study) correspond well to animal respiration chamber measurements reported in the literature. However a systematic effect of the distance between source and EC tower on cow emissions was found which is attributed to the analytical footprint model used. We show that the EC method allows to determine CH4 emissions of grazing cows if the data evaluation is adjusted for this purpose and if some cow distribution information is available.

Interrelationship of Cn2 & Eddy Dissipation rate based on Scintillometer and Doppler Lidar observations in complex terrain during the Perdigao Campaign 2017

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Creegan, E. D.; Krishnamurthy, R.; Hocut, C. M.; Pattantyus, A.; Leo, L. S.; Wang, Y.; Fernando, H. J.; Bariteau, L.

2017-12-01

The Perdigao campaign is a joint EU/US science project designed to provide information on flow field(s) over complex terrain and through wind turbines at unprecedented high spatial and temporal resolution. The goal is to improve wind energy physics and overcome the current deficiencies of wind resource models. Topographically the Perdigao location is an expansion of the "double hill in crossflow", consisting of two parallel ridges along the NW-SE direction. The site was heavily instrumented with an array of towers (with multiple transects along the valley and across two ridges) and a large suite of ground based and aerial remote sensing platforms. On the outflow side of the NW ridge a scintillometer was emplaced with the line-of-sight (LOS) running adjacent to the towers comprising the NE transect from the ridgetop down to the base. Scanning lidars were placed at both ends of this LOS. Other instruments included a tethered lifting system (TLS), sodar, microwave radiometer, an energy budget flux tower and radiosonde releases. Scintillomoter data provides a quantitative measure of the intensity of optical turbulence, through the refractive index structure parameter, Cn2, where averaged Cn2 is often determined as a function of local differences in temperature, moisture, and wind velocity at discrete points. The refractive index structure parameter is also a function of the inner (dissipation) and outer (energy producing) turbulent scales. The scintillometer directly gives path averaged Cn2 and Eddy Dissipation rate along the LOS. Coplanar scans along the same path were synchronized using two scanning coherent Doppler lidars. Algorithms have been developed to estimate both eddy dissipation rate and Cn2 from Doppler lidar data effectively creating a new lidar data product. Additionally, from TLS measurements, Cn2 and dissipation rate are calculated using the high frequency spectra of the hot-wire sensor. In this work, measurements of Cn2 and Eddy Dissipation rate between multiple Doppler lidars, scintillometer and TLS are compared and the relationship between refractive index structure parameter and turbulence is explored. The effect of optical turbulence under various atmospheric conditions in complex terrain will be investigated.

The Role of Optimality in Characterizing CO2 Seepage from Geological Carbon Sequestration Sites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cortis, A.; Oldenburg, C. M.; Benson, S. M.

2007-12-01

Storage of large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) in deep geological formations for greenhouse-gas mitigation is gaining momentum and moving from its conceptual and testing stages towards widespread application. In this talk we explore various optimization strategies for characterizing surface leakage (seepage) using near-surface measurement approaches such as accumulation chambers and eddy covariance towers. Seepage characterization objectives and limitations need to be defined carefully from the outset especially in light of large natural background variations that can mask seepage. The cost and sensitivity of seepage detection are related to four critical length scales pertaining to the size of the: (1) region that needs to be monitored; (2) footprint of the measurement approach; (3) main seepage zone; and (4) region in which concentrations or fluxes are influenced by seepage. Seepage characterization objectives may include one or all of the tasks of detecting, locating, and quantifying seepage. Each of these tasks has its own optimal strategy. Detecting and locating seepage in a region in which there is no expected or preferred location for seepage nor existing evidence for seepage requires monitoring on a fixed grid, e.g., using eddy covariance towers. The fixed-grid approaches needed to detect seepage are expected to require large numbers of eddy covariance towers for large-scale geologic CO2 storage. Once seepage has been detected and roughly located, seepage zones and features can be optimally pinpointed through a dynamic search strategy, e.g., employing accumulation chambers and/or soil-gas sampling. Quantification of seepage rates can be done through measurements on a localized fixed grid once the seepage is pinpointed. Background measurements are essential for seepage detection in natural ecosystems. Artificial neural networks are considered as regression models useful for distinguishing natural system behavior from anomalous behavior suggestive of CO2 seepage without need for detailed understanding of natural system processes. Because of the local extrema in CO2 fluxes and concentrations in natural systems, simple steepest-descent algorithms are not effective and evolutionary computation algorithms are proposed as a paradigm for dynamic monitoring networks to pinpoint CO2 seepage areas. This work was carried out within the ZERT project, funded by the Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy, Office of Sequestration, Hydrogen, and Clean Coal Fuels, National Energy Technology Laboratory, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.

Detecting Recent Changes in the Arctic-Boreal Carbon Sink Using Satellite Remote Sensing, Flux Tower Data and Biophysical Models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Watts, J. D.; Kimball, J. S.; Du, J.; Zona, D.; Euskirchen, E. S.; Helbig, M.; Sonnentag, O.; Bruhwiler, L.; Kochendorfer, J.; Parmentier, F. J. W.; Humphreys, E.; Nadeau, D.; Miller, C. E.; Sachs, T.; Rinne, J.; Lund, M.; Tagesson, T.; Jackowicz-Korczynski, M.; Ueyama, M.; Aurela, M.; Commane, R.; Natali, S.; Oechel, W. C.

2017-12-01

High latitude warming and changes in hydrology are expected to substantially impact the terrestrial net ecosystem carbon balance, particularly in permafrost affected landscapes. Changing environmental conditions can yield divergent regional responses observed in gross primary productivity (GPP), ecosystem respiration (Reco) of carbon dioxide (CO2), net ecosystem CO2 exchange (NEE) and net methane fluxes (CH4). Wetland CH4 emissions are sensitive to climate and permafrost related changes in landscape wetness, which could alter regional carbon sink or source activity. Here we examine a 13-year record (2003-2015) of net carbon budgets and flux components for the Arctic-boreal region (>45°N). We applied an enhanced Terrestrial Carbon Flux (TCF) model developed for satellite remote sensing applications, with input optical-infrared (MODIS) and microwave (AMSR) sensor observations, and reanalysis data. Eddy covariance records from over 34 tower sites were used for model assessments and to identify high latitude landscape differences in CO2 and CH4 response. The TCF model results indicate a respective annual NEE sink of -38 +/- 18 TgC and -722 +/- 60 TgC for tundra (defined by the Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map) and boreal ecosystems, without accounting for carbon loss from fire. Annual CH4 emissions are estimated at 7 +/- 0.3 TgC/yr for tundra and 52 +/- 1.7 TgC/yr for boreal wetlands. The carbon flux record indicates a significant (a = 0.05) increase in carbon uptake for the Arctic-boreal region. A net change in annual CH4 emissions was not detected, although local landscapes including some permafrost affected northern boreal wetlands show signs of significant increase. This analysis indicates that continued monitoring of the carbon budget through integration of tower flux measurements, ecosystem models, satellite remote sensing and atmospheric inverse modeling is necessary to identify shifts in landscape carbon exchange and the vulnerability of northern ecosystems to climate change.

Partitioning carbon fluxes from a Midwestern corn and soybean rotation system using footprint analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dold, C.; Hatfield, J.; Prueger, J. H.; Wacha, K.

2017-12-01

Midwestern US agriculture is dominated by corn and soybean production. Corn has typically higher Net Ecosystem Exchange (NEE) than soybean due to increased carboxylation efficiency and different crop management. The conjoined NEE may be measured with eddy covariance (EC) stations covering both crops, however, it is often unclear what the contribution of each crop is, as the CO2 source area remains unknown. The aim of this study was to quantify the contribution of CO2 fluxes from each crop for a conventional corn-soybean rotation system from 2007 - 2015. Therefore, the combined CO2 flux of three adjacent fields with annual corn-soybean rotation was measured with a 9.1 m EC tower (Flux 30). In the center of two of these fields, additional EC towers (Flux 10 and Flux 11) were positioned above the corn and soybean canopy to validate Flux 30 NEE. For each EC system the annual 90% NEE footprint area was calculated, footprints were partitioned among fields, and NEE separated accordingly. The average annual 90% footprint area of Flux 30, and Flux 10/11 corn and soybean was estimated to 206, 11 and 7 ha, respectively. The annual average (±SE) NEE of Flux 30 was -693 ± 47 g CO2 m-2 yr-1, of which 83% out of 90% originated from the three adjacent fields. Corn and soybean NEE measured at Flux 10 and 11 was -1124 ± 95 and 173 ± 73 g CO2 m-2 yr-1, respectively, and 89% and 90% originated from these fields. That demonstrates, that Flux 30 represents the combined NEE of a corn-soybean rotation, and Flux 10 and 11 measured NEE from a single crop. However, the share of Flux 30 NEE originating from corn and soybean grown on the Flux 10/11 fields was -192 ± 16 and -205 ± 18 g CO2 m-2 yr-1, indicating a substantial difference to single crop NEE. While it was possible to measure the NEE of a corn-soybean rotation with a tall EC tower, footprint partitioning could not retrieve NEE for each crop, probably due to differences in measurement height and footprint source area.

Surface flux processes and evolution of characteristic eddy scales above a young Middle Rio Grande forest

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cleverly, J. R.; Thibault, J. R.; Slusher, M.; Hipps, L.; Prueger, J.; Dahm, C. N.

2003-12-01

The extended drought throughout the Southwest has brought water budgets and policy decisions into public purview. It is often presumed that riparian restoration, i.e. removal of non-native species, presents a water salvage panacea. The cost of such operations can be prohibitive, making reliable estimates of phreatophytic ET a crucial piece of information. This study has taken a long-term approach to monitoring ET water flux from a variety of these forests. ET monitoring towers have been established at 5 sites along the Middle Rio Grande -- 2 over mature cottonwood forests, 2 over mature saltcedar forests, and 1 over a young mixed stand of Russian olive and willow. Because there is yet no infallible method for determining ET fluxes, eddy covariance technology provides the best method for evaluating those processes in the surface layer by provided data directly into surface layer similarity relationships. ET, energy, and carbon flux were measured during the 2003 growing season from towers using the 3-dimensional sonic eddy covariance (3SEC) method. Scalar flux sensors included a 3-D sonic anemometer, Krypton hygrometer, 12.7 μ m type E fine wire thermocouple (Campbell Scientific, Inc), and LI-7500 open-path IRGA (Licor, Inc). An averaging period of 30 min was chosen based as a period of low cospectral density. The following corrections were applied to these fluxes: coordinate rotation; correction of frequency-specific signal attenuation due to instrument separation, instrument line averaging, and signal path length (Massman 2000 & 2001); krypton hygrometer calibration as a function of humidity; oxygen contribution to the krypton hygrometer signal; and flux effects on measured densities (Webb et al 1980). These corrections reduced the closure error by 5 percent. Closure was then forced using the measured Bowen Ratio as the weighting factor. Measured ET, along with leaf area index, was reduced as much as 35 percent during the prolonged drought in the southwestern U.S. At the end of the season, younger cottonwood, willow, and Russian olive forests were developing severe chlorosis (< 100 mg m{-2} at some locations), and ET rates fell from 8.5 mm day-1 to 4.4 mm day-1 due to a record-breaking hot July. Evaluation of the 10-Hz raw data from the 3SEC system was performed using cospectral and wavelet time series analyses. Of particular interest are the low frequency harmonics between the turbulent scales and the spectral gap. Correlation of intermittent flux variations with variations in net radiation preceding summer monsoon precipitation illustrates the relative roles of vegetative homeostasis and advection in explaining remaining closure error following turbulence corrections. This time series analysis of physical turbulent Monin-Obukhov scales and surface fluxes illustrates the frequency-temporal relationships between surface processes, stomatal control, and mesoscale forcing events.

Soil Respiration in Eddy Covariance Footprints: A Critical Look at Researcher Needs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gabriel, Carrie-Ellen; Nickerson, Nick; Creelman, Chance

2017-04-01

Eddy covariance (EC) systems have been widely used across the globe for more than 20 years, offering researchers invaluable measurements of parameters including Net Ecosystem Exchange and ecosystem respiration. However, recent research suggests that EC assumptions and technical obstacles may cause biased gas exchange estimates. Measurements of soil respiration (RS) at the ground level may help alleviate these biases; for example, by allowing researchers to reconcile nocturnal EC flux data with soil respiration or by providing a means to inform gap-filling models. RS measurements have been used sparingly alongside EC towers because of the large cost required to scale chamber systems to the EC footprint, as well as data integration and processing burdens. Here we present how the Forced Diffusion (FD) method is ideal for the measurement of RS at EC sites. The FD method allows for inexpensive and autonomous measurements, providing a scalable approach to matching the EC footprint compared to other RS systems. Here, we briefly present the methodology and results from a pilot study at the Howland Forest AmeriFlux site (Maine), carried out during the summer and fall of 2016, measuring soil respiration using the FD chamber technique. The emphasis of the remainder of the research is on gathering, interpreting and actualizing feedback from soil scientists and eddy covariance researchers and technicians on aspects of the FD methodology, deployment style, integration with existing infrastructure and data quality. Our goal is to eventually provide a framework for "ideal soil respiration measurements" that can be used by researchers, engineers and companies to develop functional and reliable soil respiration data sets that are easily coupled with data measured by EC users, and larger EC networks such as AmeriFlux and EuroFlux.

Water, Energy, and Carbon with Artificial Neural Networks (WECANN): a statistically based estimate of global surface turbulent fluxes and gross primary productivity using solar-induced fluorescence

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Alemohammad, Seyed Hamed; Fang, Bin; Konings, Alexandra G.

A new global estimate of surface turbulent fluxes, latent heat flux (LE) and sensible heat flux ( H), and gross primary production (GPP) is developed using a machine learning approach informed by novel remotely sensed solar-induced fluorescence (SIF) and other radiative and meteorological variables. This is the first study to jointly retrieve LE, H, and GPP using SIF observations. The approach uses an artificial neural network (ANN) with a target dataset generated from three independent data sources, weighted based on a triple collocation (TC) algorithm. The new retrieval, named Water, Energy, and Carbon with Artificial Neural Networks (WECANN), provides estimatesmore » of LE, H, and GPP from 2007 to 2015 at 1° × 1° spatial resolution and at monthly time resolution. The quality of ANN training is assessed using the target data, and the WECANN retrievals are evaluated using eddy covariance tower estimates from the FLUXNET network across various climates and conditions. When compared to eddy covariance estimates, WECANN typically outperforms other products, particularly for sensible and latent heat fluxes. Analyzing WECANN retrievals across three extreme drought and heat wave events demonstrates the capability of the retrievals to capture the extent of these events. Uncertainty estimates of the retrievals are analyzed and the interannual variability in average global and regional fluxes shows the impact of distinct climatic events – such as the 2015 El Niño – on surface turbulent fluxes and GPP.« less

Water, Energy, and Carbon with Artificial Neural Networks (WECANN): a statistically based estimate of global surface turbulent fluxes and gross primary productivity using solar-induced fluorescence

DOE PAGES

Alemohammad, Seyed Hamed; Fang, Bin; Konings, Alexandra G.; ...

2017-09-20

A new global estimate of surface turbulent fluxes, latent heat flux (LE) and sensible heat flux ( H), and gross primary production (GPP) is developed using a machine learning approach informed by novel remotely sensed solar-induced fluorescence (SIF) and other radiative and meteorological variables. This is the first study to jointly retrieve LE, H, and GPP using SIF observations. The approach uses an artificial neural network (ANN) with a target dataset generated from three independent data sources, weighted based on a triple collocation (TC) algorithm. The new retrieval, named Water, Energy, and Carbon with Artificial Neural Networks (WECANN), provides estimatesmore » of LE, H, and GPP from 2007 to 2015 at 1° × 1° spatial resolution and at monthly time resolution. The quality of ANN training is assessed using the target data, and the WECANN retrievals are evaluated using eddy covariance tower estimates from the FLUXNET network across various climates and conditions. When compared to eddy covariance estimates, WECANN typically outperforms other products, particularly for sensible and latent heat fluxes. Analyzing WECANN retrievals across three extreme drought and heat wave events demonstrates the capability of the retrievals to capture the extent of these events. Uncertainty estimates of the retrievals are analyzed and the interannual variability in average global and regional fluxes shows the impact of distinct climatic events – such as the 2015 El Niño – on surface turbulent fluxes and GPP.« less

Wind and flux measurements in a windfarm co-located with agricultural production (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Takle, E. S.; Prueger, J. H.; Rajewski, D. A.; Lundquist, J. K.; Aitken, M.; Rhodes, M. E.; Deppe, A. J.; Goodman, F. E.; Carter, K. C.; Mattison, L.; Rabideau, S. L.; Rosenberg, A. J.; Whitfield, C. L.; Hatfield, J.

2010-12-01

Co-locating wind farms in pre-existing agricultural fields represents multiple land uses for which there may be interactions. Agricultural producers have raised questions about the possible impact of changes in wind speed and turbulence on pollination, dew formation, and conditions favorable for diseases. During summer 2010 we measured wind speed and surface fluxes within a wind farm that was co-located with a landscape covered by corn and soybeans in central Iowa. We erected four 9.14 m towers in corn fields upwind and downwind of lines of 1.5 MW turbines. All towers were instrumented with sonic anemometers at 6.45 m above ground, three-cup anemometers at 9.06 m ,and two temperature and relative humidity probes at 5.30 and 9.06 m. In addition, LiCor 7500 CO2/H2O flux analyzers were mounted at 6.45 m on two towers. At the beginning of the field campaign (late June) the corn had a height of about 1.3 m and grew to about 2.2 m at maturity in late July. For a 2-week period beginning late June a vertically pointing lidar was located near a flux tower downwind of one of the turbines and collected horizontal winds from 40 m to 200 m above ground. Twenty-Hz data from the eddy covariance systems were recorded as were 5-min averaged values of wind speed, temperature, humidity, and fluxes of heat, momentum, moisture and CO2 day and night under a wide variety of weather conditions, including a two-week period when the turbines were shut down. Numerical simulations with the WRF (Weather Research and Forecast) model for select periods with no turbine influence provide opportunities for comparing modeled and measured values of surface conditions and vertical wind profiles. Results show clear evidence of changes in flow field conditions at the surface that influence fluxes. We will discuss diurnal changes in fluxes and influence of turbines. Lidar measurements of vertical profiles of wind speed compared against modeled undisturbed flow fields behind a turbine reveal significant momentum extraction and creation of regions of strong shear leading to mechanical generation of turbulence. Potential impacts on agricultural crops will be discussed.

Utilizing a Tower Based System for Optical Sensing of Ecosystem Carbon Fluxes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huemmrich, K. F.; Corp, L. A.; Middleton, E.; Campbell, P. K. E.; Landis, D.; Kustas, W. P.

2015-12-01

Optical sampling of spectral reflectance and solar induced fluorescence provide information on the physiological status of vegetation that can be used to infer stress responses and estimates of production. Multiple repeated observations are required to observe the effects of changing environmental conditions on vegetation. This study examines the use of optical signals to determine inputs to a light use efficiency (LUE) model describing productivity of a cornfield where repeated observations of carbon flux, spectral reflectance and fluorescence were collected. Data were collected at the Optimizing Production Inputs for Economic and Environmental Enhancement (OPE3) fields (39.03°N, 76.85°W) at USDA Beltsville Agricultural Research Center. Agricultural Research Service researchers measured CO2 fluxes using eddy covariance methods throughout the growing season. Optical measurements were made from the nearby tower supporting the NASA FUSION sensors. The sensor system consists of two dual channel, upward and downward looking, spectrometers used to simultaneously collect high spectral resolution measurements of reflected and fluoresced light from vegetation canopies at multiple view angles. Estimates of chlorophyll fluorescence, combined with measures of vegetation pigment content and the Photosynthetic Reflectance Index (PRI) derived from the spectral reflectance are compared with CO2 fluxes over diurnal periods for multiple days. The relationships among the different optical measurements indicate that they are providing different types of information on the vegetation and that combinations of these measurements provide improved retrievals of CO2 fluxes than any index alone

Energy fluxes retrieval on an Alaskan Arctic and Sub-Arctic vegetation by means MODIS imagery and the DTD method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cristobal, J.; Prakash, A.; Starkenburg, D. P.; Fochesatto, G. J.; Anderson, M. C.; Gens, R.; Kane, D. L.; Kustas, W.; Alfieri, J. G.

2012-12-01

Evapotranspiration (ET) plays a significant role in the hydrologic cycle of Arctic and Sub-Arctic basins. Surface-atmosphere exchanges due to ET are estimated from water balance computations to be about 74% of summer precipitation or 50% of annual precipitation. Even though ET is a significant component of the hydrologic cycle in this region, the bulk estimates don't accurately account for spatial and temporal variability due to vegetation type, topography, etc. (Kane and Yang, 2004). Nowadays, remote sensing is the only technology capable of providing the necessary radiometric measurements for the calculation of the ET at global scales and in a feasible economic way, especially in Arctic and Sub-Arctic Alaskan basins with a very sparse network of both meteorological and flux towers. In this work we present the implementation and validation of the Dual-Time-Difference model (Kustas et al., 2001) to retrieve energy fluxes (ET, sensible heat flux, net radiation and soil heat flux) in tundra vegetation in Arctic conditions and in a black spruce (Picea mariana) forest in Sub-Arctic conditions. In order to validate the model in tundra vegetation we used a flux tower from the Imnavait Creek sites of the Arctic Observatory Network (Euskirchen et al. 2012). In the case of the black spruce forest, on September 2011 we installed a flux tower in the University of Alaska Fairbanks north campus that includes an eddy-covariance system as well a net radiometer, air temperature probes, soil heat flux plates, soil moisture sensors and thermistors to fully estimate energy fluxes in the field (see http://www.et.alaska.edu/ for further details). Additionally, in order to upscale energy fluxes into MODIS spatial resolution, a scintillometer was also installed covering 1.2 km across the flux tower. DTD model mainly requires meteorological inputs as well as land surface temperature (LST) and leaf area index (LAI) data, both coming from satellite imagery, at two different times: after local sunrise and from mid morning to mid afternoon. As remote sensing data we used 11 TERRA/AQUA MODIS dates from July to September 2008. For these dates we selected the LST that better fits this two times using the LST MODIS product (MOD11/MYD11) and as LAI input we used the LAI daily product (MOD15/MYD15). In the case of tundra validation, preliminary results show an acceptable agreement between DTD model and flux tower data. RMSE obtained in the case of at satellite pass evapotranspiration, sensible heat flux and soil heat flux were 50, 80 and 33 W m-2, respectively, and R2 of 0.92, 0.76 and 0.69, respectively. Results from the black spruce forest will be discussed in later work. Further efforts will be focused on the daily energy flux integration by means of the implementation of the ALEXi/DisALEXI model (Anderson et al., 2007), the energy fluxes upscaling validated by means of scintillometer data as well as the energy balance computation in snow conditions.

Reconciling leaf physiological traits and canopy flux data: Use of the TRY and FLUXNET databases in the Community Land Model version 4

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bonan, Gordon B.; Oleson, Keith W.; Fisher, Rosie A.; Lasslop, Gitta; Reichstein, Markus

2012-06-01

The Community Land Model version 4 overestimates gross primary production (GPP) compared with estimates from FLUXNET eddy covariance towers. The revised model of Bonan et al. (2011) is consistent with FLUXNET, but values for the leaf-level photosynthetic parameterVcmaxthat yield realistic GPP at the canopy-scale are lower than observed in the global synthesis of Kattge et al. (2009), except for tropical broadleaf evergreen trees. We investigate this discrepancy betweenVcmaxand canopy fluxes. A multilayer model with explicit calculation of light absorption and photosynthesis for sunlit and shaded leaves at depths in the canopy gives insight to the scale mismatch between leaf and canopy. We evaluate the model with light-response curves at individual FLUXNET towers and with empirically upscaled annual GPP. Biases in the multilayer canopy with observedVcmaxare similar, or improved, compared with the standard two-leaf canopy and its lowVcmax, though the Amazon is an exception. The difference relates to light absorption by shaded leaves in the two-leaf canopy, and resulting higher photosynthesis when the canopy scaling parameterKn is low, but observationally constrained. Larger Kndecreases shaded leaf photosynthesis and reduces the difference between the two-leaf and multilayer canopies. The low modelVcmaxis diagnosed from nitrogen reduction of GPP in simulations with carbon-nitrogen biogeochemistry. Our results show that the imposed nitrogen reduction compensates for deficiency in the two-leaf canopy that produces high GPP. Leaf trait databases (Vcmax), within-canopy profiles of photosynthetic capacity (Kn), tower fluxes, and empirically upscaled fields provide important complementary information for model evaluation.

Mapping carbon flux uncertainty and selecting optimal locations for future flux towers in the Great Plains

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gu, Yingxin; Howard, Daniel M.; Wylie, Bruce K.; Zhang, Li

2012-01-01

Flux tower networks (e. g., AmeriFlux, Agriflux) provide continuous observations of ecosystem exchanges of carbon (e. g., net ecosystem exchange), water vapor (e. g., evapotranspiration), and energy between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere. The long-term time series of flux tower data are essential for studying and understanding terrestrial carbon cycles, ecosystem services, and climate changes. Currently, there are 13 flux towers located within the Great Plains (GP). The towers are sparsely distributed and do not adequately represent the varieties of vegetation cover types, climate conditions, and geophysical and biophysical conditions in the GP. This study assessed how well the available flux towers represent the environmental conditions or "ecological envelopes" across the GP and identified optimal locations for future flux towers in the GP. Regression-based remote sensing and weather-driven net ecosystem production (NEP) models derived from different extrapolation ranges (10 and 50%) were used to identify areas where ecological conditions were poorly represented by the flux tower sites and years previously used for mapping grassland fluxes. The optimal lands suitable for future flux towers within the GP were mapped. Results from this study provide information to optimize the usefulness of future flux towers in the GP and serve as a proxy for the uncertainty of the NEP map.

Low to middle tropospheric profiles and biosphere/troposphere fluxes of acidic gases in the summertime Canadian taiga

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Klemm, O.; Talbot, R. W.; Fitzgerald, D. R.; Klemm, K. I.; Lefer, B. L.

1994-01-01

We report features of acidic gases in the troposphere from 9 to 5000 m altitude above ground over the Canadian taiga in the summer of 1990. The measurements were conducted at a 30-m meteorological tower and from the NASA Wallops Electra aircraft as part of the joint U.S.-Canadian Arctic Boundary Layer Expedition (ABLE) 3B Northern Wetland Studies (NOWES). We sampled air for acidic gases using the mist chamber collector coupled with subsequent analysis using ion chromatography. At the tower we collected samples at two heights during a 13-day period, including diurnal studies. Using eddy flux and profile data, we estimated the biosphere/troposphere fluxes of nitric, formic, and acetic acids and sulfur dioxide. For the organic acids, emissions from the taiga in the afternoon hours and deposition during the predawn morning hours were observed. The flux intensities alone were however not high enough to explain the observed changes in mixing ratios. The measured deposition fluxes of nitric acid were high enough to have a significant influence on its mixing ratio in the boundary layer. On three days we measured vertical profiles of nitric, formic, and acetic acids through the lower to midtroposphere. We found that the chemical composition of the troposphere was extremely heterogenous. Pronounced layers of polluted air were readily apparent from our measurements. Local photochemical production and episodic long-range transport of trace components, originating from biomass burning and possibly industrial emissions, appear to have a strong influence on the composition of the troposphere and biosphere/troposphere fluxes of acidic gases at this site.

Storage flux uncertainty impact on eddy covariance net ecosystem exchange measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nicolini, Giacomo; Aubinet, Marc; Feigenwinter, Christian; Heinesch, Bernard; Lindroth, Anders; Mamadou, Ossénatou; Moderow, Uta; Mölder, Meelis; Montagnani, Leonardo; Rebmann, Corinna; Papale, Dario

2017-04-01

Complying with several assumption and simplifications, most of the carbon budget studies based on eddy covariance (EC) measurements, quantify the net ecosystem exchange (NEE) by summing the flux obtained by EC (Fc) and the storage flux (Sc). Sc is the rate of change of CO2, within the so called control volume below the EC measurement level, given by the difference in the instantaneous profiles of concentration at the beginning and end of the EC averaging period, divided by the averaging period. While cumulating over time led to a nullification of Sc, it can be significant at short time periods. The approaches used to estimate Sc fluxes largely vary, from measurements based only on a single sampling point (usually located at the EC measurement height) to measurements based on several sampling profiles distributed within the control volume. Furthermore, the number of sampling points within each profile vary, according to their height and the ecosystem typology. It follows that measurement accuracy increases with the sampling intensity within the control volume. In this work we use the experimental dataset collected during the ADVEX campaign in which Sc flux has been measured in three similar forest sites by the use of 5 sampling profiles (towers). Our main objective is to quantify the impact of Sc measurement uncertainty on NEE estimates. Results show that different methods may produce substantially different Sc flux estimates, with problematic consequences in case high frequency (half-hourly) data are needed for the analysis. However, the uncertainty on long-term estimates may be tolerate.

Novel Deployment of Mobile Eddy Covariance Tower Observations Across Variations in the Built Environment in a Desert Urban Area

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-11-03

author(s) and should not contrued as an official Department of the Army position, policy or decision, unless so designated by other documentation. 9...Grass; 6 Undeveloped-Open Land (generally gravel or bare soil); Pavement ; Buildings and Concrete; and Residential Buildings (TG-ECT site only...pervious surfaces, while pavement , buildings and concrete, and residential buildings represent impervious surfaces. 2.3. Mobile Eddy Covariance Tower

Aerosol Fluxes over Amazon Rain Forest Measured with the Eddy Covariance Method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ahlm, L.; Nilsson, E. D.; Krejci, R.; Mårtensson, E. M.; Vogt, M.; Artaxo, P.

2008-12-01

We present measurements of vertical aerosol fluxes over the Amazon carried out on top of K34, a 50 meter high tower in the Cuieiras Reserve about 50 km north of Manaus in northern Brazil. The turbulent fluxes were measured with the eddy covariance method. The covariance of vertical wind speed from a sonic anemometer Gill Windmaster and total aerosol number concentration from a condensation particle counter (CPC) TSI 3010 provided the total number flux (diameter >0.01 μm). The covariance of vertical wind speed and size resolved number concentrations from an optical particle counter (OPC) Grimm 1.109 provided size resolved number fluxes in 15 bins from 0.25 μm to 2.5 μm diameter. Additionally fluxes of CO2 and H2O were derived from Li-7500 observations. The observational period, from early March to early August, includes both wet and dry season. OPC fluxes generally show net aerosol deposition both during wet and dry season with the largest downward fluxes during midday. CPC fluxes show different patterns in wet and dry season. During dry season, when number concentrations are higher, downward fluxes clearly dominate. In the wet season however, when number concentrations are lower, our data indicates that upward and downward fluxes are quite evenly distributed during course of a day. On average there is a peak in upward flux during late morning and another peak during the afternoon. Since the OPC fluxes in the same time show net deposition, there is an indication of net source of primary aerosol particles with diameters between 10 and 250 nm emitted from the rain forest. Future data analysis will hopefully shed light on origin and formation mechanism of these particles and thus provide a deeper insight in the rain forest - atmosphere interactions. The aerosol flux measurements were carried out as a part of the AMAZE project in collaboration with University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and financial support was provided by Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).

On the spatial distribution of the transpiration and soil moisture of a Mediterranean heterogeneous ecosystem in water-limited conditions.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Curreli, Matteo; Corona, Roberto; Montaldo, Nicola; Albertson, John D.; Oren, Ram

2014-05-01

Mediterranean ecosystems are characterized by a strong heterogeneity, and often by water-limited conditions. In these conditions contrasting plant functional types (PFT, e.g. grass and woody vegetation) compete for the water use. Both the vegetation cover spatial distribution and the soil properties impact the soil moisture (SM) spatial distribution. Indeed, vegetation cover density and type affects evapotranspiration (ET), which is the main lack of the soil water balance in these ecosystems. With the objective to carefully estimate SM and ET spatial distribution in a Mediterranean water-limited ecosystem and understanding SM and ET relationships, an extended field campaign is carried out. The study was performed in a heterogeneous ecosystem in Orroli, Sardinia (Italy). The experimental site is a typical Mediterranean ecosystem where the vegetation is distributed in patches of woody vegetation (wild olives mainly) and grass. Soil depth is low and spatially varies between 10 cm and 40 cm, without any correlation with the vegetation spatial distribution. ET, land-surface fluxes and CO2 fluxes are estimated by an eddy covariance technique based micrometeorological tower. But in heterogeneous ecosystems a key assumption of the eddy covariance theory, the homogeneity of the surface, is not preserved and the ET estimate may be not correct. Hence, we estimate ET of the woody vegetation using the thermal dissipation method (i.e. sap flow technique) for comparing the two methodologies. Due the high heterogeneity of the vegetation and soil properties of the field a total of 54 sap flux sensors were installed. 14 clumps of wild olives within the eddy covariance footprint were identified as the most representative source of flux and they were instrumented with the thermal dissipation probes. Measurements of diameter at the height of sensor installation (height of 0.4 m above ground) were recorded in all the clumps. Bark thickness and sapwood depth were measured on several trees to obtain a generalized estimates of sapwood depth. The known of allometric relationships between sapwood area, diameter and canopy cover area within the eddy covariance footprint helped for the application of a reliable scaling procedure of the local sap flow estimates which are in a good agreement with the estimates of ET eddy covariance based. Soil moisture were also extensively monitored through 25 probes installed in the eddy covariance footprint. Results show that comparing eddy covariance and sap flow ET estimates eddy covariance technique is still accurate in this heterogeneous field, whereas the key assumption, surface homogeneity, is not preserved. Furthermore, interestingly wild olives still transpire at higher rates for the driest soil moisture conditions, confirming the hydraulic redistribution from soil below the roots, and from roots penetrating deep cracks in the underlying basalt parent rock.

Assessing the Impacts of Fire on Water-Use Efficiency in Grasslands in Eastern Kansas Combining Satellite and Eddy Covariance Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

De Oliveira, G.; Brunsell, N. A.

2016-12-01

Burning is a land management practice commonly used on grasslands and plays an important role in these ecosystems by increasing production, determining community composition, and controlling the invasion of woody species. Without fire, many trees and shrubs species invade North American prairies, shrinking the area of the grassland. It specially occurs in the eastern tallgrass prairie where environmental conditions are more favorable for trees than in more arid west. Although the use of fire has benefits in relation to the maintenance of the structure of these ecosystems, the effects of this practice on carbon and water exchanges in grasslands are not well understood. The present study aimed to compare, using MODIS remote sensing data combined with flux tower observations, the magnitude and temporal dynamics of water-use efficiency (WUE) in four watersheds in eastern Kansas, USA. Two watersheds are located in the Konza Prairie Biological Station (KPBS), in Manhattan. The other two are located, respectively, in Lawrence, in a tallgrass prairie and deciduous forest ecotone, and in Salina, over an unburned, perennial agricultural site. These watersheds represent different grassland ecosystems, which are subjected to particular burning regimes. Eddy covariance data related, among others, to ecosystem respiration and latent heat flux, were acquired from three AmeriFlux towers located within each watershed. The MODIS products used were MOD17 (gross primary productivity) (GPP) and MOD16 (evapotranspiration) (ET). The integration of ground and satellite data was a useful proposition to analyze GPP, ET and WUE at canopy and watershed scales. It was possible to examine the variability of these parameters among grassland types and fire treatments, which may contribute to a better understanding of the direct effects of burning on the coupling between the terrestrial carbon and water cycles in grasslands of the Great Plains, as well as the role of fire on enhancing productivity in agricultural sites.

Simulating the effects of fire disturbance and vegetation recovery on boreal ecosystem carbon fluxes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yi, Y.; Kimball, J. S.; Jones, L. A.; Zhao, M.

2011-12-01

Fire related disturbance and subsequent vegetation recovery has a major influence on carbon storage and land-atmosphere CO2 fluxes in boreal ecosystems. We applied a synthetic approach combining tower eddy covariance flux measurements, satellite remote sensing and model reanalysis surface meteorology within a terrestrial carbon model framework to estimate fire disturbance and recovery effects on boreal ecosystem carbon fluxes including gross primary production (GPP), ecosystem respiration and net CO2 exchange (NEE). A disturbance index based on MODIS land surface temperature and NDVI was found to coincide with vegetation recovery status inferred from tower chronosequence sites. An empirical algorithm was developed to track ecosystem recovery status based on the disturbance index and used to nudge modeled net primary production (NPP) and surface soil organic carbon stocks from baseline steady-state conditions. The simulations were conducted using a satellite based terrestrial carbon flux model driven by MODIS NDVI and MERRA reanalysis daily surface meteorology inputs. The MODIS (MCD45) burned area product was then applied for mapping recent (post 2000) regional disturbance history, and used with the disturbance index to define vegetation disturbance and recovery status. The model was then applied to estimate regional patterns and temporal changes in terrestrial carbon fluxes across the entire northern boreal forest and tundra domain. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to assess the relative importance of fire disturbance and recovery on regional carbon fluxes relative to assumed steady-state conditions. The explicit representation of disturbance and recovery effects produces more accurate NEE predictions than the baseline steady-state simulations and reduces uncertainty regarding the purported missing carbon sink in the high latitudes.

Fluxes of Submicron Organic Aerosol above London Measured by Eddy Covariance using the Aerodyne HR-ToF-AMS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Phillips, G. J.; di Marco, C. F.; Farmer, D.; Kimmel, J. R.; Jimenez, J. L.; Nemitz, E.

2009-12-01

Urban centres are large sources of sub-micron particles. The myriad of emission sources combined with the complex interaction between regional aerosol and the particulate and gaseous photochemistry make for a complex system. It is evident that particulate emissions from cities will affect the regional atmosphere as well as the environment within the urban area. Aerosol particles have been associated with respiratory and cardio-vascular disease and are also linked with the climate through scattering of radiation and indirect effects such as cloud formation. The Aerodyne Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (AMS) provides a powerful tool to elucidate the sources and processing of organic aerosol in the urban atmosphere. Normally this is done through concentration measurements, by statistical analysis of the organic mass spectra, e.g. using Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF). Recently the quadrupole based AMS (Q-AMS) has been used for the micrometeorological measurement of organic aerosol fluxes above several cities, based on high frequency measurements of individual masses (m/z) representative of different organic mass fractions. While providing a major step forward towards quantification of urban organic aerosol emissions and processing, the interpretation of Q-AMS flux data requires assumptions to scale up signals on individual m/z to total organic mass fluxes. In this paper we present chemically-speciated and size-segregated number aerosol fluxes measured using the next generation eddy covariance flux system based on the Aerodyne HR-ToF-AMS, now capable of recording fast-response eddy-covariance time-series of all m/z simultaneously. This allows organic mass fluxes to be calculated more quantitatively and provides 'flux mass spectra' in addition to concentration mass spectra, which produces novel information on the local emission and processing of organic aerosols in the urban environment, while concentration analysis includes the regional background. The measurements were made from the 190 m tall BT Tower in central London, UK, during the REPARTEE-2/CityFlux experiment in autumn 2007 and are interpreted in conjunction with simultaneous measurements of fluxes of CO and CO2 as well as size-segregated particle number fluxes between 60 and 1000 nm using an ultra-high sensitivity aerosol spectrometer, UHSAS (Particle Measurement Systems, now Droplet Measurement Technologies, Boulder, US).

Eddy Covariance Flux Measurements of Pollutant Gases in the Mexico City Urban Area: a Useful Technique to Evaluate Emissions inventories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Velasco, E.; Grivicke, R.; Pressley, S.; Allwine, G.; Jobson, T.; Westberg, H.; Lamb, B.; Ramos, R.; Molina, L.

2007-12-01

Direct measurements of emissions of pollutant gases that include all major and minor emissions sources in urban areas are a missing requirement to improve and evaluate emissions inventories. The quality of an urban emissions inventory relies on the accuracy of the information of anthropogenic activities, which in many cases is not available, in particular in urban areas of developing countries. As part of the MCMA-2003 field campaign, we demonstrated the feasibility of using eddy covariance (EC) techniques coupled with fast-response sensors to measure fluxes of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and CO2 from a residential district of Mexico City. Those flux measurements demonstrated to be also a valuable tool to evaluate the emissions inventory used for air quality modeling. With the objective to confirm the representativeness of the 2003 flux measurements in terms of magnitude, composition and diurnal distribution, as well to evaluate the most recent emissions inventory, a second flux system was deployed in a different district of Mexico City during the 2006 MILAGRO field campaign. This system was located in a busy district surrounded by congested avenues close to the center of the city. In 2003 and 2006 fluxes of olefins and CO2 were measured by the EC technique using a Fast Isoprene Sensor calibrated with a propylene standard and an open path Infrared Gas Analyzer (IRGA), respectively. Fluxes of aromatic and oxygenated VOCs were analyzed by Proton Transfer Reaction-Mass Spectroscopy (PTR-MS) and the disjunct eddy covariance (DEC) technique. In 2006 the number of VOCs was extended using a disjunct eddy accumulation (DEA) system. This system collected whole air samples as function of the direction of the vertical wind component, and the samples were analyzed on site by gas chromatography / flame ionization detection (GC-FID). In both studies we found that the urban surface is a net source of CO2 and VOCs. The diurnal patterns were similar, but the 2006 fluxes showed higher magnitudes. This difference was due to the different characteristics of the monitored sites rather than an increment of the emissions over a 3-year period. The diurnal patterns of VOCs and CO2 fluxes were strongly related to vehicular traffic. Toluene and methanol fluxes also exhibited a strong influence from non-mobile sources; in particular the 2006 flux measurements were influenced on some days by the application of a resin to the sidewalks in the neighborhood near the flux tower. The fluxes of individual hydrocarbons measured by DEA showed good agreement with the fluxes measured by EC and DEC which demonstrates that the DEA method is valuable for flux measurements of additional individual species. Finally, the comparisons between the measured fluxes of VOCs and the emissions reported by the emissions inventory for the monitored sector of the city showed that these last were within the observed variability of the measured fluxes.

Modeling compensatory responses of ecosystem-scale water fluxes in forests affected by pine and spruce beetle mortality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Millar, D.; Ewers, B. E.; Peckham, S. D.; Mackay, D. S.; Frank, J. M.; Massman, W. J.; Reed, D. E.

2015-12-01

Mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) and spruce beetle (Dendroctonus rufipennis) epidemics have led to extensive mortality in lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) and Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii) forests in the Rocky Mountains of the western US. In both of these tree species, mortality results from hydraulic failure within the xylem, due to blue stain fungal infection associated with beetle attack. However, the impacts of these disturbances on ecosystem-scale water fluxes can be complex, owing to their variable and transient nature. In this work, xylem scaling factors that reduced whole-tree conductance were initially incorporated into a forest ecohydrological model (TREES) to simulate the impact of beetle mortality on evapotranspiration (ET) in both pine and spruce forests. For both forests, simulated ET was compared to observed ET fluxes recorded using eddy covariance techniques. Using xylem scaling factors, the model overestimated the impact of beetle mortality, and observed ET fluxes were approximately two-fold higher than model predictions in both forests. The discrepancy between simulated and observed ET following the onset of beetle mortality may be the result of spatial and temporal heterogeneity of plant communities within the foot prints of the eddy covariance towers. Since simulated ET fluxes following beetle mortality in both forests only accounted for approximately 50% of those observed in the field, it is possible that newly established understory vegetation in recently killed tree stands may play a role in stabilizing ecosystem ET fluxes. Here, we further investigate the unaccounted for ET fluxes in the model by breaking it down into multiple cohorts that represent live trees, dying trees, and understory vegetation that establishes following tree mortality.

Seasonal and intraseasonal variations in evaporation and surface energy budget from eddy covariance measurements over an open water surface in Mississippi, U.S.A.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, H.; Zhang, Y.; Williams, Q. L.; Jiang, H.; Sheng, L.

2008-12-01

Understanding seasonal and intraseasonal variations in evaporation over lake/reservoir is important for water resource management as well as predicting variations in hydrology as a result of climate change. Since August of 2007, we have conducted a long-term eddy covariance measurement of evaporation and the surface energy budget over Ross Barnett Reservoir (32o26'N, 90o02'W) in Mississippi, USA. The fetch for eddy covariance system exceeds 2 km in all directions and the water depth is about 4 m around the flux tower. The tower with its height of 4 m stands over a stationary wood platform with its size of 3 m × 3 m and height of about 1 m above the water surface. Along with sensible and latent heat fluxes, microclimate data are also measured, including wind speed, wind direction, relative humidity, solar radiation, net radiation, air temperature at four levels, water surface temperature, and water temperature at eight depths down to about 4 m. Mississippi is subject to frequent influences of different synoptic weather systems in a year around. Incursions of these different systems bring in air masses with different properties in temperature and moisture. Cold fronts, for example, carry them with cold and dry air from north while warm fronts with warm and moist air. Our results indicate that synoptic weather variations play an important role in controlling evaporations and the surface energy budget. For example, daily H and LE (i.e., evaporation) during the passages of cold fronts are around 2-4 times those of normal days and these cold front events lead to an increase in the seasonal H by approximately 420 and LE by 160%. However, the warm weather systems suppress largely the turbulent exchanges of sensible and latent heat, leading to very small evaporation and sensible heat fluxes (even negative). These results imply that future potential changes in cold front activities (intensity, frequency, and duration) as a result of climate change may lead to substantial shifts in regional energy budget and hydrological balance in the southern regions with an abundance of open water bodies (e.g., lakes, reservoirs, swamps etc). Using these datasets, the daytime and nighttime evaporation rates are also analyzed and nighttime evaporative water losses are substantial, contributing a significant portion to the total evaporative water loss.

Flux Measurements of Trace Gases, Aerosols and Energy from the Urban Core of Mexico City

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Velasco, E.; Molina, L.; Lamb, B.; Pressley, S.; Grivicke, R.; Westberg, H.; Jobson, T.; Allwine, E.; Coons, T.; Jimenez, J.; Nemitz, E.; Alexander, L. M.; Worsnop, D.; Ramos, R.

2007-05-01

As part of the MILAGRO field campaign in March 2006 we deployed a flux system in a busy district of Mexico City surrounded by congested avenues. The flux system consisted of a tall tower instrumented with fast-response sensors coupled with eddy covariance (EC) techniques to measure fluxes of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), CO2, CO, aerosols and energy. The measured fluxes represent direct measurements of emissions that include all major and minor emission sources from a typical residential and commercial district. In a previous study we demonstrated that the EC techniques are valuable tools to evaluate emissions inventories in urban areas, and understand better the atmospheric chemistry and the role that megacities play in global change. We measured fluxes of olefins using a Fast Olefin Sensor (FOS) and the EC technique, fluxes of aromatic and oxygenated VOCs by Proton Transfer Reaction-Mass Spectroscopy (PTR-MS) and the disjunct eddy covariance (DEC) technique, fluxes of CO2 and H2O with an open path Infrared Gas Analyzer (IRGA) and the EC technique, fluxes of CO using a modified gradient method and a commercial CO instrument, and fluxes of aerosols (organics, nitrates and sulfates) using an Aerodyne Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (AMS) and the EC technique. In addition we used a disjunct eddy accumulation (DEA) system to extend the number of VOCs. This system collected whole air samples as function of the direction of the vertical wind component, and the samples were analyzed on site using gas chromatography / flame ionization detection (GC-FID). We also measured fluxes of sensible and latent heat by EC and the radiation components with a net radiometer. Overall, these flux measurements confirm the results of our previous flux measurements in Mexico City in terms of the magnitude, composition, and distribution. We found that the urban surface is a net source of CO2 and VOCs. The diurnal patterns show clear anthropogenic signatures, with important contributions from vehicular traffic. The DEA results for individual hydrocarbons show that the alkane fluxes are considerably higher than alkene fluxes, which is consistent with ambient concentration measurements and with the emission inventory for Mexico City. CO fluxes, estimated from a modified gradient technique, were more than 10% of the measured CO2 fluxes (on a molar basis) which is much higher than is generally expected for combustion efficiencies in mobile and other sources. Investigation of this result is underway. The energy balance distribution and radiative parameters observed are similar to distributions and parameters reported for other urban sites.

Spectral analysis of large-eddy advection in ET from eddy covariance towers and a large weighting lysimeter

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Evapotranspiration was continuously measured by an array of eddy covariance systems and large weighting lysimeter in a cotton field in Bushland, Texas. The advective divergence from both horizontal and vertical directions were measured through profile measurements above canopy. All storage terms wer...

Eddy covariance fluxes of the NO-NO2-O3 triad above a spruce forest canopy in south-eastern Germany.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsokankunku, A.; Zhu, Z.; Meixner, F. X.; Foken, T.; Andreae, M. O.

2009-04-01

We investigated the diel variability of the eddy covariance fluxes of the NO-NO2-O3 triad above a spruce forest canopy at the "Weidenbrunnen" research site (Fichtelgebirge, Germany). Measurements were part of the EGER project (ExchanGE processes in mountainous Regions), which focuses on the role of process interactions among the different scales of soil, in-canopy and atmospheric exchange processes of reactive and non-reactive trace gases and energy. The eddy covariance platform was at the top of a 32 m high tower (50˚ 08'31" N, 11˚ 52'1"E, elevation 755 m.a.s.l). The eddy covariance system consisted of a CSAT3 sonic anemometer and a high speed, high resolution NO-NO2two channel chemiluminescence analyzer (Ecophysics CLD 790 SR2). A solid-state blue-light photolytic converter was connected to the NO2 channel of the analyzer just behind the sample inlet. Ambient NO and NO2 mixing ratios were sampled via 52 m long tubes with the instrument itself located in a temperature-controlled container at the ground. The NO-NO2 analyzer was operated at 5 Hz. Additionally we measured eddy covariance fluxes of CO2 and H2O. An infrared absorption-based analyzer (LI-7000) was used to sample CO2 and H2O mixing ratios, and a fast solid-phase chemiluminescence ozone analyzer (GFAS) was deployed to measure O3 mixing ratios. All trace gas inlets were situated at 32.5 m, 20 cm below the path of the sonic anemometer. The 32m inlet of an independent NO, NO2, and O3 concentration profile measuring system was used as the calibration source for the fast ozone analyzer and the two channel NO-NO2chemiluminescence analyzer. Preliminary results show that NO and NO2advection plays a big role in the magnitude and direction of the fluxes at the site. The main source of the advection is a busy country road situated about 2 km west of the site. CO2 fluxes were also influenced by advection. Extended periods of stationarity usually occurred on Sundays when the amount of traffic was significantly lower. During the "golden days period" (29 June - 3 July 2008), there was mainly downward directed NO fluxes (within the margin of error). However there is also evidence of NO leaving the canopy in some instances. NO and NO2 fluxes ranged between +1.5 and -1.5 nmol m-2 s-1 (±45 ngNO m-2 s-1 and ±70 ngNO2 m-2 s-1).

Developing a Data Driven Process-Based Model for Remote Sensing of Ecosystem Production

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Elmasri, B.; Rahman, A. F.

2010-12-01

Estimating ecosystem carbon fluxes at various spatial and temporal scales is essential for quantifying the global carbon cycle. Numerous models have been developed for this purpose using several environmental variables as well as vegetation indices derived from remotely sensed data. Here we present a data driven modeling approach for gross primary production (GPP) that is based on a process based model BIOME-BGC. The proposed model was run using available remote sensing data and it does not depend on look-up tables. Furthermore, this approach combines the merits of both empirical and process models, and empirical models were used to estimate certain input variables such as light use efficiency (LUE). This was achieved by using remotely sensed data to the mathematical equations that represent biophysical photosynthesis processes in the BIOME-BGC model. Moreover, a new spectral index for estimating maximum photosynthetic activity, maximum photosynthetic rate index (MPRI), is also developed and presented here. This new index is based on the ratio between the near infrared and the green bands (ρ858.5/ρ555). The model was tested and validated against MODIS GPP product and flux measurements from two eddy covariance flux towers located at Morgan Monroe State Forest (MMSF) in Indiana and Harvard Forest in Massachusetts. Satellite data acquired by the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) and MODIS were used. The data driven model showed a strong correlation between the predicted and measured GPP at the two eddy covariance flux towers sites. This methodology produced better predictions of GPP than did the MODIS GPP product. Moreover, the proportion of error in the predicted GPP for MMSF and Harvard forest was dominated by unsystematic errors suggesting that the results are unbiased. The analysis indicated that maintenance respiration is one of the main factors that dominate the overall model outcome errors and improvement in maintenance respiration estimation will result in improved GPP predictions. Although there might be a room for improvements in our model outcomes through improved parameterization, our results suggest that such a methodology for running BIOME-BGC model based entirely on routinely available data can produce good predictions of GPP.

AmeriFlux US-Bar Bartlett Experimental Forest

DOE Data Explorer

Richardson, Andrew [Harvard University

2016-01-01

This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-Bar Bartlett Experimental Forest. Site Description - The Bartlett Experimental Forest (448170 N, 71830 W) is located within the White Mountains National Forest in north-central New Hampshire, USA. The 1050 ha forest extends across an elevational range from 200 to 900 m a.s.l. It was established in 1931 and is managed by the USDA Forest Service Northeastern Research Station in Durham, NH. The climate is humid continental with short, cool summers (mean July temperature, 19.8C) and long, cold winters (mean January temperature, 9.8C). Annual precipitation averages 130 cm and is distributed evenly throughout the year. Soils are developed from glacial till and are predominantly shallow, well-drained spodosols. At lowto mid-elevation, vegetation is dominated by northern hardwoods (American beech, Fagus grandifolia; sugar maple, Acer saccharum; yellow birch, Betula alleghaniensis; with some red maple, Acer rubrum and paper birch, Betula papyrifera). Conifers (eastern hemlock, Tsuga canadensis; eastern white pine, Pinus strobus; red spruce, Picea rubens) are occasionally found intermixed with the more abundant deciduous species but are generally confined to the highest (red spruce) and lowest (hemlock and pine) elevations. In 2003, the site was adopted as a NASA North American Carbon Program (NACP) Tier-2 field research and validation site. A 26.5 m high tower was installed in a low-elevation northern hardwood stand in November, 2003, for the purpose of making eddy covariance measurements of the forest–atmosphere exchange of CO2, H2O and radiant energy. Continuous flux and meteorological measurements began in January, 2004, and are ongoing. Average canopy height in the vicinity of the tower is approximately 20–22 m. In the tower footprint, the forest is predominantly classified into red maple, sugar maple, and American beech forest types. Leaf area index in the vicinity of the tower is 3.6 as measured by seasonal litterfall collection, and 4.5 as measured by the optically based Li-Cor LAI-2000 instrument. Further site information: http://www.fs.fed.us/ne/durham/4155/bartlett.htm

Measurement of Ecosystem Metabolism across Climatic and Vegetation Gradients in California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

DuBois, S.; Serbin, S.; Desai, A. R.; Kruger, E.; Kingdon, C.; Goulden, M.; Townsend, P. A.

2013-12-01

Terrestrial ecosystem models require information on vegetation structure, phenology, demographics, biochemistry, radiation properties, and physiology in order to accurately simulate the responses of ecosystem functioning to global change and disturbances. These models generally depend on a small number of intensive, fine-scaled point-based measurements from eddy covariance towers, detailed vegetation surveys, literature values, and site-scale data assimilation techniques to improve model calibration. However, the limited geographic and/or temporal scope of measurements can lead to inadequate model generalizations of modeled carbon (C), water, and energy fluxes across broad regions and relevant time periods. Remote sensing approaches, particularly imaging spectroscopy (IS) and thermal infrared (TIR) data, have the potential to provide the broad-scale spatial and temporal dynamics in many important vegetation properties related to ecosystem functioning. As part of the ongoing NASA HyspIRI Airborne Campaign (http://hyspiri.jpl.nasa.gov/airborne) we are assessing the potential of IS+TIR to generate spatially explicit estimates of two important parameters characterizing plant photosynthetic capacity: the maximum rate of CO2 carboxylation by RuBisCo (Vcmax), and the maximum rate of electron transport required for the regeneration of RuBP needed in Calvin Cycle processes (Jmax). These estimates are based on recent evidence that both properties can be predicted at the leaf level using spectroscopy techniques (Ainsworth et al. 2013 [http://tinyurl.com/n5xnzjg]; Serbin et al. 2012 [http://tinyurl.com/mhocmlz]). It follows that estimation of these variables from remotely sensed IS+TIR (i.e. AVIRIS & MASTER) could facilitate the prediction of seasonal C assimilation across large areas using data from the anticipated HyspIRI satellite mission. Our research focuses on two climate-elevation transects in California, which span a vegetation gradient from coastal sage and chaparral to oak woodlands and closed-canopy coniferous forests, as well as agro-ecosystems located throughout the Central and Imperial Valleys. We are also comparing remotely sensed estimates of ecosystem photosynthetic capacity with C flux data from a series of 10 eddy covariance towers. Results from the 2013 field season highlight the large range in sampled vegetation structure, optical properties (i.e. reflectance and transmittance) and physiology (i.e. Vcmax, Jmax, and cholorphyll fluorescence). Using approaches similar to Serbin et al. (2012) we have confirmed the ability of spectroscopy to estimate Vcmax and Jmax across these diverse and structurally complex vegetation types. Ecosystem products, such as gross primary productivity, estimated from flux towers highlight the relationship between climatic parameters and vegetation productivity. Multiple data-years allow this relationship to be examined under various climatic forcings including drought and heat stress. Based on these preliminary results, our next step is to scale leaf-level information to AVIRIS footprints using radiative transfer and statistical modeling approaches with ecosystem modeling in order to assess the IS data products against flux tower observations.

Improving satellite-based post-fire evapotranspiration estimates in semi-arid regions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Poon, P.; Kinoshita, A. M.

2017-12-01

Climate change and anthropogenic factors contribute to the increased frequency, duration, and size of wildfires, which can alter ecosystem and hydrological processes. The loss of vegetation canopy and ground cover reduces interception and alters evapotranspiration (ET) dynamics in riparian areas, which can impact rainfall-runoff partitioning. Previous research evaluated the spatial and temporal trends of ET based on burn severity and observed an annual decrease of 120 mm on average for three years after fire. Building upon these results, this research focuses on the Coyote Fire in San Diego, California (USA), which burned a total of 76 km2 in 2003 to calibrate and improve satellite-based ET estimates in semi-arid regions affected by wildfire. The current work utilizes satellite-based products and techniques such as the Google Earth Engine Application programming interface (API). Various ET models (ie. Operational Simplified Surface Energy Balance Model (SSEBop)) are compared to the latent heat flux from two AmeriFlux eddy covariance towers, Sky Oaks Young (US-SO3), and Old Stand (US-SO2), from 2000 - 2015. The Old Stand tower has a low burn severity and the Young Stand tower has a moderate to high burn severity. Both towers are used to validate spatial ET estimates. Furthermore, variables and indices, such as Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI), and the Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) are utilized to evaluate satellite-based ET through a multivariate statistical analysis at both sites. This point-scale study will able to improve ET estimates in spatially diverse regions. Results from this research will contribute to the development of a post-wildfire ET model for semi-arid regions. Accurate estimates of post-fire ET will provide a better representation of vegetation and hydrologic recovery, which can be used to improve hydrologic models and predictions.

The role of turbulent fluxes in the atmospheric boundary layer above a debris-covered glacier in the Himalayas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Steiner, J. F.; Stigter, E.; Litt, M.; Shea, J.; Bierkens, M. F.; Immerzeel, W. W.

2017-12-01

Debris-covered glaciers play an important role in the water cycle in high altitude catchments in the Himalaya. The melt dynamics of these glaciers are complex as a result of the debris. A thin debris layer (up to a few cm) may act as a facilitator of melt, whereas a thick layer serves primarily as an insulator. The debris cover itself shows a strong diurnal variation in temperature and humidity resulting in a complex interaction with the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL). Energy balance models are a common way to quantify sub-debris melt, but the importance of turbulent fluxes in this energy balance have so far been poorly investigated. We hypothesize that they may play a substantial role during phases of wetting and drying. In this study, ABL characteristics and surface turbulent fluxes are measured using an automatic weather station including an eddy-correlation (EC) system on the debris-covered Lirung glacier in Nepal over a 10 day period in late 2016, during the transition period from monsoon to the drier post-monsoon. The measurements are combined with surface temperature measurements and thermal UAV flights covering the footprint area of the EC tower to quantify the surface fluxes over a larger area. Our results show that turbulent fluxes do play a substantial role in the energy balance of debris-covered glaciers, and need to be accounted for to accurately simulate glacier melt. The EC tower results are subsequently evaluated against a number of different bulk approaches to quantify sensible and latent heat fluxes and are evaluated against turbulence characteristics. If found accurate enough, these approaches require less advanced measurement set-ups and can be applied on a wider scale.

Leaf ontogeny and demography explain photosynthetic seasonality in Amazon evergreen forests

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, J.; Albert, L.; Lopes, A. P.; Restrepo-Coupe, N.; Hayek, M.; Wiedemann, K. T.; Guan, K.; Stark, S. C.; Prohaska, N.; Tavares, J. V.; Marostica, S. F.; Kobayashi, H.; Ferreira, M. L.; Campos, K.; Silva, R. D.; Brando, P. M.; Dye, D. G.; Huxman, T. E.; Huete, A. R.; Nelson, B. W.; Saleska, S. R.

2015-12-01

Photosynthetic seasonality couples the evolutionary ecology of plant leaves to large-scale rhythms of carbon and water exchanges that are important feedbacks to climate. However, the extent, magnitude, and controls on photosynthetic seasonality of carbon-rich tropical forests are poorly resolved, controversial in the remote sensing literature, and inadequately represented in most earth system models. Here we show that ecosystem-scale phenology (measured by photosynthetic capacity), rather than environmental seasonality, is the primary driver of photosynthetic seasonality at four Amazon evergreen forests spanning gradients in rainfall seasonality, forest composition, and flux seasonality. We further demonstrate that leaf ontogeny and demography explain most of this ecosystem phenology at two central Amazon evergreen forests, using a simple leaf-cohort canopy model that integrates eddy covariance-derived CO2 fluxes, novel near-surface camera-detected leaf phenology, and ground observations of litterfall and leaf physiology. The coordination of new leaf growth and old leaf divestment (litterfall) during the dry season shifts canopy composition towards younger leaves with higher photosynthetic efficiency, driving large seasonal increases (~27%) in ecosystem photosynthetic capacity. Leaf ontogeny and demography thus reconciles disparate observations of forest seasonality from leaves to eddy flux towers to satellites. Strategic incorporation of such whole-plant coordination processes as phenology and ontogeny will improve ecological, evolutionary and earth system theories describing tropical forests structure and function, allowing more accurate representation of forest dynamics and feedbacks to climate in earth system models.

Flux Sampling Errors for Aircraft and Towers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mahrt, Larry

1998-01-01

Various errors and influences leading to differences between tower- and aircraft-measured fluxes are surveyed. This survey is motivated by reports in the literature that aircraft fluxes are sometimes smaller than tower-measured fluxes. Both tower and aircraft flux errors are larger with surface heterogeneity due to several independent effects. Surface heterogeneity may cause tower flux errors to increase with decreasing wind speed. Techniques to assess flux sampling error are reviewed. Such error estimates suffer various degrees of inapplicability in real geophysical time series due to nonstationarity of tower time series (or inhomogeneity of aircraft data). A new measure for nonstationarity is developed that eliminates assumptions on the form of the nonstationarity inherent in previous methods. When this nonstationarity measure becomes large, the surface energy imbalance increases sharply. Finally, strategies for obtaining adequate flux sampling using repeated aircraft passes and grid patterns are outlined.

Development of a two-dimensional zonally averaged statistical-dynamical model. III - The parameterization of the eddy fluxes of heat and moisture

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stone, Peter H.; Yao, Mao-Sung

1990-01-01

A number of perpetual January simulations are carried out with a two-dimensional zonally averaged model employing various parameterizations of the eddy fluxes of heat (potential temperature) and moisture. The parameterizations are evaluated by comparing these results with the eddy fluxes calculated in a parallel simulation using a three-dimensional general circulation model with zonally symmetric forcing. The three-dimensional model's performance in turn is evaluated by comparing its results using realistic (nonsymmetric) boundary conditions with observations. Branscome's parameterization of the meridional eddy flux of heat and Leovy's parameterization of the meridional eddy flux of moisture simulate the seasonal and latitudinal variations of these fluxes reasonably well, while somewhat underestimating their magnitudes. New parameterizations of the vertical eddy fluxes are developed that take into account the enhancement of the eddy mixing slope in a growing baroclinic wave due to condensation, and also the effect of eddy fluctuations in relative humidity. The new parameterizations, when tested in the two-dimensional model, simulate the seasonal, latitudinal, and vertical variations of the vertical eddy fluxes quite well, when compared with the three-dimensional model, and only underestimate the magnitude of the fluxes by 10 to 20 percent.

Revisiting drought impact on tropical forest photosynthesis: a novel multi-scale integrated approach reveals new insights

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Detto, M.; Wu, J.; Xu, X.; Serbin, S.; Rogers, A.

2017-12-01

A fundamental unanswered question for global change ecology is to determine the vulnerability of tropical forests to climate change, particularly with increasing intensity and frequency of drought events. This question, despite its apparent simplicity, remains difficult for earth system models to answer, and is controversial in remote sensing literature. Here, we leverage unique multi-scale remote sensing measurements (from leaf to crown) in conjunction with four-continuous-year (2013-2017) eddy covariance measurements of ecosystem carbon fluxes in a tropical forest in Panama to revisit this question. We hypothesize that drought impacts tropical forest photosynthesis through variation in abiotic drivers (solar radiation, diffuse light fraction, and vapor pressure deficit) that interact with physiological traits that govern photosynthesis, and biotic variation in ecosystem photosynthetic capacity associated with changes in the traits themselves. Our study site, located in a seasonal tropical forest on Barro Colorado Island (BCI), Panama, experienced a significant drought in 2015. Local eddy covariance derived photosynthesis shows an abrupt increase during the drought year. Our specific goal here is to assess the relative impact of abiotic and biotic drivers of such photosynthesis response to interannual drought. To this goal, we derived abiotic drivers from eddy tower-based meteorological measurements. We will derive the biotic drivers using a recently developed leaf demography-ontogeny model, where ecosystem photosynthetic capacity can be described as the product of field measured, age-dependent leaf photosynthetic capacity and local tower-camera derived ecosystem-scale inter-annual variability in leaf age demography of the same time period (2013-2017). Lastly, we will use a process-based model to assess the separate and joint effects of abiotic and biotic drivers on eddy covariance derive photosynthetic interannual variability. Collectively, this novel multi-scale integrated study aims to improve ecophysiological understanding of tropical forest response to interannual climate variability, highlighting the importance to combine state-of-the-art technology and theories to improve future projections of carbon dynamics in the tropics.

Seasonality of Central Amazon Forest Leaf Flush Using Tower-Mounted RGB Camera

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, J.; Nelson, B. W.; Tavares, J. V.; Valeriano, D. M.; Lopes, A. P.; Marostica, S. F.; Martins, G.; Prohaska, N.; Albert, L.; De Araujo, A. C.; Manzi, A. O.; Saleska, S. R.; Huete, A. R.

2014-12-01

Tower-mounted RGB cameras can contribute data to the debate on seasonality of photosynthesis in Amazon upland forests and to improved modelling of forest response to climate change. In late 2010 we began monitoring upper crown surfaces of ~65 living trees or vines from a 54m tall eddy-flux tower on a well-drained clay-soil plateau. This Central Amazon site (60.2091 W, 2.6092 S) is in a large forest reserve. We deployed a Stardot Netcam XL RGB camera with a 1024 x 768 resolution CMOS sensor, 66o HFOV lens, fixed oblique south view, fixed iris, fixed white balance and auto-exposure. Images were logged every 15 seconds to a passively cooled FitPC2i with heat-tolerant SSD drive. Camera and PC automatically rebooted after power outages. Here we report results for two full years, from 1 Dec 2011 through 30 Nov 2013. Images in six day intervals were selected near local noon for homogeneous diffuse lighting under cloudy sky and for a standard reflected radiance (± 10%). Crowns showing two easily recognized phenophases were tallied: (1) massive flushing of new light-green leaves and (2) complete or nearly complete leaf loss. On average, 60% of live crowns flushed a massive amount of new leaves each year. Each crown flush was completed within 30 days. During the five driest months (Jun-Oct), 44% of all live crowns, on average, exhibited such massive leaf flush. In the five wettest months (Dec-Apr) only 11% of live crowns mass-flushed new leaves. In each year 23% of all live crowns became deciduous, usually a brief (1-2 week) preamble to flushing. Additional crowns lost old dark-green leaves partially and more gradually, becoming semi-deciduous prior to flushing. From these two years of camera data we infer that highly efficient leaves of 2-6 months age (high maximum carboxylation rate) are most abundant from the late dry season (October) through the mid wet season (March). This coincides with peak annual photosynthesis (Gross Ecosystem Productivity) reported for this same Central Amazon site using eddy flux methods.

High Resolution Evaporative Fluxes Over Corn and Soybean Crops from Lidar

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eichinger, W. E.; Cooper, D. I.; Hipps, L. E.; Kustas, W. P.; Neale, C. M.; Prueger, J. H.

2003-12-01

The Soil Moisture-Atmosphere Coupling Experiment (SMACEX) was conducted in the Walnut Creek Watershed near Ames, Iowa over the period from June 15-July 11, 2002. A main focus of SMACEX was the investigation of the interactions between the atmospheric boundary layer, surface moisture and current vegetative state. The Lidar collected data over fields of soybeans and corn, with mutually supporting measurements by the NRC Twin Otter atmospheric research aircraft, the Utah State University Piper Seneca remote sensing aircraft, two elastic Lidars, and an array of eddy covariance towers in the nearby fields. The aircraft and lidar will provide a high resolution mapping of the evaporation rate over the fields and the changes between them. A mapping of the evaporative fluxes that existed during the field campaign, with a comparison to the topology of the local area will be presented.

Spatiotemporal dynamics of carbon dioxide and methane fluxes from agricultural and restored wetlands in the California Delta

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hatala, Jaclyn Anne

The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in California was drained for agriculture and human settlement over a century ago, resulting in extreme rates of soil subsidence and release of CO2 to the atmosphere from peat oxidation. Because of this century-long ecosystem carbon imbalance where heterotrophic respiration exceeded net primary productivity, most of the land surface in the Delta is now up to 8 meters below sea level. To potentially reverse this trend of chronic carbon loss from Delta ecosystems, land managers have begun converting drained lands back to flooded ecosystems, but at the cost of increased production of CH4, a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. To evaluate the impacts of inundation on the biosphere-atmophere exchange of CO2 and CH4 in the Delta, I first measured and analyzed net fluxes of CO2 and CH4 for two continuous years with the eddy covariance technique in a drained peatland pasture and a recently re-flooded rice paddy. This analysis demonstrated that the drained pasture was a consistent large source of CO2 and small source of CH 4, whereas the rice paddy was a mild sink for CO2 and a mild source of CH4. However more importantly, this first analysis revealed nuanced complexities for measuring and interpreting patterns in CO2 and CH4 fluxes through time and space. CO2 and CH4 fluxes are inextricably linked in flooded ecosystems, as plant carbon serves as the primary substrate for the production of CH4 and wetland plants also provide the primary transport pathway of CH4 flux to the atmosphere. At the spatially homogeneous rice paddy during the summer growing season, I investigated rapid temporal coupling between CO2 and CH4 fluxes. Through wavelet Granger-causality analysis, I demonstrated that daily fluctuations in growing season gross ecosystem productivity (photosynthesis) exert a stronger control than temperature on the diurnal pattern in CH4 flux from rice. At a spatially heterogeneous restored wetland site, I analyzed the spatial coupling between net CO2 and CH4 fluxes by characterizing two-dimensional patterns of emergent vegetation within eddy covariance flux footprints. I combined net CO2 and CH4 fluxes from three eddy flux towers with high-resolution remote sensing imagery classified for emergent vegetation and an analytical 2-D flux footprint model to assess the impact of vegetation fractal pattern and abundance on the measured flux. Both emergent vegetation abundance and fractal complexity are important metrics for constraining variability within CO2 and CH4 flux in this complex landscape. Scaling between carbon flux measurements at individual sites and regional scales depends on the connection to remote sensing metrics that can be broadly applied. In the final chapter of this dissertation, I analyzed a long term dataset of hyperspectral ground reflectance measurements collected within the flux tower footprints of three structurally similar yet functionally diverse ecosystems: an annual grassland, a degraded pepperweed pasture, and a rice paddy. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) was highly correlated with landscape-scale photosynthesis across all sites, however this work also revealed new potential spectral indices with high correlation to both net and partitioned CO2 fluxes. This analysis within this dissertation serves as a framework for considering the impacts of temporal and spatial heterogeneity on measured landscape-scale fluxes of CO2 and CH4. Scaling measurements through time and space is especially critical for interpreting fluxes of trace gases with a high degree of temporal heterogeneity, like CH4 and N 2O, from landscapes that have a high degree of spatial heterogeneity, like wetlands. This work articulates a strong mechanistic connection between CO2 and CH4 fluxes in wetland ecosystems, and provides important management considerations for implementing and monitoring inundated land-use conversion as an effective carbon management strategy in the California Delta.

Vertical divergence of fogwater fluxes above a spruce forest

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burkard, R.; Eugster, W.; Wrzesinsky, T.; Klemm, O.

Two almost identical eddy covariance measurement setups were used to measure the fogwater fluxes to a forest ecosystem in the "Fichtelgebirge" mountains (Waldstein research site, 786 m a.s.l.) in Germany. During the first experiment, an intercomparison was carried out with both setups running simultaneously at the same measuring height on a meteorological tower, 12.5 m above the forest canopy. The results confirmed a close agreement of the turbulent fluxes between the two setups, and allowed to intercalibrate liquid water content (LWC) and gravitational fluxes. During the second experiment, the setups were mounted at a height of 12.5 and 3 m above the canopy, respectively. For the 22 fog events, a persistent negative flux divergence was observed with a greater downward flux at the upper level. To extrapolate the turbulent liquid water fluxes measured at height z to the canopy of height hc, a conversion factor 1/[1+0.116( z- hc)] was determined. For the fluxes of nonvolatile ions, no such correction is necessary since the net evaporation of the fog droplets appears to be the primary cause of the vertical flux divergence. Although the net evaporation reduces the liquid water flux reaching the canopy, it is not expected to change the absolute amount of ions dissolved in fogwater.

Continuous Eddy Covariance Measurements of N2O Emissions and Controls from an Intensively Grazed Dairy Farm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schipper, L. A.; Liang, L. L.; Wall, A.; Campbell, D.

2017-12-01

New Zealand's greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory is disproportionally dominated by methane and nitrous oxide which account for 54% of emissions. These GHGs are derived from pastoral agriculture that supports dairying and meat production. To date, most studies on quantifying or mitigating agricultural N2O emissions have used flux chamber measurements. Recent advances in detector technology now means that routine field-to-farm scale measurements of N2O emissions might be possible using the eddy covariance technique. In late 2016, we established an eddy covariance tower that measured N2O emissions from a dairy farm under year-round grazing. An Aerodyne quantum cascade laser (QCL) was used to measure N2O, CH4 and H2O concentration at 10 Hz and housed in a weatherproof and insulated enclosure (0.9 m ´ 1.2 m) and powered by mains power (240 VAC). The enclosure maintained a stable setpoint temperature (30±0.2°C) by using underground cooling pipes, fans and recirculating instrument heat. QCL (true 10 Hz digital) and CSAT3B sonic anemometer high frequency data are aligned using Network Time Protocol and EddyPro covariance maximisation during flux processing. Fluxes generally integrated over about 6-8 ha. Stable summertime baseline N2O fluxes (FN2O) were around 12-24 g N2O-N ha-1 d-1 (0.5-1.0 nmol N2O m-2 s-1). Grazing by cows during dry summer resulted in only modest increases in FN2O to 24-48 g N2O-N ha-1 d-1 (1.0-2.0 nmol N2O m-2 s-1). However, the first rain events after grazing resulted in large, short-lived (1-3 days) FN2O pulses reaching peaks of 144-192 g N2O-N ha-1 d-1 (6-8 nmol N2O m-2 s-1). During these elevated N2O emissions, FN2O displayed a significant diurnal signal, with peak fluxes mid-afternoon which was best explained by variation in shallow soil temperature in summer. In winter (both cooler and wetter) FN2O were not as easily explained on a daily basis but were generally greater than summer. Throughout the year, FN2O was strongly dependent on water filled pore-space (WFPS) with low fluxes under dry and wet conditions and maximal at 70% WFPS. This eddy covariance approach is a very powerful way to make continuous nitrous oxide measurements over sufficiently large areas to represent farm management practices and test mitigation strategies.

Eddy covariance flux measurements of gaseous elemental mercury using cavity ring-down spectroscopy.

PubMed

Pierce, Ashley M; Moore, Christopher W; Wohlfahrt, Georg; Hörtnagl, Lukas; Kljun, Natascha; Obrist, Daniel

2015-02-03

A newly developed pulsed cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) system for measuring atmospheric gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) concentrations at high temporal resolution (25 Hz) was used to successfully conduct the first eddy covariance (EC) flux measurements of GEM. GEM is the main gaseous atmospheric form, and quantification of bidirectional exchange between the Earth's surface and the atmosphere is important because gas exchange is important on a global scale. For example, surface GEM emissions from natural sources, legacy emissions, and re-emission of previously deposited anthropogenic pollution may exceed direct primary anthropogenic emissions. Using the EC technique for flux measurements requires subsecond measurements, which so far has not been feasible because of the slow time response of available instrumentation. The CRDS system measured GEM fluxes, which were compared to fluxes measured with the modified Bowen ratio (MBR) and a dynamic flux chamber (DFC). Measurements took place near Reno, NV, in September and October 2012 encompassing natural, low-mercury (Hg) background soils and Hg-enriched soils. During nine days of measurements with deployment of Hg-enriched soil in boxes within 60 m upwind of the EC tower, the covariance of GEM concentration and vertical wind speed was measured, showing that EC fluxes over an Hg-enriched area were detectable. During three separate days of flux measurements over background soils (without Hg-enriched soils), no covariance was detected, indicating fluxes below the detection limit. When fluxes were measurable, they strongly correlated with wind direction; the highest fluxes occurred when winds originated from the Hg-enriched area. Comparisons among the three methods showed good agreement in direction (e.g., emission or deposition) and magnitude, especially when measured fluxes originated within the Hg-enriched soil area. EC fluxes averaged 849 ng m(-2) h(-1), compared to DFC fluxes of 1105 ng m(-2) h(-1) and MBR fluxes of 1309 ng m(-2) h(-1). This study demonstrated that a CRDS system can be used to measure GEM fluxes over Hg-enriched areas, with a conservative detection limit estimate of 32 ng m(-2) h(-1).

Large CO 2 and CH 4 emissions from polygonal tundra during spring thaw in northern Alaska: Spring Pulse Emission

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Raz-Yaseef, Naama; Torn, Margaret S.; Wu, Yuxin

The few prethaw observations of tundra carbon fluxes suggest that there may be large spring releases, but little Is lmown about the scale and underlying mechanisms of this phenomenon. To address these questions, we combined ecosystem eddy flux measurements from two towers near Barrow, Alaska, with mechanistic soil-core thawing experiment During a 2week period prior to snowmelt In 2014, large fluxes were measured, reducing net summer uptake of CO2 by 46% and adding 6% to cumulative CH4 emissions. Emission pulses were linked to unique rain-on-snow events enhancing soli cracking. Controlled laboratory experiment revealed that as surface Ice thaws, an immediate,more » large pulse of trapped gases Is emitted. These results suggest that the Arctic C02 and CH4 spring pulse is a delayed release of biogenic gas production from the previous fall and that the pulse can be large enough to offset a significant fraction of the moderate Arctic tundra carbon sink.« less

Large CO 2 and CH 4 emissions from polygonal tundra during spring thaw in northern Alaska

DOE PAGES

Raz-Yaseef, Naama; Torn, Margaret S.; Wu, Yuxin; ...

2016-12-05

The few prethaw observations of tundra carbon fluxes suggest that there may be large spring releases, but little is known about the scale and underlying mechanisms of this phenomenon. To address these questions, we combined in this paper ecosystem eddy flux measurements from two towers near Barrow, Alaska, with mechanistic soil-core thawing experiment. During a 2 week period prior to snowmelt in 2014, large fluxes were measured, reducing net summer uptake of CO 2 by 46% and adding 6% to cumulative CH 4 emissions. Emission pulses were linked to unique rain-on-snow events enhancing soil cracking. Controlled laboratory experiment revealed thatmore » as surface ice thaws, an immediate, large pulse of trapped gases is emitted. Finally, these results suggest that the Arctic CO 2 and CH 4 spring pulse is a delayed release of biogenic gas production from the previous fall and that the pulse can be large enough to offset a significant fraction of the moderate Arctic tundra carbon sink.« less

Chamber and Diffusive Based Carbon Flux Measurements in an Alaskan Arctic Ecosystem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilkman, E.; Oechel, W. C.; Zona, D.

2013-12-01

Eric Wilkman, Walter Oechel, Donatella Zona Comprising an area of more than 7 x 106 km2 and containing over 11% of the world's organic matter pool, Arctic terrestrial ecosystems are vitally important components of the global carbon cycle, yet their structure and functioning are sensitive to subtle changes in climate and many of these functional changes can have large effects on the atmosphere and future climate regimes (Callaghan & Maxwell 1995, Chapin et al. 2002). Historically these northern ecosystems have acted as strong C sinks, sequestering large stores of atmospheric C due to photosynthetic dominance in the short summer season and low rates of decomposition throughout the rest of the year as a consequence of cold, nutrient poor, and generally water-logged conditions. Currently, much of this previously stored carbon is at risk of loss to the atmosphere due to accelerated soil organic matter decomposition in warmer future climates (Grogan & Chapin 2000). Although there have been numerous studies on Arctic carbon dynamics, much of the previous soil flux work has been done at limited time intervals, due to both the harshness of the environment and labor and time constraints. Therefore, in June of 2013 an Ultraportable Greenhouse Gas Analyzer (UGGA - Los Gatos Research Inc.) was deployed in concert with the LI-8100A Automated Soil Flux System (LI-COR Biosciences) in Barrow, AK to gather high temporal frequency soil CO2 and CH4 fluxes from a wet sedge tundra ecosystem. An additional UGGA in combination with diffusive probes, installed in the same location, provides year-round soil and snow CO2 and CH4 concentrations. When used in combination with the recently purchased AlphaGUARD portable radon monitor (Saphymo GmbH), continuous soil and snow diffusivities and fluxes of CO2 and CH4 can be calculated (Lehmann & Lehmann 2000). Of particular note, measuring soil gas concentration over a diffusive gradient in this way allows one to separate both net production and consumption, whereas chamber and eddy covariance methodologies only document net production from the surface. Also, the capability to measure spring, summer and fall chamber fluxes, and to continuously determine year-round CO2 and CH4 fluxes under even the most extreme weather conditions, allows an unprecedented level of data continuity and local spatial coverage. Comparison to a nearby eddy covariance tower measuring CO2 and CH4 fluxes with an LGR Fast Greenhouse Gas Analyzer add additional power to this set of measurements. Thus, inter-comparison between diffusive, chamber, and tower-based carbon fluxes should lend much insight into the spatial and temporal controls on carbon cycling in this ecosystem.

Eddy Covariance Method for CO2 Emission Measurements: CCS Applications, Principles, Instrumentation and Software

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burba, George; Madsen, Rod; Feese, Kristin

2013-04-01

The Eddy Covariance method is a micrometeorological technique for direct high-speed measurements of the transport of gases, heat, and momentum between the earth's surface and the atmosphere. Gas fluxes, emission and exchange rates are carefully characterized from single-point in-situ measurements using permanent or mobile towers, or moving platforms such as automobiles, helicopters, airplanes, etc. Since the early 1990s, this technique has been widely used by micrometeorologists across the globe for quantifying CO2 emission rates from various natural, urban and agricultural ecosystems [1,2], including areas of agricultural carbon sequestration. Presently, over 600 eddy covariance stations are in operation in over 120 countries. In the last 3-5 years, advancements in instrumentation and software have reached the point when they can be effectively used outside the area of micrometeorology, and can prove valuable for geological carbon capture and sequestration, landfill emission measurements, high-precision agriculture and other non-micrometeorological industrial and regulatory applications. In the field of geological carbon capture and sequestration, the magnitude of CO2 seepage fluxes depends on a variety of factors. Emerging projects utilize eddy covariance measurement to monitor large areas where CO2 may escape from the subsurface, to detect and quantify CO2 leakage, and to assure the efficiency of CO2 geological storage [3,4,5,6,7,8]. Although Eddy Covariance is one of the most direct and defensible ways to measure and calculate turbulent fluxes, the method is mathematically complex, and requires careful setup, execution and data processing tailor-fit to a specific site and a project. With this in mind, step-by-step instructions were created to introduce a novice to the conventional Eddy Covariance technique [9], and to assist in further understanding the method through more advanced references such as graduate-level textbooks, flux networks guidelines, journals and technical papers. A free open-source software package with a user-friendly interface was developed accordingly for computing final fully corrected CO2 emission numbers [10]. The presentation covers highlights of the eddy covariance method, its application to geological carbon sequestration, key requirements, instrumentation and software, and reviews educational resources particularly useful for carbon sequestration research. References: [1] Aubinet, M., T. Vesala, and D. Papale (Eds.), 2012. Eddy Covariance: A Practical Guide to Measurement and Data Analysis. Springer-Verlag, 442 pp. [2] Foken T., 2008. Micrometeorology. Springer-Verlag, 308 pp. [4] Finley, R., 2009. An Assessment of Geological Carbon Sequestration in the Illinois Basin Overview of the Decatur-Illinois Basin Site. MGSC, http://www.istc.illinois.edu/info/govs_awards_docs/2009-GSA-1100-Finley.pdf [5] Liu, G. (Ed.), 2012. Greenhouse Gases: Capturing, Utilization and Reduction. Intech, 338 pp. [6] LI-COR Biosciences, 2011. Surface Monitoring for Geologic Carbon Sequestration Monitoring: Methods, Instrumentation, and Case Studies. LI-COR Biosciences, Pub. 980-11916, 15 pp. [7] Benson, S., 2006. Monitoring carbon dioxide sequestration in deep geological formations for inventory verification and carbon credits, SPE-102833, Presentation [8] Lewicki, J., G. Hilley, M. Fischer, L. Pan, C. Olden-burg, C. Dobeck, and L. Spangler, 2009.Eddy covariance observations of leakage during shallow subsurface CO2 releases. Journal of Geophys Res, 114: D12302 [9] Burba, G., 2013. Eddy Covariance Method for Scientific, Industrial, Agricultural and Regulatory Applications. LI-COR Biosciences, 328 pp. [10] LI-COR Biosciences, 2012. EddyPro 4.0: Help and User's Guide. Lincoln, NE, 208 pp.

Diurnal and Seasonal Variations of Eddy-Covariance Carbon Dioxide Fluxes Above an Urban Wetland, Partitioned by Vegetation Cover

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schafer, K. V.; Duman, T.

2017-12-01

The New Jersey Meadowlands are an urban brackish marsh with a long history of human activity causing disturbances and alterations. Carbon emissions were measured from two sites in the Meadowlands, a natural site and a restored site, using eddy-covariance (EC) from 2014 to 2016. At each site, the EC towers were placed at the interface of two vegetation covers, allowing capturing this aspect of the wetland's heterogeneity. Using footprint modeling and light response curves we were able to partition measured fluxes between vegetation cover types and compare CO2 fluxes from patches of invasive versus native wetland vegetation communities. We show that further separating the data into seasonal and diurnal fluxes reveals patterns in CO2 fluxes that allow determining the nature of each vegetation cover as a source or sink for CO2. Our results also show that CO2 emissions from the restored wetland are significantly higher than the natural wetland. Areas of invasive Phragmites australis at the natural site had the lowest CO2 release rates during winter. These were consistently lower in magnitude than summer daytime uptake, therefore making this part of the wetland a CO2 sink. Areas planted with native Spartina alterniflora at the restored site had the largest uptake during daytime, therefore seemingly justifying restoration activities. However, they also had the highest emission rates during summer nighttime, and therefore the daily summer net uptake was not the highest compared with other vegetation covers. Furthermore, emissions from the restored site during winter were larger compared to the natural site, indicating that restoration activities might have led to a significant increase of carbon release from the wetland. Thus, during the study period the restored wetland acted as a carbon source.

Flux and turbulence measurements at a densely built-up site in Marseille: Heat, mass (water and carbon dioxide), and momentum

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grimmond, C. S. B.; Salmond, J. A.; Oke, T. R.; Offerle, B.; Lemonsu, A.

2004-12-01

Eddy covariance (EC) observations above the densely built-up center of Marseille during the Expérience sur site pour contraindre les modèles de pollution atmosphérique et de transport d'émissions (ESCOMPTE) summertime measurement campaign extend current understanding of surface atmosphere exchanges in cities. The instrument array presented opportunities to address issues of the representativeness of local-scale fluxes in urban settings. Separate EC systems operated at two levels, and a telescoping tower allowed the pair to be exposed at two different sets of heights. The flux and turbulence observations taken at the four heights, stratified by wind conditions (mistral wind and sea breeze), are used to address the partitioning of the surface energy balance in an area with large roughness elements. The turbulent sensible heat flux dominates in the daytime, although the storage heat flux is a significant term that peaks before solar noon. The turbulent latent heat flux is small but not negligible. Carbon dioxide fluxes show that this central city district is almost always a source, but the vegetation reduces the magnitude of the fluxes in the afternoon. The atmosphere in such a heavily developed area is rarely stable. The turbulence characteristics support the empirical functions proposed by M. Roth.

Expanding Spatial and Temporal Coverage of Arctic CH4 and CO2 Fluxes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murphy, P.; Oechel, W. C.; Moreaux, V.; Losacco, S.; Zona, D.

2013-12-01

Carbon storage and exchange in Arctic ecosystems is the subject of intensive study focused on determining rates, controls, and mechanisms of CH4 and CO2 fluxes. The Arctic contains more than 1 Gt of Carbon in the upper meter of soil, both in the active layer and permafrost (Schuur et al., 2008; Tarnocai et al., 2009). However, the annual pattern and controls on the release of CH4 is inadequately understood in Arctic tundra ecosystems. Annual methane budgets are poorly understood, and very few studies measure fluxes through the freeze-up cycle during autumn months (Mastepanov et al., 2008; Mastepanov et al., 2010; Sturtevant et al., 2012). There is no known, relatively continuous, CH4 flux record for the Arctic. Clearly, the datasets that currently exist for budget calculations and model parameterization and verification are inadequate. This is likely due to the difficult nature of flux measurements in the Arctic. In September 2012, we initiated a research project towards continuous methane flux measurements along a latitudinal transect in Northern Alaska. The eddy-covariance (EC) technique is challenging in such extreme weather conditions due to the effects of ice formation and precipitation on instrumentation, including gas analyzers and sonic anemometers. The challenge is greater in remote areas of the Arctic, when low power availability and limited communication can lead to delays in data retrieval or data loss. For these reasons, a combination of open- and closed-path gas analyzers, and several sonic anemometers (including one with heating), have been installed on EC towers to allow for cross-comparison and cross-referencing of calculated fluxes. Newer instruments for fast CH4 flux determination include: the Los Gatos Research Fast Greenhouse Gas Analyzer and the Li-Cor LI-7700. We also included the self-heated Metek Class-A uSonic-3 Anemometer as a new instrument. Previously existing instruments used for comparison include the Li-Cor LI-7500; Li-Cor LI-7200; Gill WindmasterPro; Gill R3; Campbell Scientific CSAT-3, and METEK USA-1. To prevent gaps in data due to poor weather, we developed a temperature control system to allow de-icing of the sonic instrument based on data quality. Enclosures were also created to support equipment that was not designed for outdoor use. A similar temperature control system was implemented to maintain stable conditions in the enclosures. Five existing EC towers on the north slope of Alaska, in Barrow, Atqasuk, and Ivotuk, are used to obtain CH4 and CO2 fluxes, and allow a comparison of fluxes across sensor type and design. Here we present the instrument set-up and some of the preliminary eddy covariance CH4 and CO2 flux data, which might prove very useful as guidelines for further flux measurements in northern high latitudes.

Assessing exergy of forest ecosystem using airborne and satellite data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brovkina, Olga; Fabianek, Tomas; Lukes, Petr; Zemek, Frantisek

2017-04-01

Interactions of the energy flows of forest ecosystem with environment are formed by a suite of forest structure, functions and pathways of self-control. According to recent thermodynamic theory for open systems, concept of exergy of solar radiation has been applied to estimate energy consumptions on evapotranspiration and biomass production in forest ecosystem or to indicate forest decline and human land use impact on ecosystem stability. However, most of the methods for exergy estimation in forest ecosystem is not stable and its physical meaning remains on the surface. This study was aimed to contribute to understanding the exergy of forest ecosystem using combination of remote sensing (RS) and eddy covariance technologies, specifically: 1/to explore exergy of solar radiation depending on structure of solar spectrum (number of spectral bands of RS data), and 2/to explore the relationship between exergy and flux tower eddy covariance measurements. Two study forest sites were located in Western Beskids in the Czech Republic. The first site was dominated by young Norway spruce, the second site was dominated by mature European beech. Airborne hyperspectral data in VNIR, SWIR and TIR spectral regions were acquired 9 times for study sites during a vegetation periods in 2015-2016. Radiometric, geometric and atmospheric corrections of airborne data were performed. Satellite multispectral Landsat-8 cloud-free 21 scenes were downloaded and atmospherically corrected for the period from April to November 2015-2016. Evapotranspiration and latent heat fluxes were collected from operating flux towers located on study sites according to date and time of remote sensing data acquisition. Exergy was calculated for each satellite and airborne scene using various combinations of spectral bands as: Ex=E^out (K+ln E^out/E^in )+R, where Ein is the incoming solar energy, Eout is the reflected solar energy, R = Ein-Eout is absorbed energy, Eout/Ein is albedo and K is the Kullback increment of information. Thermal bands decreased exergy value by near 60%, which is in agreement with principles of radiation balance. Spectral band 555-569 and region 740-853 (9 spectral bands) from airborne hyperspectral data, and spectral regions 430-450, 530-590 and 640-670 nm from satellite multispectral data were shown the most informative for exergy calculation for two forest ecosystems. Exergy from airborne data overestimated exergy from satellite data by 6-10%. Aggregation of airborne hyperspectral bands into multispectral satellite spectral bands did not affect exergy values significantly (p<0.05). The correlation between exergy and evapotranspiration from flux tower was higher using airborne data (r = 0.81 and r = 0.82) than using satellite data (r = 0.74 and r = 0.76) for spruce and beech forest sites.

Bridging the Scales from Field to Region with Practical Tools to Couple Time- and Space-Synchronized Data from Flux Towers and Networks with Proximal and Remote Sensing Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burba, G. G.; Avenson, T.; Burkart, A.; Gamon, J. A.; Guan, K.; Julitta, T.; Pastorello, G.; Sakowska, K.

2017-12-01

Many hundreds of flux towers are presently operational as standalone projects and as parts of regional networks. However, the vast majority of these towers do not allow straightforward coupling with remote sensing (drone, aircraft, satellite, etc.) data, and even fewer have optical sensors for validation of remote sensing products, and upscaling from field to regional levels. In 2016-2017, new tools to collect, process, and share time-synchronized flux data from multiple towers were developed and deployed globally. Originally designed to automate site and data management, and to streamline flux data analysis, these tools allow relatively easy matching of tower data with remote sensing data: GPS-driven PTP time protocol synchronizes instrumentation within the station, different stations with each other, and all of these to remote sensing data to precisely align remote sensing and flux data in time Footprint size and coordinates computed and stored with flux data help correctly align tower flux footprints and drone, aircraft or satellite motion to precisely align optical and flux data in space Full snapshot of the remote sensing pixel can then be constructed, including leaf-level, ground optical sensor, and flux tower measurements from the same footprint area, closely coupled with the remote sensing measurements to help interpret remote sensing data, validate models, and improve upscaling Additionally, current flux towers can be augmented with advanced ground optical sensors and can use standard routines to deliver continuous products (e.g. SIF, PRI, NDVI, etc.) based on automated field spectrometers (e.g., FloX and RoX, etc.) and other optical systems. Several dozens of new towers already operational globally can be readily used for the proposed workflow. Over 500 active traditional flux towers can be updated to synchronize their data with remote sensing measurements. This presentation will show how the new tools are used by major networks, and describe how this approach can be utilized for matching remote sensing and tower data to aid in ground truthing, improve scientific interactions, and promote joint grant writing and other forms of collaboration between the flux and remote sensing communities.

Influence of crop type specification and spatial resolution on empirical modeling of field-scale Maize and Soybean carbon fluxes in the US Great Plains

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McCombs, A. G.; Hiscox, A.; Wang, C.; Desai, A. R.

2016-12-01

A challenge in satellite land surface remote-sensing models of ecosystem carbon dynamics in agricultural systems is the lack of differentiation by crop type and management. This generalization can lead to large discrepancies between model predictions and eddy covariance flux tower observations of net ecosystem exchange of CO2 (NEE). Literature confirms that NEE varies remarkably among different crop types making the generalization of agriculture in remote sensing based models inaccurate. Here, we address this inaccuracy by identifying and mapping net ecosystem exchange (NEE) in agricultural fields by comparing bulk modeling and modeling by crop type, and using this information to develop empirical models for future use. We focus on mapping NEE in maize and soybean fields in the US Great Plains at higher spatial resolution using the fusion of MODIS and LandSAT surface reflectance. MODIS observed reflectance was downscaled using the ESTARFM downscaling methodology to match spatial scales to those found in LandSAT and that are more appropriate for carbon dynamics in agriculture fields. A multiple regression model was developed from surface reflectance of the downscaled MODIS and LandSAT remote sensing values calibrated against five FLUXNET/AMERIFLUX flux towers located on soybean and/or maize agricultural fields in the US Great Plains with multi-year NEE observations. Our new methodology improves upon bulk approximates to map and model carbon dynamics in maize and soybean fields, which have significantly different photosynthetic capacities.

Evapotranspiration partitioning in a semi-arid African savanna using stable isotopes of water vapor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Soderberg, K.; Good, S. P.; O'Connor, M.; King, E. G.; Caylor, K. K.

2012-04-01

Evapotranspiration (ET) represents a major flux of water out of semi-arid ecosystems. Thus, understanding ET dynamics is central to the study of African savanna health and productivity. At our study site in central Kenya (Mpala Research Centre), we have been using stable isotopes of water vapor to partition ET into its constituent parts of plant transpiration (T) and soil evaporation (E). This effort includes continuous measurement (1 Hz) of δ2H and δ18O in water vapor using a portable water vapor isotope analyzer mounted on a 22.5 m eddy covariance flux tower. The flux tower has been collecting data since early 2010. The isotopic end-member of δET is calculated using a Keeling Plot approach, whereas δT and δE are measured directly via a leaf chamber and tubing buried in the soil, respectively. Here we report on a two recent sets of measurements for partitioning ET in the Kenya Long-term Exclosure Experiment (KLEE) and a nearby grassland. We combine leaf level measurements of photosynthesis and water use with canopy-scale isotope measurements for ET partitioning. In the KLEE experiment we compare ET partitioning in a 4 ha plot that has only seen cattle grazing for the past 15 years with an adjacent plot that has undergone grazing by both cattle and wild herbivores (antelope, elephants, giraffe). These results are compared with a detailed study of ET in an artificially watered grassland.

Generalization of the quasi-geostrophic Eliassen-Palm flux to include eddy forcing of condensation heating

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stone, P. H.; Salustri, G.

1984-01-01

A modified Eulerian form of the Eliassen-Palm flux which includes the effect of eddy forcing on condensation heating is defined. With the two-dimensional vector flux in the meridional plane which is a function of the zonal mean eddy fluxes replaced by the modified flux, both the Eliassen-Palm theorem and a modified but more general form of the nonacceleration theorem for quasi-geostrophic motion still hold. Calculations of the divergence of the modified flux and of the eddy forcing of the moisture field are presented.

Continuous Measurements of Canopy-level Solar-Induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence for Inferring Diurnal and Seasonal Dynamics of Photosynthesis in Crop Fields in the Midwestern USA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miao, G.; Guan, K.; Yang, X.; Bernacchi, C.; DeLucia, E. H.; Cai, Y.; Masters, M. D.; Peng, B.

2016-12-01

Plants emitted photons of red and far-red light, called chlorophyll fluorescence, after sunlight absorption for photosynthesis. This solar-induced fluorescence (SIF) is generated simultaneously while plants actively photosynthesize. The link between photosynthesis and SIF resulting from the competition for the same excitation energy has long been investigated and applied for inferring the rate of photosynthesis. Recent development of continuous SIF observational technology is furthering the inferring potential as well as our understandings of fluctuations of SIF and photosynthesis with changes in environmental conditions. To better understand this photosynthesis-SIF link at multiple time scales and their relationships with environmental drivers, we deployed two newly developed tower-based SIF systems (FluoSpec) in a corn (Zea mays L., C4 plant) field and a soybean (Glycine max L., C3 plant) field at University of Illinois Energy Farm and conducted continuous near-surface SIF measurements at canopy scale from mid-growing season of 2016. Eddy covariance flux towers were installed in parallel at both sites for canopy-scale gas exchange measurements. Relationship between SIF and flux tower photosynthesis will be analyzed to derive the empirical models for photosynthesis retrieval from SIF signals. Preliminary results indicate that canopy SIF can reflect diurnal and seasonal dynamics of photosynthesis. Mechanistic analysis on SIF fluctuations and responses to environmental variations will be conducted as well for a closer look at mechanism of photosynthetic responses. Corn and soybean SIF and photosynthesis-SIF relationship will be compared to investigate the difference between C4 and C3 plants.

Stably stratified canopy flow in complex terrain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, X.; Yi, C.; Kutter, E.

2015-07-01

Stably stratified canopy flow in complex terrain has been considered a difficult condition for measuring net ecosystem-atmosphere exchanges of carbon, water vapor, and energy. A long-standing advection error in eddy-flux measurements is caused by stably stratified canopy flow. Such a condition with strong thermal gradient and less turbulent air is also difficult for modeling. To understand the challenging atmospheric condition for eddy-flux measurements, we use the renormalized group (RNG) k-ϵ turbulence model to investigate the main characteristics of stably stratified canopy flows in complex terrain. In this two-dimensional simulation, we imposed persistent constant heat flux at ground surface and linearly increasing cooling rate in the upper-canopy layer, vertically varying dissipative force from canopy drag elements, buoyancy forcing induced from thermal stratification and the hill terrain. These strong boundary effects keep nonlinearity in the two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations high enough to generate turbulent behavior. The fundamental characteristics of nighttime canopy flow over complex terrain measured by the small number of available multi-tower advection experiments can be reproduced by this numerical simulation, such as (1) unstable layer in the canopy and super-stable layers associated with flow decoupling in deep canopy and near the top of canopy; (2) sub-canopy drainage flow and drainage flow near the top of canopy in calm night; (3) upward momentum transfer in canopy, downward heat transfer in upper canopy and upward heat transfer in deep canopy; and (4) large buoyancy suppression and weak shear production in strong stability.

Scaling-up of CO2 fluxes to assess carbon sequestration in rangelands of Central Asia

Treesearch

Bruce K. Wylie; Tagir G. Gilmanov; Douglas A. Johnson; Nicanor Z. Saliendra; Larry L. Tieszen; Ruth Anne F. Doyle; Emilio A. Laca

2006-01-01

Flux towers provide temporal quantification of local carbon dynamics at specific sites. The number and distribution of flux towers, however, are generally inadequate to quantify carbon fluxes across a landscape or ecoregion. Thus, scaling up of flux tower measurements through use of algorithms developed from remote sensing and GIS data is needed for spatial...

Investigation Of The Influence Of Temperature Inversions And Turbulence On Land-Atmosphere Interactions For Rolling Terrain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Osibanjo, Olabosipo O.

The objectives of this work are to calculate surface fluxes for rolling terrain using observational data collected during one week in September 2014 from a monitoring site in Echo, Oregon and to investigate the log law in the ABL. The site is located in the Columbia Basin with rolling terrain, irrigated farmland, and over 100 wind turbines. The 10 m tower was placed in a small valley depression to isolate nighttime temperature inversions. This thesis presents observations of momentum, sensible heat, moisture, and CO2 fluxes from data collected at a sampling frequency of 10Hz at four heights. Results show a strong correlation between temperature inversions and CO 2 flux. The log layer could not be achieved as the value of the estimated von Karman constant (˜0.62) is not close to that of the accepted value of 0.41. The impact of the irrigated farmland near the measurement site was observed in the latent heat flux, where the advection of moisture was evident in the tower moisture gradient. A strong relationship was also observed between fluxes of sensible heat, latent heat, CO2, and atmospheric stability. The average nighttime CO2 concentration observed was ˜407 ppm, and daytime ˜388 ppm compared to the 2013 global average CO2 concentration of 395 ppm. The maximum CO2 concentration (˜485 ppm) was observed on the strongest temperature inversion night. There are few uncertainties in the measurements. The manufacturer for the eddy covariance instruments (EC 150) quotes uncertainty of +/- 0.1°C for temperature between -0°C-40°C. Error bars were generated on the estimated surface sensible heat flux using the standard deviation and mean values. Under the most stable atmospheric conditions, uncertainty (assumed to be the variability in the flux estimates) was close to the minimum (˜+/- 5 W m-2). (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.).

Eddy Covariance Measurements Assessing NOx Emission in London, UK

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Drysdale, W. S.; Lee, J. D.; Purvis, R.; Squires, F. A.; Vaughan, A. R.; Metzger, S.

2017-12-01

NOx (the sum of NO + NO2) is emitted during most combustion processes. NO2is a well known air pollutant detrimental to human health, and is regulated in many cities. London often finds itself in breach of these emission regulations. Emission inventories are used in air quality forecast models to predict current and future air pollution levels and to guide abatement strategy. It is therefore crucial that inventories accurately predict emissions; validation can be carried out using direct measurements. Measurements of NO and NO2 at 5 Hz have been made at the BT Tower, 190 m above street level in central London. Eddy covariance calculations have been performed using both classical and "continuous wavelet transformation" method, producing half hour and 1 minute resolved NOx fluxes respectively. We present a first look at these flux data measured in early 2017. A strong diurnal profile for NOx flux is observed, with an increase from 5am to 7am, and remaining constant around 1400 ng m2 m-1 throughout the day, before decreasing to background levels towards midnight. Data is also compared to previous NOx flux measurements over two periods, June-July 2012 and March-April 2013 to examine how emissions have changed over this period. A significant decrease in NOx emissions ( 64%, a mean flux of 2400 ng m2 s-1 in 2012 to a mean 870 ng m2 s-1 in 2017) is observed. When the fluxes are separated by wind flow from the east and west, there is negligible difference in 2017, where 2012 saw lower fluxes from the east, especially in the afternoon. By coupling the measurements with a footprint model we compare the data to emission estimates from the UK's National Atmospheric Emission Inventory (NAEI). In 2012-13 emissions were measured to be twice as high than the NAEI predicted and the latest data shows a much better agreement.

The Dynamics of Eddy Fluxes and Jet-Scale Overturning Circulations and its Impact on the Mixed Layer Formation in the Indo-Western Pacific Southern Ocean

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

LI, Q.; Lee, S.

2016-12-01

The relationship between Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) jets and eddy fluxes in the Indo-western Pacific Southern Ocean (90°E-145°E) is investigated using an eddy-resolving model. In this region, transient eddy momentum flux convergence occurs at the latitude of the primary jet core, whereas eddy buoyancy flux is located over a broader region that encompasses the jet and the inter-jet minimum. In a small sector (120°E-144°E) where jets are especially zonal, a spatial and temporal decomposition of the eddy fluxes further reveals that fast eddies act to accelerate the jet with the maximum eddy momentum flux convergence at the jet center, while slow eddies tend to decelerate the zonal current at the inter-jet minimum. Transformed Eulerian mean (TEM) diagnostics reveals that the eddy momentum contribution accelerates the jets at all model depths, whereas the buoyancy flux contribution decelerates the jets at depths below 600 m. In ocean sectors where the jets are relatively well defined, there exist jet-scale overturning circulations (JSOC) with sinking motion on the equatorward flank, and rising motion on the poleward flank of the jets. The location and structure of these thermally indirect circulations suggest that they are driven by the eddy momentum flux convergence, much like the Ferrel cell in the atmosphere. This study also found that the JSOC plays a significant role in the oceanic heat transport and that it also contributes to the formation of a thin band of mixed layer that exists on the equatorward flank of the Indo-western Pacific ACC jets.

BOREAS TF-5 SSA-OJP Tower Flux and Meteorological Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Baldocchi, Dennis; Vogel, Christoph; Hall, Forrest G. (Editor); Huemmrich, Karl (Editor)

2000-01-01

The BOReal Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study Tower Flux (BOREAS TF-5) team collected tower flux data at the BOREAS Southern Study Area Old Jack Pine (SSA-OJP) site through the growing season of 1994. The data are available in tabular ASCII files.

Aircraft- and tower-based fluxes of carbon dioxide, latent, and sensible heat

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Desjardins, R. L.; Hart, R. L.; Macpherson, J. I.; Schuepp, P. H.; Verma, S. B.

1992-01-01

Fluxes of carbon dioxide, water vapor, and sensible heat obtained over a grassland ecosystem, during the First International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project (ISLSCP) Field Experiment (FIFE), using an aircraft- and two tower-based systems are compared for several days in 1987 and in 1989. The tower-based cospectral estimates of CO2, sensible heat, water vapor, and momentum, expressed as a function of wavenumber K times sampling height z, are relatively similar to the aircraft-based estimates for K x z greater than 0.1. A measurable contribution to the fluxes is observed by tower-based systems at K x z less than 0.01 but not by the aircraft-based system operating at an altitude of approximately 100 m over a 15 x 15 km area. Using all available simultaneous aircraft and tower data, flux estimates by both systems were shown to be highly correlated. As expected from the spatial variations of the greenness index, surface extrapolation of airborne flux estimates tended to lie between those of the two tower sites. The average fluxes obtained, on July 11, 1987, and August 4, 1989, by flying a grid pattern over the FIFE site agreed with the two tower data sets for CO2, but sensible and latent heat were smaller than those obtained by the tower-based systems. However, in general, except for a small underestimation due to the long wavelength contributions and due to flux divergence with height, the differences between the aircraft- and tower-based surface estimates of fluxes appear to be mainly attributable to differences in footprint, that is, differences in the area contributing to the surface flux estimates.

Nitrous Oxide Emission Flux Measurements for Ecological Systems with an Open-Path Quantum Cascade Laser-Based Sensor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tao, L.; Sun, K.; Cavigelli, M. A.; Gelfand, I.; Zenone, T.; Cui, M.; Miller, D. J.; Khan, M. A.; Zondlo, M. A.

2012-12-01

The ambient concentration of nitrous oxide (N2O), the fourth most abundant greenhouse gas, is rapidly increasing with emissions from both natural and anthropogenic sources [1]. Soil and aquatic areas are important sources and sinks for N2O due to complicated biogenic processes. However, N2O emissions are poorly constrained in space and time, despite its importance to global climate change and ozone depletion. We report our recent N2O emission measurements with an open-path quantum cascade laser (QCL)-based sensor for ecological systems. The newly emergent QCLs have been used to build compact, sensitive trace gas sensors in the mid-IR spectral region. A compact open-path QCL based sensor was developed to detect atmospheric N2O and CO at ~ 4.5 μm using wavelength modulation spectroscopy (WMS) to achieve a sensitivity of 0.26 ppbv of N2O and 0.24 ppbv of CO in 1 s with a power consumption of ~50 W [2]. This portable sensor system has been used to perform N2O emission flux measurement both with a static flux chamber and on an eddy covariance (EC) flux tower. In the flux chamber measurements, custom chambers were used to host the laser sensor, while gas samples for gas chromatograph (GC) were collected at the same time in the same chamber for validation and comparison. Different soil treatments have been applied in different chambers to study the relationship between N2O emission and the amount of fertilizer (and water) addition. Measurements from two methods agreed with each other (95% or higher confidence interval) for emission flux results, while laser sensor gave measurements with a much high temporal resolution. We have also performed the first open-path eddy covariance N2O flux measurement at Kellogg research station, Michigan State University for a month in June, 2012. Our sensor was placed on a 4-meter tower in a corn field and powered by batteries (connected with solar panels). We have observed the diurnal cycle of N2O flux. During this deployment, an inter-comparison between our sensor and a commercial gas sensor was done to check the sensor's performance. Overall, our sensor showed a good performance with both static chamber measurement and EC flux measurement of N2O. Its open-path, compact and portable design with low power consumption provides lots of advantages for N2O emission flux measurement in the ecological systems. [1] S. A. Montzka, E. J. Dlugokencky, and J. H. Butler, "Non-CO2 greenhouse gases and climate change," Nature 476, 43-50 (2011). [2] L. Tao, K, Sun, D. J. Miller, M. A. Khan and M.A. Zondlo, "Optimizations for simultaneous detection of atmospheric N2O and CO with a quantum cascade laser," CLEO, 2012

A True Eddy Accumulation - Eddy Covariance hybrid for measurements of turbulent trace gas fluxes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Siebicke, Lukas

2016-04-01

Eddy covariance (EC) is state-of-the-art in directly and continuously measuring turbulent fluxes of carbon dioxide and water vapor. However, low signal-to-noise ratios, high flow rates and missing or complex gas analyzers limit it's application to few scalars. True eddy accumulation, based on conditional sampling ideas by Desjardins in 1972, requires no fast response analyzers and is therefore potentially applicable to a wider range of scalars. Recently we showed possibly the first successful implementation of True Eddy Accumulation (TEA) measuring net ecosystem exchange of carbon dioxide of a grassland. However, most accumulation systems share the complexity of having to store discrete air samples in physical containers representing entire flux averaging intervals. The current study investigates merging principles of eddy accumulation and eddy covariance, which we here refer to as "true eddy accumulation in transient mode" (TEA-TM). This direct flux method TEA-TM combines true eddy accumulation with continuous sampling. The TEA-TM setup is simpler than discrete accumulation methods while avoiding the need for fast response gas analyzers and high flow rates required for EC. We implemented the proposed TEA-TM method and measured fluxes of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and water vapor (H2O) above a mixed beech forest at the Hainich Fluxnet and ICOS site, Germany, using a G2301 laser spectrometer (Picarro Inc., USA). We further simulated a TEA-TM sampling system using measured high frequency CO2 time series from an open-path gas analyzer. We operated TEA-TM side-by-side with open-, enclosed- and closed-path EC flux systems for CO2, H2O and CH4 (LI-7500, LI-7200, LI-6262, LI-7700, Licor, USA, and FGGA LGR, USA). First results show that TEA-TM CO2 fluxes were similar to EC fluxes. Remaining differences were similar to those between the three eddy covariance setups (open-, enclosed- and closed-path gas analyzers). Measured TEA-TM CO2 fluxes from our physical sampling system closely reproduced dynamics of simulated TEA-TM fluxes. In conclusion this study introduces a new approach to trace gas flux measurements using transient-mode true eddy accumulation. First TEA-TM CO2 fluxes compared favorably with side-by-side EC fluxes, in agreement with our previous experiments comparing discrete TEA to EC. True eddy accumulation has thus potential for measuring turbulent fluxes of a range of atmospheric tracers using slow response analyzers.

Forest ecosystem respiration estimated from eddy covariance and chamber measurements under high turbulence and substantial tree mortality from bark beetles

Treesearch

Heather N. Speckman; John M. Frank; John B. Bradford; Brianna L. Miles; William J. Massman; William J. Parton; Michael G. Ryan

2015-01-01

Eddy covariance nighttime fluxes are uncertain due to potential measurement biases. Many studies report eddy covariance nighttime flux lower than flux from extrapolated chamber measurements, despite corrections for low turbulence. We compared eddy covariance and chamber estimates of ecosystem respiration at the GLEES Ameriflux site over seven growing seasons under high...

Theory and Practice in Determining the Long-Term Spatial Productivity of Drylands: A California Blue Oak Case Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Washington-Allen, R. A.; Therrell, M. D.; Emanuel, R. E.

2007-12-01

Herbivory, fire, and climatic events such as El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and La Niña have been shown to have proximal and evolutionary effects on the dynamics of Dryland fauna, flora, and soils. However, spatially-explicit historical impacts of these climatic events on Dryland ecosystems is not known. Consequently, this paper has the purpose of presenting the theory and practical application for estimating the historical spatial impacts of these climatic events. We hypothesize that if remotely-sensed vegetation indices (VI) are correlated to historical tree ring data and also to functional ecosystem processes, specifically gross primary productivity (GPP) and net ecosystem production (NEP) as measured by eddy covariance flux towers, then VIs can be used to spatially and temporally distribute GPP and NEP within the species- or community-specific land cover extent over the length of the tree ring record of selected Dryland ecosystems. Secondly, the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) digital terrain model (DTM) data has been used to estimate tree height and in conjuction with plant allometric equations: biomass and standing carbon in various forest ecosystems. Tree height data in relation to tree ring age data and fire history can be used to reconstruct the spatial distribution of savanna demographic age structure, predict standing carbon and thus provide a complementary and independent dataset for comparison to DTMs from Multiangle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR), Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (IFSAR), and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) derived GPP spatial maps. We developed a database consisting of a dendrochronology record, SRTM data, globa fre history data, Long term Data Record Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (LTDR AVHRR NDVI, 1981 - 2003), contemporary gridded climate data, National Land Cover Data (NLCD), and short term eddy covariance flux tower data for the California Blue Oak woodland ecosystem to estimate both regional aboveground productivity and past disturbance history relative climate, particularly droughts, for the last 500 years.

Assessment of Provisional MODIS-derived Surfaces Related to the Global Carbon Cycle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cohen, W. B.; Maiersperger, T. K.; Turner, D. P.; Gower, S. T.; Kennedy, R. E.; Running, S. W.

2002-12-01

The global carbon cycle is one of the most important foci of an emerging global biosphere monitoring system. A key component of such a system is the MODIS sensor, onboard the Terra satellite platform. Biosphere monitoring requires an integrated program of satellite observations, Earth-system models, and in situ data. Related to the carbon cycle, MODIS science teams routinely develop a variety of global surfaces such as land cover, leaf area index, and net primary production using MODIS data and functional algorithms. The quality of these surfaces must be evaluated to determine their effectiveness for global biosphere monitoring. A project called BigFoot (http://www.fsl.orst.edu/larse/bigfoot/) is an organized effort across nine biomes to assess the quality of the abovementioned surfaces: (1) Arctic tundra; (2) boreal evergreen needle-leaved forest; temperate (3) cropland, (4) grassland, (5) evergreen needle-leaved forest, and (6) deciduous broad-leaved forest; desert (7) grassland and (8) shrubland; and (9) tropical evergreen broad-leaved forest. Each biome is represented by a site that has an eddy-covariance flux tower that measures water vapor and CO2 fluxes. Flux tower footprints are relatively small-approximately 1 km2. BigFoot characterizes 25 km2 around each tower, using field data, Landsat ETM+ image data, and ecosystem process models. Our innovative field sampling design incorporates a nested spatial series to facilitate geostatistical analyses, samples the ecological variability at a site, and is logistically efficient. Field data are used both to develop site-specific algorithms for mapping/modeling the variables of interest and to characterize the errors in derived BigFoot surfaces. Direct comparisons of BigFoot- and MODIS-derived surfaces are made to help understand the sources of error in MODIS-derived surfaces and to facilitate improvements to MODIS algorithms. Results from four BigFoot sites will be presented.

MODIS GPP/NPP for complex land use area: a case study of comparison between MODIS GPP/NPP and ground-based measurements over Korea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shim, C.

2013-12-01

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Radiometer (MODIS) Gross Primary Productivity (GPP)/Net Primary Productivity (NPP) has been widely used for the study on global terrestrial ecosystem and carbon cycle. The current MODIS product with ~ 1 km spatial resolution, however, has limitation on the information on local scale environment (< 1km), particularly on the regions with complex land-use types. Here we try to test the performance of MODIS annual GPP/NPP for a case of Korea, where the vegetation types are mostly heterogeneous within a size of MODIS products (~1km). We selected the sites where the ground/tower flux measurements and MODIS retrievals were simultaneously available and the land classification of sites agreed the forest type map (~71m) (1 site over Gwangneung flux tower (GDK) for 2006-2008 and 2 sites of ground measurements over Cheongju (CJ1 and CJ2) for 2011). The MODIS GPP are comparable to that of GDK (largely deciduous forest) within -6.3 ~ +2.3% of bias (-104.5 - 37.9 gCm-2yr-1). While the MODIS NPP of CJ1 at Cheongju (largely Larix leptolepis) underestimated NPP by 34% (-224.5 gCm-2yr-1), the MODIS NPP of CJ2 (largely Pinus densiflora) agreed well with -0.2% of bias (1.6 gCm-2yr-1). The fairly comparable values of the MODIS here however, cannot assure the quality of the MOD17 over the complex vegetation area of Korea since the ground measurements except the eddy covariance tower flux measurements are highly inconsistent. Therefore, the comprehensive experiments to represents GPP/NPP over diverse vegetation types for a comparable scale of MODIS with a consistent measurement technique are necessary in order to evaluate the MODIS vegetation productivity data over Korea, which contains a large portion of highly heterogeneous vegetation area.

Eddy Covariance Measurements of CO2 and CH4 before and after a Wetland Restoration, Tomago NSW, Australia: A Blue Carbon Investigation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Macsween, K.; Edwards, G. C.; Saintilan, N.; Negandhi, K.; Kelleway, J.; Rogers, K.; Safari, D.; Tewari, K.

2017-12-01

Australia holds 33% of the world's tidal marsh area. Scientific and policy interest has recently turned to the value of coastal wetlands for carbon sequestration ("Blue Carbon"). These coastal mangrove and saltmarsh restorations are now at the forefront of developments for ecosystem-based climate change mitigation and adaptation. The Tomago wetland located near Newcastle, NSW, Australia is undergoing rehabilitation restoring tidal inundation to a previously leveed floodplain. It is hypothesised that the restoration of tidal inundation would convert a methane source into a sink as a consequence of soil salinization. At Tomago a Before-After-Control-Impact experimental design has been undertaken to measure the impact of tidal reinstatement on wetland floodplain accretion and gas flux. Prior to tidal reinstatement, eddy covariance towers (CO2 and CH4) were installed as well as surface elevation tables, and continuous water level and water quality loggers. Hydrodynamic modelling identified the sites within the wetland predicted to remain disconnected from tidal flow. Concurrent with the micrometeorological energy balance and gas flux measurements environmental variables such as soil water salinity, inundation regime, and soil microbial communities were undertaken. This comprehensive set of data facilitated the predictive power to explain variation in greenhouse gas flux. Results showed the average CO2 and CH4 fluxes before tidal reinstatement to be -22.70 and 0.25 mg m-2 hr-1 respectively and after tidal reinstatement to be 6.41 and 0.16 mg m-2 hr-1. Over the year the average CO2 and CH4 fluxes were -3.29 and 0.20 mg m-2 hr-1. Results showed CO2 is driving the system in terms of net carbon. Two extreme precipitation events during the measurement period had significant influence on the carbon pool. It was shown that it is possible to regulate CH4 flux through management of water and salinity levels.

Assessing FPAR Source and Parameter Optimization Scheme in Application of a Diagnostic Carbon Flux Model

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Turner, D P; Ritts, W D; Wharton, S

2009-02-26

The combination of satellite remote sensing and carbon cycle models provides an opportunity for regional to global scale monitoring of terrestrial gross primary production, ecosystem respiration, and net ecosystem production. FPAR (the fraction of photosynthetically active radiation absorbed by the plant canopy) is a critical input to diagnostic models, however little is known about the relative effectiveness of FPAR products from different satellite sensors nor about the sensitivity of flux estimates to different parameterization approaches. In this study, we used multiyear observations of carbon flux at four eddy covariance flux tower sites within the conifer biome to evaluate these factors.more » FPAR products from the MODIS and SeaWiFS sensors, and the effects of single site vs. cross-site parameter optimization were tested with the CFLUX model. The SeaWiFs FPAR product showed greater dynamic range across sites and resulted in slightly reduced flux estimation errors relative to the MODIS product when using cross-site optimization. With site-specific parameter optimization, the flux model was effective in capturing seasonal and interannual variation in the carbon fluxes at these sites. The cross-site prediction errors were lower when using parameters from a cross-site optimization compared to parameter sets from optimization at single sites. These results support the practice of multisite optimization within a biome for parameterization of diagnostic carbon flux models.« less

Carbon dioxide fluxes from an urban area in Beijing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Song, Tao; Wang, Yuesi

2012-03-01

A better understanding of urban carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions is important for quantifying urban contributions to the global carbon budget. From January to December 2008, CO 2 fluxes were measured, by eddy covariance at 47 m above ground on a meteorological tower in a high-density residential area in Beijing. The results showed that the urban surface was a net source of CO 2 in the atmosphere. Diurnal flux patterns were similar to those previously observed in other cities and were largely influenced by traffic volume. Carbon uptake by both urban vegetation during the growing season and the reduction of fuel consumption for domestic heating resulted in less-positive daily fluxes in the summer. The average daily flux measured in the summer was 0.48 mg m - 2 s - 1 , which was 82%, 35% and 36% lower than those in the winter, spring and autumn, respectively. The reduction of vehicles on the road during the 29th Olympic and Paralympic Games had a significant impact on CO 2 flux. The flux of 0.40 mg m - 2 s - 1 for September 2008 was approximately 0.17 mg m - 2 s - 1 lower than the flux for September 2007. Annual CO 2 emissions from the study site were estimated at 20.6 kg CO 2 m - 2 y - 1 , considerably higher than yearly emissions obtained from other urban and suburban landscapes.

How well can regional fluxes be derived from smaller-scale estimates?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Moore, Kathleen E.; Fitzjarrald, David R.; Ritter, John A.

1992-01-01

Regional surface fluxes are essential lower boundary conditions for large scale numerical weather and climate models and are the elements of global budgets of important trace gases. Surface properties affecting the exchange of heat, moisture, momentum and trace gases vary with length scales from one meter to hundreds of km. A classical difficulty is that fluxes have been measured directly only at points or along lines. The process of scaling up observations limited in space and/or time to represent larger areas was done by assigning properties to surface classes and combining estimated or calculated fluxes using an area weighted average. It is not clear that a simple area weighted average is sufficient to produce the large scale from the small scale, chiefly due to the effect of internal boundary layers, nor is it known how important the uncertainty is to large scale model outcomes. Simultaneous aircraft and tower data obtained in the relatively simple terrain of the western Alaska tundra were used to determine the extent to which surface type variation can be related to fluxes of heat, moisture, and other properties. Surface type was classified as lake or land with aircraft borne infrared thermometer, and flight level heat and moisture fluxes were related to surface type. The magnitude and variety of sampling errors inherent in eddy correlation flux estimation place limits on how well any flux can be known even in simple geometries.

LOW-POWER SOLUTION FOR EDDY COVARIANCE MEASUREMENTS OF METHANE FLUX

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anderson, T.; Burba, G. G.; Komissarov, A.; McDermitt, D. K.; Xu, L.; Zona, D.; Oechel, W. C.; Schedlbauer, J. L.; Oberbauer, S. F.; Riensche, B.; Allyn, D.

2009-12-01

Open-path analyzers offer a number of advantages for measuring methane fluxes, including undisturbed in-situ flux measurements, spatial integration using the Eddy Covariance approach, zero frequency response errors due to tube attenuation, confident water and thermal density terms from co-located fast measurements of water and sonic temperature, and possibility of remote and mobile solar-powered or small-generator-powered deployments due to lower power demands in the absence of a pump. The LI-7700 open-path methane analyzer is a VCSEL (vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser)-based instrument. It employs an open Herriott cell and measures levels of methane with RMS noise below 5 ppb at 10 Hz sampling in controlled laboratory conditions. The power consumption of the stand-alone LI-7700 in steady-state is about 8W, so it can be deployed in any methane-generating location of interest on a portable or mobile solar-powered tower, and it does not have to have grid power or permanent industrial generator. Eddy Covariance measurements of methane flux using the LI-7700 open-path methane analyzer were conducted in 2006-2009 in five ecosystems with contrasting weather and moisture conditions: (1) sawgrass wetland in the Florida Everglades; (2) coastal wetlands in an Arctic tundra; and (3) pacific mangroves in Mexico; (4) maize field and (5) ryegrass field in Nebraska. Methane co-spectra behaved in a manner similar to that of the co-spectra of carbon dioxide, water vapor, and air temperature, demonstrating that the LI-7700 adequately measured fluctuations in methane concentration across the whole spectrum of frequencies contributing to vertical atmospheric turbulent transport at the experimental sites. All co-spectra also closely followed the Kaimal model, and demonstrated good agreement with another methane co-spectrum obtained with a TDLS (Tunable Diode Laser Spectroscope; Unisearch Associates, Inc.) over a peatland. Overall, hourly methane fluxes ranged from near-zero at night to about 4 mg m-2 h-1 in midday in arctic tundra. Observed fluxes were within the ranges reported in the literature for a number of wetlands in North America, including the Everglades wetlands. Diurnal patterns were similar to those measured by closed-path sensors. The LI-7700 open-path analyzer is a valuable tool for measuring long-term eddy fluxes of methane due to the good frequency response and undisturbed in-situ sampling. It enables long-term deployment of permanent, portable or mobile CH4 flux stations at remote locations with high CH4 production, because it can be powered by a solar panels or a small generator. Authors appreciate help and support provided by the LI-COR Engineering Team, Barrow Arctic Science Consortium (BASC), and numerous colleagues involved in measurements, logistics, and maintenance of the experimental field sites. This project was supported by the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer Program (STTR) program of the Department of Energy (DOE), Grant Number DE-FG02-05ER84283.

Advection and resulting CO2 exchange uncertainty in a tall forest in central Germany.

PubMed

Kutsch, Werner L; Kolle, Olaf; Rebmann, Corinna; Knohl, Alexander; Ziegler, Waldemar; Schulze, Ernst-Detlef

2008-09-01

Potential losses by advection were estimated at Hainich Forest, Thuringia, Germany, where the tower is located at a gentle slope. Three approaches were used: (1) comparing nighttime eddy covariance fluxes to an independent value of total ecosystem respiration by bottom-up modeling of the underlying processes, (2) direct measurements of a horizontal CO2 gradient and horizontal wind speed at 2 m height in order to calculate horizontal advection, and (3) direct measurements of a vertical CO2 gradient and a three-dimensional wind profile in order to calculate vertical advection. In the first approach, nighttime eddy covariance measurements were compared to independent values of total ecosystem respiration by means of bottom-up modeling of the underlying biological processes. Turbulent fluxes and storage term were normalized to the fluxes calculated by the bottom-up model. Below a u(*) threshold of 0.6 m/s the normalized turbulent fluxes decreased with decreasing u(*), but the flux to the storage increased only up to values less than 20% of the modeled flux at low turbulence. Horizontal advection was measured by a horizontal CO2 gradient over a distance of 130 m combined with horizontal wind speed measurements. Horizontal advection occurred at most of the evenings independently of friction velocity above the canopy. Nevertheless, horizontal advection was higher when u(*) was low. The peaks of horizontal advection correlated with changes in temperature. A full mass balance including turbulent fluxes, storage, and horizontal and vertical advection resulted in an increase of spikes and scatter but seemed to generally improve the results from the flux measurements. The comparison of flux data with independent bottom-up modeling results as well as the direct measurements resulted in strong indications that katabatic flows along the hill slope during evening and night reduces the measured apparent ecosystem respiration rate. In addition, anabatic flows may occur during the morning. We conclude that direct measurements of horizontal and vertical advection are highly necessary at sites located even on gentle hill slopes.

Impact of water use efficiency on eddy covariance flux partitioning using correlation structure analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anderson, Ray; Skaggs, Todd; Alfieri, Joseph; Kustas, William; Wang, Dong; Ayars, James

2016-04-01

Partitioned land surfaces fluxes (e.g. evaporation, transpiration, photosynthesis, and ecosystem respiration) are needed as input, calibration, and validation data for numerous hydrological and land surface models. However, one of the most commonly used techniques for measuring land surface fluxes, Eddy Covariance (EC), can directly measure net, combined water and carbon fluxes (evapotranspiration and net ecosystem exchange/productivity). Analysis of the correlation structure of high frequency EC time series (hereafter flux partitioning or FP) has been proposed to directly partition net EC fluxes into their constituent components using leaf-level water use efficiency (WUE) data to separate stomatal and non-stomatal transport processes. FP has significant logistical and spatial representativeness advantages over other partitioning approaches (e.g. isotopic fluxes, sap flow, microlysimeters), but the performance of the FP algorithm is reliant on the accuracy of the intercellular CO2 (ci) concentration used to parameterize WUE for each flux averaging interval. In this study, we tested several parameterizations for ci as a function of atmospheric CO2 (ca), including (1) a constant ci/ca ratio for C3 and C4 photosynthetic pathway plants, (2) species-specific ci/ca-Vapor Pressure Deficit (VPD) relationships (quadratic and linear), and (3) generalized C3 and C4 photosynthetic pathway ci/ca-VPD relationships. We tested these ci parameterizations at three agricultural EC towers from 2011-present in C4 and C3 crops (sugarcane - Saccharum officinarum L. and peach - Prunus persica), and validated again sap-flow sensors installed at the peach site. The peach results show that the species-specific parameterizations driven FP algorithm came to convergence significantly more frequently (~20% more frequently) than the constant ci/ca ratio or generic C3-VPD relationship. The FP algorithm parameterizations with a generic VPD relationship also had slightly higher transpiration (5 Wm-2 difference) than the constant ci/ca ratio. However, photosynthesis and respiration fluxes over sugarcane were ~15% lower with a VPD-ci/ca relationship than a constant ci/ca ratio. The results illustrate the importance of combining leaf-level physiological observations with EC to improve the performance of the FP algorithm.

BOREAS TF-3 NSA-OBS Tower Flux, Meteorological, and Soil Temperature Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wofsy, Steven; Sutton, Doug; Goulden, Mike; Hall, Forrest G. (Editor); Huemmrich, Karl (Editor)

2000-01-01

The BOReal Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study Tower Flux (BOREAS TF-3) team collected tower flux, surface meteorological, and soil temperature data at the BOREAS Northern Study Area-Old Black Spruce (NSA-OBS) site continuously from the March 1994 through October 1996. The data are available in tabular ASCII files.

Gap-filling methods to impute eddy covariance flux data by preserving variance.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kunwor, S.; Staudhammer, C. L.; Starr, G.; Loescher, H. W.

2015-12-01

To represent carbon dynamics, in terms of exchange of CO2 between the terrestrial ecosystem and the atmosphere, eddy covariance (EC) data has been collected using eddy flux towers from various sites across globe for more than two decades. However, measurements from EC data are missing for various reasons: precipitation, routine maintenance, or lack of vertical turbulence. In order to have estimates of net ecosystem exchange of carbon dioxide (NEE) with high precision and accuracy, robust gap-filling methods to impute missing data are required. While the methods used so far have provided robust estimates of the mean value of NEE, little attention has been paid to preserving the variance structures embodied by the flux data. Preserving the variance of these data will provide unbiased and precise estimates of NEE over time, which mimic natural fluctuations. We used a non-linear regression approach with moving windows of different lengths (15, 30, and 60-days) to estimate non-linear regression parameters for one year of flux data from a long-leaf pine site at the Joseph Jones Ecological Research Center. We used as our base the Michaelis-Menten and Van't Hoff functions. We assessed the potential physiological drivers of these parameters with linear models using micrometeorological predictors. We then used a parameter prediction approach to refine the non-linear gap-filling equations based on micrometeorological conditions. This provides us an opportunity to incorporate additional variables, such as vapor pressure deficit (VPD) and volumetric water content (VWC) into the equations. Our preliminary results indicate that improvements in gap-filling can be gained with a 30-day moving window with additional micrometeorological predictors (as indicated by lower root mean square error (RMSE) of the predicted values of NEE). Our next steps are to use these parameter predictions from moving windows to gap-fill the data with and without incorporation of potential driver variables of the parameters traditionally used. Then, comparisons of the predicted values from these methods and 'traditional' gap-filling methods (using 12 fixed monthly windows) will be assessed to show the scale of preserving variance. Further, this method will be applied to impute artificially created gaps for analyzing if variance is preserved.

Long-term impacts of recurrent logging and fire in Amazon forests: a modeling study using the Ecosystem Demography Model (ED2)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Longo, M.; Keller, M.; Scaranello, M. A., Sr.; dos-Santos, M. N.; Xu, Y.; Huang, M.; Morton, D. C.

2017-12-01

Logging and understory fires are major drivers of tropical forest degradation, reducing carbon stocks and changing forest structure, composition, and dynamics. In contrast to deforested areas, sites that are disturbed by logging and fires retain some, albeit severely altered, forest structure and function. In this study we simulated selective logging using the Ecosystem Demography Model (ED-2) to investigate the impact of a broad range of logging techniques, harvest intensities, and recurrence cycles on the long-term dynamics of Amazon forests, including the magnitude and duration of changes in forest flammability following timber extraction. Model results were evaluated using eddy covariance towers at logged sites at the Tapajos National Forest in Brazil and data on long-term dynamics reported in the literature. ED-2 is able to reproduce both the fast (< 5yr) recovery of water, energy fluxes compared to flux tower, and the typical, field-observed, decadal time scales for biomass recovery when no additional logging occurs. Preliminary results using the original ED-2 fire model show that canopy cover loss of forests under high-intensity, conventional logging cause sufficient drying to support more intense fires. These results indicate that under intense degradation, forests may shift to novel disturbance regimes, severely reducing carbon stocks, and inducing long-term changes in forest structure and composition from recurrent fires.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Majda, Andrew J.; Xing, Yulong; Mohammadian, Majid

Determining the finite-amplitude preconditioned states in the hurricane embryo, which lead to tropical cyclogenesis, is a central issue in contemporary meteorology. In the embryo there is competition between different preconditioning mechanisms involving hydrodynamics and moist thermodynamics, which can lead to cyclogenesis. Here systematic asymptotic methods from applied mathematics are utilized to develop new simplified moist multi-scale models starting from the moist anelastic equations. Three interesting multi-scale models emerge in the analysis. The balanced mesoscale vortex (BMV) dynamics and the microscale balanced hot tower (BHT) dynamics involve simplified balanced equations without gravity waves for vertical vorticity amplification due to moist heatmore » sources and incorporate nonlinear advective fluxes across scales. The BMV model is the central one for tropical cyclogenesis in the embryo. The moist mesoscale wave (MMW) dynamics involves simplified equations for mesoscale moisture fluctuations, as well as linear hydrostatic waves driven by heat sources from moisture and eddy flux divergences. A simplified cloud physics model for deep convection is introduced here and used to study moist axisymmetric plumes in the BHT model. A simple application in periodic geometry involving the effects of mesoscale vertical shear and moist microscale hot towers on vortex amplification is developed here to illustrate features of the coupled multi-scale models. These results illustrate the use of these models in isolating key mechanisms in the embryo in a simplified content.« less

Influence and predictive capacity of climate anomalies on daily to decadal extremes in canopy photosynthesis.

PubMed

Desai, Ankur R

2014-02-01

Significant advances have been made over the past decades in capabilities to simulate diurnal and seasonal variation of leaf-level and canopy-scale photosynthesis in temperate and boreal forests. However, long-term prediction of future forest productivity in a changing climate may be more dependent on how climate and biological anomalies influence extremes in interannual to decadal variability of canopy ecosystem carbon exchanges. These exchanges can differ markedly from leaf level responses, especially owing to the prevalence of long lags in nutrient and water cycling. Until recently, multiple long-term (10+ year) high temporal frequency (daily) observations of canopy exchange were not available to reliably assess this claim. An analysis of one of the longest running North American eddy covariance flux towers reveals that single climate variables do not adequately explain carbon exchange anomalies beyond the seasonal timescale. Daily to weekly lagged anomalies of photosynthesis positively autocorrelate with daily photosynthesis. This effect suggests a negative feedback in photosynthetic response to climate extremes, such as anomalies in evapotranspiration and maximum temperature. Moisture stress in the prior season did inhibit photosynthesis, but mechanisms are difficult to assess. A complex interplay of integrated and lagged productivity and moisture-limiting factors indicate a critical role of seasonal thresholds that limit growing season length and peak productivity. These results lead toward a new conceptual framework for improving earth system models with long-term flux tower observations.

EO-1 Hyperion Reflectance Time Series at Calibration and Validation Sites: Stability and Sensitivity to Seasonal Dynamics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Campbell, Petya K. Entcheva; Middleton, Elizabeth M.; Thome, Kurt J.; Kokaly, Raymond F.; Huemmrich, Karl Fred; Lagomasino, David; Novick, Kimberly A.; Brunsell, Nathaniel A.

2013-01-01

This study evaluated Earth Observing 1 (EO-1) Hyperion reflectance time series at established calibration sites to assess the instrument stability and suitability for monitoring vegetation functional parameters. Our analysis using three pseudo-invariant calibration sites in North America indicated that the reflectance time series are devoid of apparent spectral trends and their stability consistently is within 2.5-5 percent throughout most of the spectral range spanning the 12-plus year data record. Using three vegetated sites instrumented with eddy covariance towers, the Hyperion reflectance time series were evaluated for their ability to determine important variables of ecosystem function. A number of narrowband and derivative vegetation indices (VI) closely described the seasonal profiles in vegetation function and ecosystem carbon exchange (e.g., net and gross ecosystem productivity) in three very different ecosystems, including a hardwood forest and tallgrass prairie in North America, and a Miombo woodland in Africa. Our results demonstrate the potential for scaling the carbon flux tower measurements to local and regional landscape levels. The VIs with stronger relationships to the CO2 parameters were derived using continuous reflectance spectra and included wavelengths associated with chlorophyll content and/or chlorophyll fluorescence. Since these indices cannot be calculated from broadband multispectral instrument data, the opportunity to exploit these spectrometer-based VIs in the future will depend on the launch of satellites such as EnMAP and HyspIRI. This study highlights the practical utility of space-borne spectrometers for characterization of the spectral stability and uniformity of the calibration sites in support of sensor cross-comparisons, and demonstrates the potential of narrowband VIs to track and spatially extend ecosystem functional status as well as carbon processes measured at flux towers.

Upscaling Ameriflux observations to assess drought impacts on gross primary productivity across the Southwest

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barnes, M.; Moore, D. J.; Scott, R. L.; MacBean, N.; Ponce-Campos, G. E.; Breshears, D. D.

2017-12-01

Both satellite observations and eddy covariance estimates provide crucial information about the Earth's carbon, water and energy cycles. Continuous measurements from flux towers facilitate exploration of the exchange of carbon dioxide, water and energy between the land surface and the atmosphere at fine temporal and spatial scales, while satellite observations can fill in the large spatial gaps of in-situ measurements and provide long-term temporal continuity. The Southwest (Southwest United States and Northwest Mexico) and other semi-arid regions represent a key uncertainty in interannual variability in carbon uptake. Comparisons of existing global upscaled gross primary production (GPP) products with flux tower data at sites across the Southwest show widespread mischaracterization of seasonality in vegetation carbon uptake, resulting in large (up to 200%) errors in annual carbon uptake estimates. Here, remotely sensed and distributed meteorological inputs are used to upscale GPP estimates from 25 Ameriflux towers across the Southwest to the regional scale using a machine learning approach. Our random forest model incorporates two novel features that improve the spatial and temporal variability in GPP. First, we incorporate a multi-scalar drought index at multiple timescales to account for differential seasonality between ecosystem types. Second, our machine learning algorithm was trained on twenty five ecologically diverse sites to optimize both the monthly variability in and the seasonal cycle of GPP. The product and its components will be used to examine drought impacts on terrestrial carbon cycling across the Southwest including the effects of drought seasonality and on carbon uptake. Our spatially and temporally continuous upscaled GPP product drawing from both ground and satellite data over the Southwest region helps us understand linkages between the carbon and water cycles in semi-arid ecosystems and informs predictions of vegetation response to future climate conditions.

EO-1 Hyperion reflectance time series at calibration and validation sites: stability and sensitivity to seasonal dynamics

USGS Publications Warehouse

Campbell, P.K.E.; Middleton, E.M.; Thome, K.J.; Kokaly, Raymond F.; Huemmrich, K.F.; Novick, K.A.; Brunsell, N.A.

2013-01-01

This study evaluated Earth Observing 1 (EO-1) Hyperion reflectance time series at established calibration sites to assess the instrument stability and suitability for monitoring vegetation functional parameters. Our analysis using three pseudo-invariant calibration sites in North America indicated that the reflectance time series are devoid of apparent spectral trends and their stability consistently is within 2.5-5 percent throughout most of the spectral range spanning the 12+ year data record. Using three vegetated sites instrumented with eddy covariance towers, the Hyperion reflectance time series were evaluated for their ability to determine important variables of ecosystem function. A number of narrowband and derivative vegetation indices (VI) closely described the seasonal profiles in vegetation function and ecosystem carbon exchange (e.g., net and gross ecosystem productivity) in three very different ecosystems, including a hardwood forest and tallgrass prairie in North America, and a Miombo woodland in Africa. Our results demonstrate the potential for scaling the carbon flux tower measurements to local and regional landscape levels. The VIs with stronger relationships to the CO2 parameters were derived using continuous reflectance spectra and included wavelengths associated with chlorophyll content and/or chlorophyll fluorescence. Since these indices cannot be calculated from broadband multispectral instrument data, the opportunity to exploit these spectrometer-based VIs in the future will depend on the launch of satellites such as EnMAP and HyspIRI. This study highlights the practical utility of space-borne spectrometers for characterization of the spectral stability and uniformity of the calibration sites in support of sensor cross-comparisons, and demonstrates the potential of narrowband VIs to track and spatially extend ecosystem functional status as well as carbon processes measured at flux towers.

Parameter optimization, sensitivity, and uncertainty analysis of an ecosystem model at a forest flux tower site in the United States

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wu, Yiping; Liu, Shuguang; Huang, Zhihong; Yan, Wende

2014-01-01

Ecosystem models are useful tools for understanding ecological processes and for sustainable management of resources. In biogeochemical field, numerical models have been widely used for investigating carbon dynamics under global changes from site to regional and global scales. However, it is still challenging to optimize parameters and estimate parameterization uncertainty for complex process-based models such as the Erosion Deposition Carbon Model (EDCM), a modified version of CENTURY, that consider carbon, water, and nutrient cycles of ecosystems. This study was designed to conduct the parameter identifiability, optimization, sensitivity, and uncertainty analysis of EDCM using our developed EDCM-Auto, which incorporated a comprehensive R package—Flexible Modeling Framework (FME) and the Shuffled Complex Evolution (SCE) algorithm. Using a forest flux tower site as a case study, we implemented a comprehensive modeling analysis involving nine parameters and four target variables (carbon and water fluxes) with their corresponding measurements based on the eddy covariance technique. The local sensitivity analysis shows that the plant production-related parameters (e.g., PPDF1 and PRDX) are most sensitive to the model cost function. Both SCE and FME are comparable and performed well in deriving the optimal parameter set with satisfactory simulations of target variables. Global sensitivity and uncertainty analysis indicate that the parameter uncertainty and the resulting output uncertainty can be quantified, and that the magnitude of parameter-uncertainty effects depends on variables and seasons. This study also demonstrates that using the cutting-edge R functions such as FME can be feasible and attractive for conducting comprehensive parameter analysis for ecosystem modeling.

Disentangling Climate and Land-use Impacts on Grassland Carbon and Water Fluxes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brunsell, N. A.; Nippert, J. B.

2014-12-01

Regional climate and land cover interact in a complex, non-linear manner to alter the local cycling of mass and energy. It is often difficult to isolate the role of either mechanism on the resultant fluxes. Here, we attempt to isolate these mechanisms through the use of network of 4 Ameriflux eddy covariance towers installed over different land cover and land use classes along a pronounced rainfall gradient. The land cover types include: annually burned C4 grassland, a 4 year burn site experiencing woody encroachment, an abandoned agricultural field and a new perennial agricultural site. We investigated the impact of rainfall variability, drought, and heat waves on the water and carbon budgets using data analysis, remote sensing, and modeling approaches. In addition, we have established a network of mini-meteorological stations at the annually and 4-year burn sites to assess micro-scale variability within the footprints of the towers as a function of topographic position, soil depth and soil water availability. Through the use of a wavelet multiscale decomposition and information theory metrics, we have isolated the role of environmental factors (temperature, humidity, soil moisture, etc.) on the fluxes across the different sites. By applying a similar analysis to model output, we can assess the ability of land-surface models to recreate the observed sensitity. Results indicate the utility of a network of measurement systems used in conjunction with land surface modeling and time series analysis to assess differential impacts to similar regional scale climate forcings. Implications for the role of land cover class in regional and global scale modeling systems will also be discussed.

Large-Eddy Atmosphere-Land-Surface Modelling over Heterogeneous Surfaces: Model Development and Comparison with Measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shao, Yaping; Liu, Shaofeng; Schween, Jan H.; Crewell, Susanne

2013-08-01

A model is developed for the large-eddy simulation (LES) of heterogeneous atmosphere and land-surface processes. This couples a LES model with a land-surface scheme. New developments are made to the land-surface scheme to ensure the adequate representation of atmosphere-land-surface transfers on the large-eddy scale. These include, (1) a multi-layer canopy scheme; (2) a method for flux estimates consistent with the large-eddy subgrid closure; and (3) an appropriate soil-layer configuration. The model is then applied to a heterogeneous region with 60-m horizontal resolution and the results are compared with ground-based and airborne measurements. The simulated sensible and latent heat fluxes are found to agree well with the eddy-correlation measurements. Good agreement is also found in the modelled and observed net radiation, ground heat flux, soil temperature and moisture. Based on the model results, we study the patterns of the sensible and latent heat fluxes, how such patterns come into existence, and how large eddies propagate and destroy land-surface signals in the atmosphere. Near the surface, the flux and land-use patterns are found to be closely correlated. In the lower boundary layer, small eddies bearing land-surface signals organize and develop into larger eddies, which carry the signals to considerably higher levels. As a result, the instantaneous flux patterns appear to be unrelated to the land-use patterns, but on average, the correlation between them is significant and persistent up to about 650 m. For a given land-surface type, the scatter of the fluxes amounts to several hundred W { m }^{-2}, due to (1) large-eddy randomness; (2) rapid large-eddy and surface feedback; and (3) local advection related to surface heterogeneity.

A note on: "A Gaussian-product stochastic Gent-McWilliams parameterization"

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jansen, Malte F.

2017-02-01

This note builds on a recent article by Grooms (2016), which introduces a new stochastic parameterization for eddy buoyancy fluxes. The closure proposed by Grooms accounts for the fact that eddy fluxes arise as the product of two approximately Gaussian variables, which in turn leads to a distinctly non-Gaussian distribution. The directionality of the stochastic eddy fluxes, however, remains somewhat ad-hoc and depends on the reference frame of the chosen coordinate system. This note presents a modification of the approach proposed by Grooms, which eliminates this shortcoming. Eddy fluxes are computed based on a stochastic mixing length model, which leads to a frame invariant formulation. As in the original closure proposed by Grooms, eddy fluxes are proportional to the product of two Gaussian variables, and the parameterization reduces to the Gent and McWilliams parameterization for the mean buyoancy fluxes.

Energy budget closure observed in paired Eddy Covariance towers with increased and continuous daily turbulence

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The lack of energy closure has been a longstanding issue with Eddy Covariance (EC). Multiple mechanisms have been proposed to explain the discrepancies in energy balance including diurnal energy storage changes, advection of energy, and larger scale turbulent processes that cannot be resolved by fi...

Global Modeling, Field Campaigns, Upscaling and Ray Desjardins

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sellers, P. J.; Hall, F. G.

2012-01-01

In the early 1980's, it became apparent that land surface radiation and energy budgets were unrealistically represented in Global Circulation models (GCM's), Shortly thereafter, it became clear that the land carbon budget was also poorly represented in Earth System Models (ESM's), A number of scientific communities, including GCM/ESM modelers, micrometeorologists, satellite data specialists and plant physiologists, came together to design field experiments that could be used to develop and validate the contemporary prototype land surface models. These experiments were designed to measure land surface fluxes of radiation, heat, water vapor and CO2 using a network of flux towers and other plot-scale techniques, coincident with satellite measurements of related state variables, The interdisciplinary teams involved in these experiments quickly became aware of the scale gap between plot-scale measurements (approx 10 - 100m), satellite measurements (100m - 10 km), and GCM grid areas (l0 - 200km). At the time, there was no established flux measurement capability to bridge these scale gaps. Then, a Canadian science learn led by Ray Desjardins started to actively participate in the design and execution of the experiments, with airborne eddy correlation providing the radically innovative bridge across the scale gaps, In a succession of brilliantly executed field campaigns followed up by convincing scientific analyses, they demonstrated that airborne eddy correlation allied with satellite data was the most powerful upscaling tool available to the community, The rest is history: the realism and credibility of weather and climate models has been enormously improved enormously over the last 25 years with immense benefits to the public and policymakers.

On the coupled use of sapflow and eddy covariance measurements: environmental impacts on the evapotranspiration of an heterogeneous - wild olives based - Sardinian ecosystem.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Curreli, Matteo; Corona, Roberto; Montaldo, Nicola; Oren, Ram

2015-04-01

Sapflow and eddy covariance techniques are attractive methods for evapotranspiration (ET) estimates. We demonstrated that in Mediterranean ecosystems, characterized by an heterogeneous spatial distribution of different plant functional types (PFT) such as grass and trees, the combined use of these techniques becomes essential for the actual ET estimates. Indeed, during the dry summers these water-limited heterogeneous ecosystems are typically characterized by a simple dual PFT system with strong-resistant woody vegetation and bare soil, since grass died. An eddy covariance - micrometeorological tower has been installed over an heterogeneous ecosystem at the Orroli site in Sardinia (Italy) from 2003. The site landscape is a mixture of Mediterranean patchy vegetation types: wild olives, different shrubs and herbaceous species, which died during the summer. Where patchy land cover leads and the surface fluxes from different cover are largely different, ET evaluation may be not robust enough and eddy covariance method hypothesis are not anymore preserved. In these conditions the sapflow measurements, performed by thermodissipation probes, provide robust estimates of the transpiration from woody vegetation. Through the coupled use of the sapflow sensor observations, a 2D footprint model of the eddy covariance tower and high resolution satellite images for the estimate of the foot print land cover map, the eddy covariance measurements can be correctly interpreted, and ET components (bare soil evaporation and woody vegetation transpiration) can be separated. Based on the Granier technique, 33 thermo-dissipation probes have been built and 6 power regulators have been assembled to provide a constant current of 3V to the sensors. The sensors have been installed at the Orroli site into 15 wild olives clumps with different characteristics in terms of tree size, exposition to wind and solar radiation and soil depth. The sap flow sensors outputs are analyzed to estimate innovative allometric relationships between sapwood area, diameter, canopy cover area, which are needed for the correct upscale of the local tree measurements to the site plot larger scale. Results show the response of wild olives stomatal conductance to vapor pressure deficit that follow an exponential decrease. Interestingly the tree exposure impacts transpiration significantly, showing double rates for the trees in the south part of the wild olive clumps. The soil depth also affects ET dynamics due to the influence on water absorption of the root tree system. Finally using an innovative scaling procedure, the sap-flow transpiration at field scale have been compared to the eddy covariance ET, showing the impact of climate dynamics on the ET estimates with the two tecniques.

A Spatial-Temporal Comparison of Lake Mendota CO2 Fluxes and Collection Methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baldocchi, A. K.; Reed, D. E.; Desai, A. R.; Loken, L. C.; Schramm, P.; Stanley, E. H.

2017-12-01

Monitoring of carbon fluxes at the lake/atmosphere interface can help us determine baselines from which to understand responses in both space and time that may result from our warming climate or increasing nutrient inputs. Since recent research has shown lakes to be hotspots of global carbon cycling, it is important to quantify carbon sink and source dynamics as well as to verify observations between multiple methods in the context of long-term data collection efforts. Here we evaluate a new method for measuring space and time variation in CO2 fluxes based on novel speedboat-based collection method of aquatic greenhouse gas concentrations and a flux computation and interpolation algorithm. Two-hundred and forty-nine consecutive days of spatial flux maps over the 2016 open ice period were compared to ongoing eddy covariance tower flux measurements on the shore of Lake Mendota, Wisconsin US using a flux footprint analysis. Spatial and temporal alignments of the fluxes from these two observational datasets revealed both similar trends from daily to seasonal timescales as well as biases between methods. For example, throughout the Spring carbon fluxes showed strong correlation although off by an order of magnitude. Isolating physical patterns of agreement between the two methods of the lake/atmosphere CO2 fluxes allows us to pinpoint where biology and physical drivers contribute to the global carbon cycle and help improve modelling of lakes and utilize lakes as leading indicators of climate change.

CO2 and CH4 fluxes from oil palm plantations in Sumatra, Indonesia: effects of palm age and environmental conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meijide, A.; Hassler, E.; Corre, M. D.; June, T.; Sabajo, C.; Veldkamp, E.; Knohl, A.

2015-12-01

Global increasing demand of palm oil is leading to the expansion of oil palm plantations, particularly in SE Asia, which in Sumatran lowlands has resulted in a 21% forest area loss. Large photosynthesis rates are expected for oil palms, due to their high growth and yield production. However, there is very limited information on their effect on carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes and their sink or source strength at ecosystem scale. For methane (CH4) fluxes, research has mainly focused in oil palm plantations located on peatlands, but no information is available at ecosystem level from plantations on mineral soils. With the aim of studying CO2 fluxes during the non-productive and productive phases of oil palm cultivation, an eddy covariance (EC) tower was installed in a 2 year old oil palm plantation, where it was measuring for 8 months, and was subsequently moved to a 12 year old plantation, both in the province of Jambi, Sumatra. The EC system consisted of a Licor 7500A and an ultrasonic Metek anemometer, operating at 10 Hz, installed on a 7m and 22m tower respectively. In the 12 year old plantation, the tower was also equipped with a Los Gatos FGGA-24EP, to assess CH4 fluxes. Chamber measurements were also carried out to obtain information on respiration and CH4 fluxes from the soil. Radiation was the major driver controlling net carbon uptake, while soil moisture did not play a significant role. Average net ecosystem exchange in the hours of the day with higher radiation for the whole measurement period was 10 μmol m-2 s-1 for the 2 year old plantation and -22 μmol m-2 s-1 in the 12 year old. The analysis of the cumulative fluxes show that the non-productive plantation was a carbon source of around 636 g CO2 m-2 during the 8 months of measurements, while in the productive period, it acted as a strong carbon sink (-794 g CO2 m-2 yr-1). Methane uptake was observed in the soil in both plantations and also for the whole ecosystem in the 12 year old one, but its contributions to the global greenhouse gas budget was very limited in relation to that of CO2. These results reveal the strong contrast between young non-productive and mature productive oil palm plantations, thus highlighting the need of evaluating all stages of development of oil palm plantations when assessing their carbon balance at regional scale.

Carbon dioxide fluxes over a raised open bog at the Kinosheo Lake tower site during the Northern Wetlands Study (NOWES)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Neumann, H. H.; Den Hartog, G.; King, K. M.; Chipanshi, A. C.

1994-01-01

Measurements of carbon dioxide concentration and flux were made above a raised open bog at Lake Kinosheo in the southern Hudson Bay lowlands during the Northern Wetlands Study (NOWES) experiment in 1990. The flux measurements were made using micrometeorological techniques. They provide the first nondisturbing, larger-scale CO2 flux measurements for this ecosystem and are the first to integrate the exchange over the whole 24 hours of the day. Continuous concentration measurements by infrared gas analyzers (IRGA) and spot flask samples were taken over the period July 1 to July 29. Afternoon CO2 values were only 5 to 7 parts per million by volume (ppmv) lower than measurements over the same period at Canadian background monitoring stations. This suggested that there was little draw-down by local photosynthetic sinks. CO2 fluxes were measured at 8 and 18 m by Bowen ratio and eddy correlation methods, respectively. The methods produced comparable results on averaged data but often diverged considerably on individual half-hour results. Fluxes were small. Daytime values averaged to -0.068 mg/sq m/s by eddy correlation and -0.077 mg/sq m/s by Bowen ratio over the period June 25 to July 28 (negative denotes downward flux), while at night, flux densities were +0.062 mg/sq m/s and +0.085 mg/sq m/s. Integration of the mean diurnal curve gave a net flux of -1.7 g/sq m/d. Comparable data for this type of ecosystem were not found. However, Coyne and Kelley (1975), measuring near Barrow, Alaska, over wet meadow tundra dominated by sedges and grasses, found net fluxes of -7.2 g/sq m/d. Typical net CO2 fluxes from other active temperature ecosystems have been found to be -10 to -20 g/sq m/d (Monteith, 1976). Mean half hourly fluxes were almost constant at +0.06 mg/sq m/s through the nighttime hours. About one half-hour after sunrise the flux reversed direction. Uptake peaked about 0900 eastern daylight time (EDT) and then gradually declined but remained downward until near sunset. The early peak was interpreted to signify that the many plants in the bog experienced water stress during the day as evaporative demand increased and nighttime dew was evaporated.

Seasonal carbon fluxes for an old-growth temperate forest inferred from carbonyl sulphide

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rastogi, Bharat; Jiang, Yueyang; Berkelhammer, Maxwell; Wharton, Sonia; Noone, David; Still, Christopher

2017-04-01

Characterizing and quantifying the processes that control terrestrial ecosystem exchanges of carbon and water are critical for understanding how forested ecosystems respond to a changing climate. A small but increasing number of studies has identified carbonyl sulfide (OCS) as a potential tracer of canopy photosynthesis and stomatal function. Here we present seasonal fluxes of OCS from a 60m tall old-growth temperate forest. An off-axis integrated cavity output spectroscopy analyzer (Los Gatos Research Inc.) was deployed at the Wind River Experimental Forest in Washington (45.8205°N, 121.9519°W) in 2014 and 2015. GPP (Gross Primary Production) is inferred from OCS fluxes and compared with estimates derived from measurements of NEE (Net Ecosystem Exchange) from eddy flux data as well as GPP predictions using a process based model. Our findings seek to resolve scientific questions regarding ecosystem carbon exchange from tall old growth forests, which have a complicated vertical leaf area structure, high above ground biomass and amount and aerial cover of epiphytic vegetation. Estimates of canopy conductance calculated using tower flux data are also combined with measurements of stable isotopologues of CO2 to infer emergent ecosystem properties such as canopy ci/ca and water use efficiency.

Advancements in Micrometeorological Technique for Monitoring CH4 Release from Remote Permafrost Regions: Principles, Emerging Research, and Latest Updates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burba, George; Budishchev, Artem; Gioli, Beniamino; Haapanala, Sami; Helbig, Manuel; Losacco, Salvatore; Mammarella, Ivan; Moreaux, Virginie; Murphy, Patrick; Oechel, Walter; Peltola, Olli; Rinne, Janne; Sonnentag, Oliver; Sturtevant, Cove; Vesala, Timo; Zona, Donatella; Zulueta, Rommel

2014-05-01

Flux stations have been widely used to monitor release and uptake rates of CO2, CH4, H2O and other gases from various ecosystems for climate research for over 30 years. The stations provide accurate and continuous measurements of gas exchange at time scales ranging from 15 or 30 minutes to multiple years, and at spatial scales ranging from thousands m2 to multiple km2, depending on the measurement height. The stations can nearly instantaneously detect rapid changes in gas release due to weather or man-triggered events (pressure changes, ice breakage and melts, ebullition events, etc.). They can also detect slow changes related to seasonal dynamics and man-triggered processes (seasonal freeze and thaw, long-term permafrost degradation, etc.). From 1980s to mid-2000s, station configuration, data collection and processing were highly-customized, site-specific and greatly dependent on "school-of-thought" practiced by a particular researcher. In the past 3-5 years, due to significant efforts of global and regional flux networks and technological developments, the methodology became fairly standardized. Majority of current stations compute gas emission and uptake rates using eddy covariance method, as one of the most direct micrometeorological techniques. Over 600 such flux stations operate in over 120 countries, using permanent and mobile towers or moving platforms (e.g., automobiles, helicopters, airplanes, ships, etc.). With increasing atmospheric temperatures in the Arctic likely resulting in a higher rate of permafrost degradation, measurements of gas exchange dynamics become particularly important. The permafrost regions store a significant amount of organic materials under anaerobic conditions, leading to large CH4 production and accumulation in the upper layers of bedrock, soil and ice. These regions may become a significant potential source of global CH4 release under a warming climate over the following decades and centuries. Present measurements of CH4 release in permafrost regions have mostly been made with static chamber techniques, and few were done with the eddy covariance approach using closed-path analyzers. Although chambers and closed-path analyzers have advantages, both techniques have significant limitations, especially for remote or portable research in cold regions. Static chamber measurements are discrete in time and space, and particularly difficult to use over polygonal tundra with highly non-uniform micro-topography and active soil layer. Closed-path gas analyzers for measuring CH4 eddy fluxes require climate control, employ high-power pumps, and generally require grid power and infrastructure. As a result, spatial coverage of eddy covariance CH4 flux measurements in cold regions remains limited. Existing stations are often located near grid power sources and roads rather than in the middle of the methane-producing ecosystem, while those that are placed appropriately may require extraordinary efforts to build and maintain them, with large investments into manpower and infrastructure. In this presentation, basic principles of eddy covariance flux measurements are explained, along with details on the CH4, CO2 and H2O exchange measurements using low-power flux stations. Also included are latest updates on the emerging research utilizing such stations in remote permafrost regions, and on the 2013-2014 development of fully automated remote unattended flux station capable of processing data on-the-go to continuously output final CH4 release rates.

A multi-scale approach to monitor urban carbon-dioxide emissions in the atmosphere over Vancouver, Canada

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Christen, A.; Crawford, B.; Ketler, R.; Lee, J. K.; McKendry, I. G.; Nesic, Z.; Caitlin, S.

2015-12-01

Measurements of long-lived greenhouse gases in the urban atmosphere are potentially useful to constrain and validate urban emission inventories, or space-borne remote-sensing products. We summarize and compare three different approaches, operating at different scales, that directly or indirectly identify, attribute and quantify emissions (and uptake) of carbon dioxide (CO2) in urban environments. All three approaches are illustrated using in-situ measurements in the atmosphere in and over Vancouver, Canada. Mobile sensing may be a promising way to quantify and map CO2 mixing ratios at fine scales across heterogenous and complex urban environments. We developed a system for monitoring CO2 mixing ratios at street level using a network of mobile CO2 sensors deployable on vehicles and bikes. A total of 5 prototype sensors were built and simultaneously used in a measurement campaign across a range of urban land use types and densities within a short time frame (3 hours). The dataset is used to aid in fine scale emission mapping in combination with simultaneous tower-based flux measurements. Overall, calculated CO2 emissions are realistic when compared against a spatially disaggregated scale emission inventory. The second approach is based on mass flux measurements of CO2 using a tower-based eddy covariance (EC) system. We present a continuous 7-year long dataset of CO2 fluxes measured by EC at the 28m tall flux tower 'Vancouver-Sunset'. We show how this dataset can be combined with turbulent source area models to quantify and partition different emission processes at the neighborhood-scale. The long-term EC measurements are within 10% of a spatially disaggregated scale emission inventory. Thirdly, at the urban scale, we present a dataset of CO2 mixing ratios measured using a tethered balloon system in the urban boundary layer above Vancouver. Using a simple box model, net city-scale CO2 emissions can be determined using measured rate of change of CO2 mixing ratios, estimated CO2 advection and entrainment fluxes. Daily city-scale emissions totals predicted by the model are within 32% of a spatially scaled municipal greenhouse gas inventory. In summary, combining information from different approaches and scales is a promising approach to establish long-term emission monitoring networks in cities.

Performance of the METRIC model in estimating evapotranspiration fluxes over an irrigated field in Saudi Arabia using Landsat-8 images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Madugundu, Rangaswamy; Al-Gaadi, Khalid A.; Tola, ElKamil; Hassaballa, Abdalhaleem A.; Patil, Virupakshagouda C.

2017-12-01

Accurate estimation of evapotranspiration (ET) is essential for hydrological modeling and efficient crop water management in hyper-arid climates. In this study, we applied the METRIC algorithm on Landsat-8 images, acquired from June to October 2013, for the mapping of ET of a 50 ha center-pivot irrigated alfalfa field in the eastern region of Saudi Arabia. The METRIC-estimated energy balance components and ET were evaluated against the data provided by an eddy covariance (EC) flux tower installed in the field. Results indicated that the METRIC algorithm provided accurate ET estimates over the study area, with RMSE values of 0.13 and 4.15 mm d-1. The METRIC algorithm was observed to perform better in full canopy conditions compared to partial canopy conditions. On average, the METRIC algorithm overestimated the hourly ET by 6.6 % in comparison to the EC measurements; however, the daily ET was underestimated by 4.2 %.

Carbon and water fluxes and footprints in tropical agricultural systems under rainfed and irrigated conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Johnson, M. S.; Lathuilliere, M. J.; Morillas, L.; Dalmagro, H. J.; D'Acunha, B.; Kim, Y.; Suarez, A.; Couto, E. G.

2017-12-01

In this talk, we will summarize results obtained using three tropical agricultural water observatories in Guanacaste, Costa Rica and Mato Grosso, Brazil. These flux towers and associated sensors enable detailed assessments of carbon use and water use efficiencies for crops under rain-fed and irrigated conditions. In addition to directly assessing water consumption from crops via eddy covariance, determination of water footprints and water use efficiencies using sensors and integrating it with remotely sensed data make it possible to (i) evaluate and compare different irrigation systems used in the study regions (drip, pivot and flood irrigation), (ii) assess the effect of irrigation over the local water balance to identify vulnerabilities associated with intensive water extraction for irrigation, and (iii) study the effect of inter-annual water availability fluctuations on crop water use. We conclude by comparing volumetric water footprints for crops, their carbon footprints, and water and carbon use efficiencies of crops produced under business-as-usual and alternative soil and water management scenarios.

Where the Rubber Meets the Road; Varied Techniques for Measuring the Land-Atmosphere Exchange of Water and Energy in a California Watershed and the Driving Influences on this Exchange

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kochendorfer, J.; Viers, J.; Niswonger, R.; Paw U, K.; Haas, E.; Reck, R. A.

2005-12-01

In conjunction with the Cosumnes Research Group, we performed a field study along the Cosumnes River in California's Central Valley. The study included tower-based evapotranspiration estimates, continuous hydrologic measurements, and analysis of remote sensing data. We estimated the effects of phreatophytic evapotranspiration on groundwater from scales as small as an individual stand of trees to as large as the watershed and explored the climactic and hydrologic controls over riparian evapotranspiration. Tower-based evapotranspiration measurements included one eddy covariance tower within a cottonwood forest (Populus fremontii), and one surface temperature/micrometeorological evapotranspiration tower within a willow stand (Salix lasiolepis). The technique used on the surface temperature/micrometeorological evapotranspiration tower was developed and chosen in preference to eddy covariance for a site where a considerable quantity of the riparian ecosystem to atmosphere exchange is advective. Hydrologic techniques included measurements of groundwater depth and volumetric soil moisture. We also examined multitemporal, multiresolution remotely sensed imagery to correlate evapotranspiration rates for a restored cottonwood forest with derived vegetation indices. These indices were evaluated for applicability to other restored riparian habitats within the Cosumnes River Preserve and to help guide future restoration actions as a function of hydrologic connectivity and water demand.

Heat storage in forest biomass improves energy balance closure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lindroth, A.; Mölder, M.; Lagergren, F.

2010-01-01

Temperature measurements in trunks and branches in a mature ca. 100 years-old mixed pine and spruce forest in central Sweden were used to estimate the heat storage in the tree biomass. The estimated heat flux in the sample trees and data on biomass distributions were used to scale up to stand level biomass heat fluxes. The rate of change of sensible and latent heat storage in the air layer below the level of the flux measurements was estimated from air temperature and humidity profile measurements and soil heat flux was estimated from heat flux plates and soil temperature measurements. The fluxes of sensible and latent heat from the forest were measured with an eddy covariance system in a tower. The analysis was made for a two-month period in summer of 1995. The tree biomass heat flux was the largest of the estimated storage components and varied between 40 and -35 W m-2 on summer days with nice weather. Averaged over two months the diurnal maximum of total heat storage was 45 W m-2 and the minimum was -35 W m-2. The soil heat flux and the sensible heat storage in air were out of phase with the biomass flux and they reached maximum values that were about 75% of the maximum of the tree biomass heat storage. The energy balance closure improved significantly when the total heat storage was added to the turbulent fluxes. The slope of a regression line with sum of fluxes and storage as independent and net radiation as dependent variable, increased from 0.86 to 0.95 for half-hourly data and the scatter was also reduced. The most significant finding was, however, that during nights with strongly stable conditions when the sensible heat flux dropped to nearly zero, the total storage matched the net radiation very well. Another interesting result was that the mean energy imbalance started to increase when the Richardson number became more negative than ca. -0.1. In fact, the largest energy deficit occurred at maximum instability. Our conclusion is that eddy covariance measurements can function well during stable conditions but that the functioning under strong instabilities might be a so far unforeseen problem.

Heat storage in forest biomass significantly improves energy balance closure particularly during stable conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lindroth, A.; Mölder, M.; Lagergren, F.

2009-08-01

Temperature measurements in trunks and branches in a mature ca. 100 years-old mixed pine and spruce forest in central Sweden were used to estimate the heat storage in the tree biomass. The estimated heat flux in the sample trees and data on biomass distributions were used to scale up to stand level biomass heat fluxes. The rate of change of sensible and latent heat storage in the air layer below the level of the flux measurements was estimated from air temperature and humidity profile measurements and soil heat flux was estimated from heat flux plates and soil temperature measurements. The fluxes of sensible and latent heat from the forest were measured with an eddy covariance system in a tower. The analysis was made for a two-month period in summer of 1995. The tree biomass heat flux was the largest of the estimated storage components and varied between 40 and -35 W m-2 on summer days with nice weather. Averaged over two months the diurnal maximum of total heat storage was 45 W m-2 and the minimum was -35 W m-2. The soil heat flux and the sensible heat storage in air were out of phase with the biomass flux and they reached maximum values that were about 75% of the maximum of the tree biomass heat storage. The energy balance closure improved significantly when the total heat storage was added to the turbulent fluxes. The slope of a regression line with sum of fluxes and storage as independent and net radiation as dependent variable, increased from 0.86 to 0.95 for half-hourly data and the scatter was also reduced. The most significant finding was, however, that during nights with strongly stable conditions when the sensible heat flux dropped to nearly zero, the total storage matched the net radiation nearly perfectly. Another interesting result was that the mean energy imbalance started to increase when the Richardson number became more negative than ca. -0.1. In fact, the largest energy deficit occurred at maximum instability. Our conclusion is that eddy covariance measurements can function well during stable conditions but that the functioning under strong instabilities might be a so far unforeseen problem.

Interpreting Carbon Fluxes from a Spatially Heterogeneous Peatland with Thawing Permafrost: Scaling from Plant Community Scale to Ecosystem Scale

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harder, S. R.; Roulet, N. T.; Strachan, I. B.; Crill, P. M.; Persson, A.; Pelletier, L.; Watt, C.

2014-12-01

Various microforms, created by spatial differential thawing of permafrost, make up the subarctic heterogeneous Stordalen peatland complex (68°22'N, 19°03'E), near Abisko, Sweden. This results in significantly different peatland vegetation communities across short distances, as well as differences in wetness, temperature and peat substrates. We have been measuring the spatially integrated CO2, heat and water vapour fluxes from this peatland complex using eddy covariance and the CO2 exchange from specific plant communities within the EC tower footprint since spring 2008. With this data we are examining if it is possible to derive the spatially integrated ecosystem-wide fluxes from community-level simple light use efficiency (LUE) and ecosystem respiration (ER) models. These models have been developed using several years of continuous autochamber flux measurements for the three major plant functional types (PFTs) as well as knowledge of the spatial variability of the vegetation, water table and active layer depths. LIDAR was used to produce a 1 m resolution digital evaluation model of the complex and the spatial distribution of PFTs was obtained from concurrent high-resolution digital colour air photography trained from vegetation surveys. Continuous water table depths have been measured for four years at over 40 locations in the complex, and peat temperatures and active layer depths are surveyed every 10 days at more than 100 locations. The EC footprint is calculated for every half-hour and the PFT based models are run with the corresponding environmental variables weighted for the PFTs within the EC footprint. Our results show that the Sphagnum, palsa, and sedge PFTs have distinctly different LUE models, and that the tower fluxes are dominated by a blend of the Sphagnum and palsa PFTs. We also see a distinctly different energy partitioning between the fetches containing intact palsa and those with thawed palsa: the evaporative efficiency is higher and the Bowen ration lower for the thawed palsa fetches.

Estimates of Oceanic Eddy Heat and Salt Transports from Satellite Altimetry and Argo Profile Data.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Amores Maimo, A. M.; Melnichenko, O.; Maximenko, N. A.

2016-12-01

Horizontal heat and salt fluxes by mesoscale eddies are estimated in the near-global ocean (10°-60° N and 10°-60° S) by combining historical records of Argo temperature/salinity profiles and satellite sea level anomaly data in the framework of the eddy tracking technique. The eddy fluxes are expectedly strong in the western boundary currents and in the Southern Ocean along the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC). The fluxes are generally weak, but not negligible in gyre interiors. In the vertical, the eddy heat and salt fluxes are surface-intensified and confined mainly to the upper 600m layer, but their distribution with depth is not homogeneous throughout the ocean. In the Kuroshio Extension (KE) region, for example, the heat flux is poleward everywhere in the surface layer above the thermocline, but oppositely signed relative to the jet's axis in a deeper layer between approximately 300-800 m, where the flux is poleward on the northern side of the jet and equatorward on its southern side. Relatively strong fluxes at depth are also observed in the ACC, particularly in the Indian sector, and in the subtropical North Atlantic at the level of the Mediterranean Water (MW) at around 1000 m depth. The latter exemplifies the role of eddies in MW spreading. These and other features of the longitude-latitude-depth distributions of the eddy heat and salt fluxes, constructed for the first time from observational data, are presented and discussed.

Impact of surrounding environment evolution on long-term gas flux measurements in a temperate mixed forest

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hurdebise, Quentin; Rixen, Toma; De Ligne, Anne; Vincke, Caroline; Heinesch, Bernard; Aubinet, Marc

2016-04-01

With the development of eddy covariance networks like Fluxnet, ICOS or NEON, long-term data series of carbon dioxide, water vapor and other gas exchanges between terrestrial ecosystems and atmosphere will become more and more numerous. However, long-term analyses of such exchanges require a good understanding of measurement conditions during the investigated period. Independently of climate drivers, measurements may indeed be influenced by measurement conditions themselves subjected to long-term variability due to vegetation growth or set-up changes. The present research refers to the Vielsalm Terrestrial Observatory (VTO) where fluxes of momentum, carbon dioxide, latent and sensible heat have been continuously measured by eddy covariance during twenty years. VTO is an ICOS site installed in a mixed forest (beech, silver fir, Douglas fir, Norway spruce) in the Belgian Ardennes. A multidisciplinary approach was developed in order to investigate the spatial and temporal evolution of several site characteristics: -displacement height (d) and relative measurement height (z-d) were determined using a spectral approach that compared observed and theoretical cospectra; -turbulence statistics were analyzed in the context of Monin-Obukhov similarity theory; -tree height during the measurement period was obtained by combining tree height inventories, a LIDAR survey and tree growth models; -measurement footprint was determined by using a footprint model. A good agreement was found between the three first approaches. Results show notably that z-d was subjected to both temporal and spatial evolution. Temporal evolution resulted from continuous tree growth as well as from a tower raise, achieved in 2009. Spatial evolution, due to canopy heterogeneity, was also observed. The impacts of these changes on measurements are investigated. In particular, it was shown that they affect measurement footprint, flux spectral corrections and flux quality. All these effects must be taken into consideration in order to disentangle long-term flux evolutions due to climate or phenology from changes resulting from measurement set-up changes.

Enhanced Particulate Organic Carbon Export at Eddy Edges in the Oligotrophic Western North Pacific Ocean

PubMed Central

Shih, Yung-Yen; Hung, Chin-Chang; Gong, Gwo-Ching; Chung, Wan-Chen; Wang, Yu-Huai; Lee, I-Huan; Chen, Kuo-Shu; Ho, Chuang-Yi

2015-01-01

Mesoscale eddies in the subtropical oligotrophic ocean are ubiquitous and play an important role in nutrient supply and oceanic primary production. However, it is still unclear whether these mesoscale eddies can efficiently transfer CO2 from the atmosphere to deep waters via biological pump because of the sampling difficulty due to their transient nature. In 2007, particulate organic carbon (POC) fluxes, measured below the euphotic zone at the edge of warm eddy were 136–194 mg-C m−2 d−1 which was greatly elevated over that (POC flux = 26–35 mg-C m−2 d−1) determined in the nutrient-depleted oligotrophic waters in the Western North Pacific (WNP). In 2010, higher POC fluxes (83–115 mg-C m−2 d−1) were also observed at the boundary of mesoscale eddies in the WNP. The enhanced POC flux at the edge of eddies was mainly attributed to both large denuded diatom frustules and zooplankton fecal pellets based on scanning electron microscopy (SEM) examination. The result suggests that mesoscale eddies in the oligotrophic waters in the subtropical WNP can efficiently increase the oceanic carbon export flux and the eddy edge is a crucial conduit in carbon sequestration to deep waters. PMID:26171611

The use of fair-weather cases from the ACT-America Summer 2016 field campaign to better constrain regional biogenic CO2 surface fluxes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gaudet, B. J.; Davis, K. J.; DiGangi, J. P.; Feng, S.; Hoffman, K.; Jacobson, A. R.; Lauvaux, T.; McGill, M. J.; Miles, N.; Pal, S.; Pauly, R.; Richardson, S.

2017-12-01

The Atmospheric Carbon and Transport - America (ACT-America) study is a multi-year NASA-funded project designed to increase our understanding of regional-scale greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes over North America through aircraft, satellite, and tower-based observations. This is being accomplished through a series of field campaigns that cover three focus regions (Mid-Atlantic, Gulf Coast, and Midwest), and all four seasons (summer, winter, fall, and spring), as well as a variety of meteorological conditions. While constraints on GHG fluxes can be derived on the global scale (through remote-site concentration measurements and global flux inversion models) and the local scale (through eddy-covariance flux tower measurements), observational constraints on the intermediate scales are not as readily available. Biogenic CO2 fluxes are particularly challenging because of their strong seasonal and diurnal cycles and large spatial variability. During the summer 2016 ACT field campaign, fair weather days were targeted for special flight patterns designed to estimate surface fluxes at scales on the order of 105 km2 using a modified mass-balance approach. For some onshore flow cases in the Gulf Coast, atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) flight transects were performed both inland and offshore when it could be reasonably inferred that the homogeneous Gulf air provided the background GHG field for the inland transect. On other days, two-day flight sequences were performed, where the second-day location of the flight patterns was designed to encompass the air mass that was sampled on the first day. With these flight patterns, the average regional flux can be estimated from the ABL CO2 concentration change. Direct measurements of ABL depth from both aircraft profiles and high-resolution airborne lidar will be used, while winds and free-tropospheric CO2 can be determined from model output and in situ aircraft observations. Here we will present examples of this flux estimation for both Gulf-inflow and two-day fair-weather pattern cases from the summer 2016 ACT-America field campaign. We will also examine processes that lead to uncertainty in these estimates, and quantify these uncertainties. Implications for the ability of this regional flux determination to constrain the existing suite of GHG flux estimates will be discussed.

[CO2 turbulent exchange in a broadleaved Korean pine forest in Changbai Mountains].

PubMed

Wu, Jia-bing; Guan, De-xin; Sun, Xiao-min; Shi, Ting-ting; Han, Shi-jie; Jin, Chang-jie

2007-05-01

The measurement of CO2 turbulent exchange in a broadleaved Korean pine forest in Changbai Mountains by an open-path eddy covariance system showed that with near neutral atmospheric stratification, the CO2 and vertical wind components over canopy in inertial subrange followed the expected -2/3 power law, and the dominant vertical eddy scale was about 40 m. The frequency ranges of eddy contributions to CO2 fluxes were mostly within 0.01-2.0 Hz, and the eddy translated by low frequency over canopy contributed more of CO2 fluxes. The open-path eddy covariance system could satisfy the estimation of turbulent fluxes over canopy, but the CO2 fluxes between forest and atmosphere were generally underestimated at night because the increment of non turbulent processes, suggesting that the CO2 fluxes estimated under weak turbulence needed to revise correspondingly.

Toward relaxed eddy accumulation measurements of sediment-water exchange in aquatic ecosystems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lemaire, Bruno J.; Noss, Christian; Lorke, Andreas

2017-09-01

Solute transport across the sediment-water interface has major implications for water quality and biogeochemical cycling in aquatic ecosystems. Existing measurement techniques, however, are not capable of resolving sediment-water fluxes of most constituents under in situ flow conditions. We investigated whether relaxed eddy accumulation (REA), a micrometeorological technique with conditional sampling of turbulent updrafts and downdrafts, can be adapted to the aquatic environment. We simulated REA fluxes by reanalyzing eddy covariance measurements from a riverine lake. We found that the empirical coefficient that relates mass fluxes to the concentration difference between both REA samples is invariant with scalar and flow and responds as predicted by a joint Gaussian distribution of linearly correlated variables. Simulated REA fluxes differed on average by around 30% from eddy covariance fluxes (mean absolute error). Assessment of the lower quantification limit suggests that REA can potentially be applied for measuring benthic fluxes of a new range of constituents that cannot be assessed by standard eddy covariance methods.

A global 2007-2015 spaceborne sun-induced vegetation fluorescence time series evaluated with Australian flux tower observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Verstraeten, Willem W.; Sanders, Abram F. J.; Kooreman, Maurits L.; van Leth, Thomas C.; Beringer, Jason; Joiner, Joanna; Delcloo, Andy

2017-04-01

The Gross Primary Production (GPP) of the terrestrial biosphere is a key quantity in the understanding of the global carbon cycle. GPP is the amount of atmospheric carbon fixed through the process of plant photosynthesis and it represents the largest ecosystem gross flux of CO2 between the atmosphere and the Earth surface. To date, monitoring of GPP has not been possible at scales beyond that of a single agricultural field or natural ecosystem. At those scales, networks of eddy-covariance towers provide a platform to measure Net Ecosystem Exchange (NEE) of carbon at high temporal resolution, although with only sparse spatial coverage. Satellite observations can bridge that gap by providing the spatial distributions and changes over time of vegetation-related spectral indices. These "greenness indicators", however, tend to return the potential carbon uptake by plants rather than the actual uptake since short term environmental changes affecting plant productivity (e.g., water availability, temperature, nutrient deficiency, diseases) are not well captured. Sun-induced plant fluorescence (SiF), however, is tightly related to photosynthetic activity in the red and near-infrared wavelength range, and SiF can be retrieved from spaceborne measurements from sensors with good signal-to-noise ratios and fine spectral resolutions. We use optical data from the Global Ozone Monitoring Instrument 2 (GOME-2A) satellite sensor to infer terrestrial fluorescence from space. The spectral signatures of atmospheric absorption, surface reflectance, and fluorescence radiance are disentangled using reference hyperspectral data of non-fluorescence surfaces (desserts) to solve for the atmospheric absorption. An empirically based principal component analysis (PCA) approach was applied. Here we show a global 2007-2015 times series of sun-induced vegetation fluorescence derived from GOME-2A observations which we have compared with GPP data derived from twelve Net Ecosystem Exchange flux tower measurements in Australia. Correlations for individual towers range from 0.37 to 0.84. They are particularly high for managed biome types. Furthermore, we show that deseasonalized Australian SiF time series are able to clearly indicate the break of the Millennium Drought during the local summer of 2010/2011. It illustrates the strong potential of SiF data to monitor vegetation activity in relation with meteorological anomalies which may have impact on the ecosystem carbon budget and thus affect our climate at the long range.

Air-sea heat fluxes associated to mesoscale eddies in the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean and their dependence on different regional conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leyba, Inés M.; Saraceno, Martín; Solman, Silvina A.

2017-10-01

Heat fluxes between the ocean and the atmosphere largely represent the link between the two media. A possible mechanism of interaction is generated by mesoscale ocean eddies. In this work we evaluate if eddies in Southwestern Atlantic (SWA) Ocean may significantly affect flows between the ocean and the atmosphere. Atmospherics conditions associated with eddies were examined using data of sea surface temperature (SST), sensible (SHF) and latent heat flux (LHF) from NCEP-CFSR reanalysis. On average, we found that NCEP-CFSR reanalysis adequately reflects the variability expected from eddies in the SWA, considering the classical eddy-pumping theory: anticyclonic (cyclonic) eddies cause maximum positive (negative) anomalies with maximum mean anomalies of 0.5 °C (-0.5 °C) in SST, 6 W/m2 (-4 W/m2) in SHF and 12 W/m2 (-9 W/m2) in LHF. However, a regional dependence of heat fluxes associated to mesoscale cyclonic eddies was found: in the turbulent Brazil-Malvinas Confluence (BMC) region they are related with positive heat flux anomaly (ocean heat loss), while in the rest of the SWA they behave as expected (ocean heat gain). We argue that eddy-pumping do not cool enough the center of the cyclonic eddies in the BMC region simply because most of them trapped very warm waters when they originate in the subtropics. The article therefore concludes that in the SWA: (1) a robust link exists between the SST anomalies generated by eddies and the local anomalous heat flow between the ocean and the atmosphere; (2) in the BMC region cyclonic eddies are related with positive heat anomalies, contrary to what is expected.

Changes to the Carbon and Energy fluxes in a Northern Peatland with Thawing Permafrost

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harder, S. R.; Roulet, N. T.; Crill, P. M.; Strachan, I. B.

2017-12-01

The maintenance of thaw of high carbon density landscapes in the permafrost region ultimately depends of how the energy balance is partitioned as temperatures and precipitation change, yet there are comparatively few energy balance studies, especially in peatlands that contain permafrost. While permafrost peatlands are currently net sinks of carbon, as Arctic temperatures rise and permafrost thaws, the future of these ecosystems and their capacity for carbon uptake is in question. Since 2012 we have been measuring the spatially integrated CO2, energy and water vapour fluxes from the Stordalen peatland (68°22'N, 19°03'E) using eddy covariance (EC). The Stordalen peatland is a heterogeneous peatland in the discontinuous permafrost zone where permafrost thaw is actively occurring, resulting in large changes to the landscape from year to year. Areas where permafrost is present are elevated by up to 1.5 m compared to the areas where permafrost has thawed causing differences in water table depth, peat temperatures, snow distribution, vegetation community and therefore in the carbon and energy fluxes. Our EC tower is located on the edge of a permafrost peat plateau (or palsa) where one fetch measures fluxes from an area underlain by permafrost and the other fetch sees the portion of the peatland where the permafrost has thawed. Within each sector, we have an array of soil temperature and water content sensors to determine the physical characteristics of each fetch. Extensive vegetation surveys (based on plant functional types or PFTs) have also been conducted to run a footprint analysis on the flux data to complete a comparative analysis of the magnitude and variability of the carbon and energy exchanges from PFT. The footprint analysis allows us to explain the difference in energy and carbon fluxes by examining the ecological, biogeochemical and physical characteristics within each footprint. We see distinctly different energy partitioning between the fetches containing intact permafrost and those where the permafrost has thawed: the evaporative efficiency is higher and the Bowen ration lower for the thawed fetches. Our results also show differences in the carbon fluxes depending on the tower footprint.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Phillips, Claire L.; Bond-Lamberty, Ben; Desai, Ankur R.

A recent acceleration of model-data synthesis activities has leveraged many terrestrial carbon (C) datasets, but utilization of soil respiration (RS) data has not kept pace with other types such as eddy covariance (EC) fluxes and soil C stocks. Here we argue that RS data, including non-continuous measurements from survey sampling campaigns, have unrealized value and should be utilized more extensively and creatively in data synthesis and modeling activities. We identify three major challenges in interpreting RS data, and discuss opportunities to address them. The first challenge is that when RS is compared to ecosystem respiration (RECO) measured from EC towers,more » it is not uncommon to find substantial mismatch, indicating one or both flux methodologies are unreliable. We argue the most likely cause of mismatch is unreliable EC data, and there is an unrecognized opportunity to utilize RS for EC quality control. The second challenge is that RS integrates belowground heterotrophic (RH) and autotrophic (RA) activity, whereas modelers generally prefer partitioned fluxes, and few models include an explicit RS output. Opportunities exist to use the total RS flux for data assimilation and model benchmarking methods rather than less-certain partitioned fluxes. Pushing for more experiments that not only partition RS but also monitor the age of RA and RH, as well as for the development of belowground RA components in models, would allow for more direct comparison between measured and modeled values. The third challenge is that soil respiration is generally measured at a very different resolution than that needed for comparison to EC or ecosystem- to global-scale models. Measuring soil fluxes with finer spatial resolution and more extensive coverage, and downscaling EC fluxes to match the scale of RS, will improve chamber and tower comparisons. Opportunities also exist to estimate RH at regional scales by implementing decomposition functional types, akin to plant functional types. We conclude by discussing the benefits that wide use of RS data will bring to model development, and database developments that will make RS data more robust, useful, and broadly available to the research community.« less

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Celis, Gerardo; Mauritz, Marguerite; Bracho, Rosvel

Current and future warming of high-latitude ecosystems will play an important role in climate change through feedbacks to the global carbon cycle. This study compares 6 years of CO 2 flux measurements in moist acidic tundra using autochambers and eddy covariance (Tower) approaches. Here, we found that the tundra was an annual source of CO 2 to the atmosphere as indicated by net ecosystem exchange using both methods with a combined mean of 105 ± 17 g CO 2 C m-2 y-1 across methods and years (Tower 87 ± 17 and Autochamber 123 ± 14). Furthermore, the difference between methodsmore » was largest early in the observation period, with Autochambers indicated a greater CO 2 source to the atmosphere. This discrepancy diminished through time, and in the final year the Autochambers measured a greater sink strength than tower. Active layer thickness was a significant driver of net ecosystem carbon exchange, gross ecosystem primary productivity, and Reco and could account for differences between Autochamber and Tower. The stronger source initially attributed lower summer season gross primary production (GPP) during the first 3 years, coupled with lower ecosystem respiration (Reco) during the first year. The combined suppression of GPP and Reco in the first year of Autochamber measurements could be the result of the experimental setup. Root damage associated with Autochamber soil collar installation may have lowered the plant community's capacity to fix C, but recovered within 3 years. And while this ecosystem was a consistent CO 2 sink during the summer, CO 2 emissions during the nonsummer months offset summer CO 2 uptake each year.« less

Mesoscale eddies control meridional heat flux variability in the subpolar North Atlantic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Jian; Bower, Amy; Yang, Jiayan; Lin, Xiaopei; Zhou, Chun

2017-04-01

The meridional heat flux in the subpolar North Atlantic is vital to the climate of the high-latitude North Atlantic. For the basinwide heat flux across a section between Greenland and Scotland, much of the variability occurs in the Iceland basin, where the North Atlantic Current (NAC) carries relatively warm and salty water northward. As a component of the Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program (OSNAP), WHOI and OUC are jointly operating gliders in the Iceland Basin to continuously monitor the circulation and corresponding heat flux in this eddy-rich region. Based on one year of observations, two circulation regimes in the Iceland basin have been identified: a mesoscale eddy like circulation pattern and northward NAC circulation pattern. When a mesoscale eddy is generated, the rotational currents associated with the eddy lead to both northward and southward flow in the Iceland basin. This is quite different from the broad northward flow associated with the NAC when there is no eddy. The transition between the two regimes coupled with the strong temperature front in the Iceland basin can modify the meridional heat flux on the order of 0.3PW, which is the dominant source for the heat flux change the Iceland Basin. According to high-resolution numerical model results, the Iceland Basin has the largest contribution to the meridional heat flux variability along the section between Greenland and Scotland. Therefore, mesoscale eddies in the Iceland Basin provide important dynamics to control the meridional heat flux variability in the subpolar North Atlantic.

A project summary: Water and energy budget assessment for a non-tidal wetland in the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta

USGS Publications Warehouse

Anderson, Frank E.; Snyder, R.L.; Paw, U.K.T.; Drexler, Judith Z.

2004-01-01

The methods used to obtain universal cover coefficient (Kc) values for a non-tidal restored wetland in the Sacramento-San Joaquin river delta, US, during the summer of the year 2002 and to investigate possible differences during changing wind patterns are described. A micrometeorological tower over the wetland was established to quantify actual evapotranspiration (ETa) rates and surface energy fluxes for water and energy budget analysis. The eddy-covariance (EC) system was used to measure the surface energy budget data in the period from May 23 to November 6, 2002. The results show that K c values should be lower during westerly than northerly wind events during the midseason period due to the reduced vapor pressure deficit.

Carbon dioxide effluxes and their environmental controls in sagebrush steppe ecosystems along an elevation gradient in the Reynolds Creek Critical Zone Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lohse, K. A.; Fellows, A.; Flerchinger, G. N.; Seyfried, M. S.

2017-12-01

The spatial and temporal variation of carbon dioxide effluxes and their environmental controls are poorly constrained in cold shrub steppe ecosystems. The objectives of this study were to 1) analyze environmental parameters in determining soil CO2 efflux, 2) assess the level of agreement between manual chambers and force diffusion (FD) soil CO2 efflux chambers, when both measurements are extrapolated across the growing season, and lastly to compare respiration fluxes to modeled ecosystem respiration fluxes. We installed FD chambers at four sites co-located with eddy covariance (EC) towers and soil moisture and temperature sensors along an elevation gradient in the Reynolds Creek Critical Zone Observatory in SW Idaho. FD chamber fluxes were collected continuously at 15-minute intervals. We sampled soil CO2 efflux with manual chambers at plant and interplant spaces in five plots at each site biweekly to monthly during the growing season. The sites included a Wyoming big sagebrush site, a low sagebrush site, a post-fire mountain big sagebrush site, and a mountain big sagebrush site located at elevations of 1425, 1680, 1808 and 2111 m. Climate variation followed the montane elevation gradient; mean annual precipitation (MAP) at the sites is 290, 337, 425, and 795 mm, respectively, and mean annual temperature is 8.9, 8.4, 6.1, 5.4°C. Automated force diffusion chambers detected large differences in carbon dioxide pulse dynamics along the elevation gradient. Growing season carbon dioxide fluxes were 3 times higher at the 425 mm MAP site compared than the lowest elevation sites at 290 and 337 MAP sites and >1.5 higher than the 795 mm MAP site over the same period. Manual fluxes showed similar seasonal patterns as FD chamber fluxes but often higher and greater spatial variability in fluxes than FD chamber fluxes. Plant and interplant flux differences were surprisingly similar, especially at higher elevations. Soil respiration ranged from 0.2-0.48 of ecosystem respiration suggesting that aboveground maintenance costs were relatively high at all of these sites. We conclude that coupled FD chamber, EC tower, and manual estimates hold promise in helping to partition and scale carbon fluxes from the plot to landscape scale.

Performance of STICS model to predict rainfed corn evapotranspiration and biomass evaluated for 6 years between 1995 and 2006 using daily aggregated eddy covariance fluxes and ancillary measurements.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pattey, Elizabeth; Jégo, Guillaume; Bourgeois, Gaétan

2010-05-01

Verifying the performance of process-based crop growth models to predict evapotranspiration and crop biomass is a key component of the adaptation of agricultural crop production to climate variations. STICS, developed by INRA, was part of the models selected by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada to be implemented for environmental assessment studies on climate variations, because of its built-in ability to assimilate biophysical descriptors such as LAI derived from satellite imagery and its open architecture. The model prediction of shoot biomass was calibrated using destructive biomass measurements over one season, by adjusting six cultivar parameters and three generic plant parameters to define two grain corn cultivars adapted to the 1000-km long Mixedwood Plains ecozone. Its performance was then evaluated using a database of 40 years-sites of corn destructive biomass and yield. In this study we evaluate the temporal response of STICS evapotranspiration and biomass accumulation predictions against estimates using daily aggregated eddy covariance fluxes. The flux tower was located in an experimental farm south of Ottawa and measurements carried out over corn fields in 1995, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2006. Daytime and nighttime fluxes were QC/QA and gap-filled separately. Soil respiration was partitioned to calculate the corn net daily CO2 uptake, which was converted into dry biomass. Out of the six growing seasons, three (1995, 1998, 2002) had water stress periods during corn grain filling. Year 2000 was cool and wet, while 1996 had heat and rainfall distributed evenly over the season and 2006 had a wet spring. STICS can predict evapotranspiration using either crop coefficients, when wind speed and air moisture are not available, or resistance. The first approach provided higher prediction for all the years than the resistance approach and the flux measurements. The dynamic of evapotranspiration prediction of STICS was very good for the growing seasons without water stress and was overestimated by 12-34% when rainfall deficit occurred. The preliminary comparison with intra-seasonal biomass accumulation showed that the total corn biomass derived from eddy fluxes was closer to the shoot biomass predicted by STICS than to the total biomass. The root to shoot ratio predicted by STICS was higher (30-40%) than the ratio reported in the literature (~20%). Some of the parameters controlling root growth might need a better calibration. The assembled database will help us identify the areas of greater uncertainty requiring improvement.

Eddy Correlation Flux Measurement System (ECOR) Handbook

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cook, DR

2011-01-31

The eddy correlation (ECOR) flux measurement system provides in situ, half-hour measurements of the surface turbulent fluxes of momentum, sensible heat, latent heat, and carbon dioxide (CO2) (and methane at one Southern Great Plains extended facility (SGP EF) and the North Slope of Alaska Central Facility (NSA CF). The fluxes are obtained with the eddy covariance technique, which involves correlation of the vertical wind component with the horizontal wind component, the air temperature, the water vapor density, and the CO2 concentration.

Circum-Antarctic Shoreward Heat Transport Derived From an Eddy- and Tide-Resolving Simulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stewart, Andrew L.; Klocker, Andreas; Menemenlis, Dimitris

2018-01-01

Almost all heat reaching the bases of Antarctica's ice shelves originates from warm Circumpolar Deep Water in the open Southern Ocean. This study quantifies the roles of mean and transient flows in transporting heat across almost the entire Antarctic continental slope and shelf using an ocean/sea ice model run at eddy- and tide-resolving (1/48°) horizontal resolution. Heat transfer by transient flows is approximately attributed to eddies and tides via a decomposition into time scales shorter than and longer than 1 day, respectively. It is shown that eddies transfer heat across the continental slope (ocean depths greater than 1,500 m), but tides produce a stronger shoreward heat flux across the shelf break (ocean depths between 500 m and 1,000 m). However, the tidal heat fluxes are approximately compensated by mean flows, leaving the eddy heat flux to balance the net shoreward heat transport. The eddy-driven cross-slope overturning circulation is too weak to account for the eddy heat flux. This suggests that isopycnal eddy stirring is the principal mechanism of shoreward heat transport around Antarctica, though likely modulated by tides and surface forcing.

Long-term variation of mesopelagic biogenic flux in the central South China Sea: Impact of monsoonal seasonality and mesoscale eddy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Hongliang; Wiesner, Martin G.; Chen, Jianfang; Ling, Zheng; Zhang, Jingjing; Ran, Lihua

2017-08-01

The East Asian Monsoon and mesoscale eddies are known to regulate primary production in South China Sea (SCS), the largest tropical marginal sea; however, their contributions to the deep biogenic flux are yet to be quantified. Based on 7-year time series sediment trap observations at the depth of 1200 m in the central SCS, we used the monthly average sinking biogenic fluxes to evaluate the impact of the monsoon and mesoscale cyclonic eddies on biogenic fluxes in combination with remote sensing physical parameters. The monthly average particulate organic carbon (POC) and opal fluxes, ranging from 3.0 to 5.2 and 14.8-34.9 mg m-2 d-1, respectively, were higher during the northeastern monsoon period. This corresponded to the deeper mixed layer depth and higher net primary production in this area, due to nutrient replenishment from the subsurface induced by monsoon transition and surface cooling. In contrast, lower POC and opal fluxes occurred during well-stratified inter-monsoon periods. In addition, CaCO3 flux (23.6-37.0 mg m-2 d-1) exhibited less seasonality and was assumed to originate from foraminifera. In terms of the long-term record, the combined effect of cyclonic eddies and mixing in the upper ocean could effectively regulate the temporal variation in the biogenic flux. In particular, the opal and POC fluxes in cyclonic eddies were 116% and 41% higher on average, respectively, than those during the non-cyclonic eddy period. Since the cyclonic eddies mainly occurred during the northeastern monsoon period, their contributions to biogenic flux via diatom blooms might overlap the regular winter flux peak, which could make the biological carbon pump more efficient at CO2 sequestration during this period thus amplifying the impact of seasonal transition.

Ozone risk assessment for an Alpine larch forest in two vegetative seasons with different approaches: comparison of POD1 and AOT40.

PubMed

Finco, Angelo; Marzuoli, Riccardo; Chiesa, Maria; Gerosa, Giacomo

2017-12-01

The upper vegetation belts like larch forests are supposed to be under great pressure because of climate change in the next decades. For this reason, the evaluation of the risks due to abiotic stressors like ozone is a key step. Two different approaches were used here: mapping AOT40 index by means of passive samplers and direct measurements of ozone deposition.Measurements of ozone fluxes using the eddy-correlation technique were carried out for the first time over a larch forest in Paspardo (I) at 1750 m a.s.l. Two field campaigns were run: the first one in 2010 from July to October and the second one in the following year from June to September. Vertical exchange of ozone, energy, and momentum were measured on a tower platform at 26 m above ground level to study fluxes dynamics over this ecosystem. Since the tower was located on a gentle slope, an "ad hoc" methodology was developed to minimize the effects of the terrain inclination. The larch forest uptake was estimated by means of a two-layer model to separate the understorey uptake from the larch one. Even if the total ozone fluxes were generally high, up to 30-40 nmol O 3  m -2  s -1 in both years, the stomatal uptake by the larch forest was relatively low (around 15% of the total deposition).Ozone risk was assessed considering the POD 1 received by the larch forest and the exposure index AOT40 estimated with both local data and data from the map obtained by the passive samplers monitoring.

An optical sensor network for vegetation phenology monitoring and satellite data calibration.

PubMed

Eklundh, Lars; Jin, Hongxiao; Schubert, Per; Guzinski, Radoslaw; Heliasz, Michal

2011-01-01

We present a network of sites across Fennoscandia for optical sampling of vegetation properties relevant for phenology monitoring and satellite data calibration. The network currently consists of five sites, distributed along an N-S gradient through Sweden and Finland. Two sites are located in coniferous forests, one in a deciduous forest, and two on peatland. The instrumentation consists of dual-beam sensors measuring incoming and reflected red, green, NIR, and PAR fluxes at 10-min intervals, year-round. The sensors are mounted on separate masts or in flux towers in order to capture radiation reflected from within the flux footprint of current eddy covariance measurements. Our computations and model simulations demonstrate the validity of using off-nadir sampling, and we show the results from the first year of measurement. NDVI is computed and compared to that of the MODIS instrument on-board Aqua and Terra satellite platforms. PAR fluxes are partitioned into reflected and absorbed components for the ground and canopy. The measurements demonstrate that the instrumentation provides detailed information about the vegetation phenology and variations in reflectance due to snow cover variations and vegetation development. Valuable information about PAR absorption of ground and canopy is obtained that may be linked to vegetation productivity.

An Optical Sensor Network for Vegetation Phenology Monitoring and Satellite Data Calibration

PubMed Central

Eklundh, Lars; Jin, Hongxiao; Schubert, Per; Guzinski, Radoslaw; Heliasz, Michal

2011-01-01

We present a network of sites across Fennoscandia for optical sampling of vegetation properties relevant for phenology monitoring and satellite data calibration. The network currently consists of five sites, distributed along an N-S gradient through Sweden and Finland. Two sites are located in coniferous forests, one in a deciduous forest, and two on peatland. The instrumentation consists of dual-beam sensors measuring incoming and reflected red, green, NIR, and PAR fluxes at 10-min intervals, year-round. The sensors are mounted on separate masts or in flux towers in order to capture radiation reflected from within the flux footprint of current eddy covariance measurements. Our computations and model simulations demonstrate the validity of using off-nadir sampling, and we show the results from the first year of measurement. NDVI is computed and compared to that of the MODIS instrument on-board Aqua and Terra satellite platforms. PAR fluxes are partitioned into reflected and absorbed components for the ground and canopy. The measurements demonstrate that the instrumentation provides detailed information about the vegetation phenology and variations in reflectance due to snow cover variations and vegetation development. Valuable information about PAR absorption of ground and canopy is obtained that may be linked to vegetation productivity. PMID:22164039

Partitioning autotrophic and heterotrophic respiration at Howland Forest

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carbone, Mariah; Hollinger, Dave; Davidson, Eric; Savage, Kathleen; Hughes, Holly

2015-04-01

Terrestrial ecosystem respiration is the combined flux of CO2 to the atmosphere from above- and below-ground, plant (autotrophic) and microbial (heterotrophic) sources. Flux measurements alone (e.g., from eddy covariance towers or soil chambers) cannot distinguish the contributions from these sources, which may change seasonally and respond differently to temperature and moisture. The development of improved process-based models that can predict how plants and microbes respond to changing environmental conditions (on seasonal, interannual, or decadal timescales) requires data from field observations and experiments to distinguish among these respiration sources. We tested the viability of partitioning of soil and ecosystem respiration into autotrophic and heterotrophic components with different approaches at the Howland Forest in central Maine, USA. These include an experimental manipulation using the classic root trenching approach and targeted ∆14CO2 measurements. For the isotopic measurements, we used a two-end member mass balance approach to determine the fraction of soil respiration from autotrophic and heterotrophic sources. When summed over the course of the growing season, the trenched chamber flux (heterotrophic) accounted for 53 ± 2% of the total control chamber flux. Over the four different 14C sampling periods, the heterotrophic component ranged from 35-55% and the autotrophic component ranges 45-65% of the total flux. Next steps will include assessing the value of the flux partitioning for constraining a simple ecosystem model using a model-data fusion approach to reduce uncertainties in estimates of NPP and simulation of future soil C stocks and fluxes.

Advances in the Use of In Situ Flux Tower Measures of Canopy Structure and Function for Evaluation of MODIS and VIIRS Vegetation Indices and Phenology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huete, A. R.; Ma, X.; Devadas, R.; Miura, T.; Obata, K.; Restrepo-Coupe, N.; Kato, A.

2016-12-01

Prior studies have linked tower-based measures of ecosystem productivity (GEP) and satellite vegetation indices (VIs) over primarily phenologically driven ecosystems. In situ flux towers are advantageous for satellite product assessments due to their comparable footprints and finer temporal resolution measurements. However, weaker relationships have been reported in meteorological driven ecosystems in which satellite and flux tower measures of productivity are asynchronous. This suggests that satellite derived biophysical measures are not a measure of GEP, but rather a proxy for ecosystem structure (e.g. LAI) and function. Here we investigate the use of flux tower measures of photosynthetic infrastructure, including photosynthetic capacity and light use efficiency, as more appropriate measures for the evaluation of satellite VI products and phenology. We related MODIS and VIIRS VIs (NDVI, EVI, EVI2) and phenology over a series of flux tower sites located across a climatically-diverse north to south gradient in central Australia, encompassing wet and dry subtropcal savannas, semi-arid shrub/grass, and temperate broadleaf evergreen forests. These represented environmental conditions where phenology and meteorology are not always synchronized. Our objectives were to (1) advance the use of in situ tower data for more accurate evaluation of satellite products and assess challenges and limitations of in situ tower networks; (2) intercompare cross-sensor VI products and derived phenology with tower measures across biomes to assess consistencies; and (3) better understand satellite and tower relationships to improve upon interpretation of satellite VI and phenology data. Our results show, that in contrast to measures of GEP, our measures of photosynthetic infrastructure were much better related to satellite VIs; they removed strong hysteresis influences on VI- productivity relationships across phenologic green-up and brown-down phases; and thus were better related to satellite phenology profiles. We conclude that flux tower networks offer a valuable source of in situ and consistent data that can be used for satellite time series continuity and cross sensor studies. This can also bring forward the validation of vegetation indices beyond simple reflectance-based accuracy assessments.

Improving Representation of Convective Transport for Scale-Aware Parameterization, Part II: Analysis of Cloud-Resolving Model Simulations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Liu, Yi-Chin; Fan, Jiwen; Zhang, Guang J.

2015-04-27

Following Part I, in which 3-D cloud-resolving model (CRM) simulations of a squall line and mesoscale convective complex in the mid-latitude continental and the tropical regions are conducted and evaluated, we examine the scale-dependence of eddy transport of water vapor, evaluate different eddy transport formulations, and improve the representation of convective transport across all scales by proposing a new formulation that more accurately represents the CRM-calculated eddy flux. CRM results show that there are strong grid-spacing dependencies of updraft and downdraft fractions regardless of altitudes, cloud life stage, and geographical location. As for the eddy transport of water vapor, updraftmore » eddy flux is a major contributor to total eddy flux in the lower and middle troposphere. However, downdraft eddy transport can be as large as updraft eddy transport in the lower atmosphere especially at the mature stage of 38 mid-latitude continental convection. We show that the single updraft approach significantly underestimates updraft eddy transport of water vapor because it fails to account for the large internal variability of updrafts, while a single downdraft represents the downdraft eddy transport of water vapor well. We find that using as few as 3 updrafts can account for the internal variability of updrafts well. Based on evaluation with the CRM simulated data, we recommend a simplified eddy transport formulation that considers three updrafts and one downdraft. Such formulation is similar to the conventional one but much more accurately represents CRM-simulated eddy flux across all grid scales.« less

Tree-grass phenology information improves light use efficiency modelling of gross primary productivity for an Australian tropical savanna

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moore, Caitlin E.; Beringer, Jason; Evans, Bradley; Hutley, Lindsay B.; Tapper, Nigel J.

2017-01-01

The coexistence of trees and grasses in savanna ecosystems results in marked phenological dynamics that vary spatially and temporally with climate. Australian savannas comprise a complex variety of life forms and phenologies, from evergreen trees to annual/perennial grasses, producing a boom-bust seasonal pattern of productivity that follows the wet-dry seasonal rainfall cycle. As the climate changes into the 21st century, modification to rainfall and temperature regimes in savannas is highly likely. There is a need to link phenology cycles of different species with productivity to understand how the tree-grass relationship may shift in response to climate change. This study investigated the relationship between productivity and phenology for trees and grasses in an Australian tropical savanna. Productivity, estimated from overstory (tree) and understory (grass) eddy covariance flux tower estimates of gross primary productivity (GPP), was compared against 2 years of repeat time-lapse digital photography (phenocams). We explored the phenology-productivity relationship at the ecosystem scale using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) vegetation indices and flux tower GPP. These data were obtained from the Howard Springs OzFlux/Fluxnet site (AU-How) in northern Australia. Two greenness indices were calculated from the phenocam images: the green chromatic coordinate (GCC) and excess green index (ExG). These indices captured the temporal dynamics of the understory (grass) and overstory (trees) phenology and were correlated well with tower GPP for understory (r2 = 0.65 to 0.72) but less so for the overstory (r2 = 0.14 to 0.23). The MODIS enhanced vegetation index (EVI) correlated well with GPP at the ecosystem scale (r2 = 0.70). Lastly, we used GCC and EVI to parameterise a light use efficiency (LUE) model and found it to improve the estimates of GPP for the overstory, understory and ecosystem. We conclude that phenology is an important parameter to consider in estimating GPP from LUE models in savannas and that phenocams can provide important insights into the phenological variability of trees and grasses.

Productivity and CO2 exchange of Great Plains ecoregions. I. Shortgrass steppe: Flux tower estimates

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gilmanov, Tagir G.; Morgan, Jack A.; Hanan, Niall P.; Wylie, Bruce K.; Rajan, Nithya; Smith, David P.; Howard, Daniel M.

2017-01-01

The shortgrass steppe (SGS) occupies the southwestern part of the Great Plains. Half of the land is cultivated, but significant areas remain under natural vegetation. Despite previous studies of the SGS carbon cycle, not all aspects have been completely addressed, including gross productivity, ecosystem respiration, and ecophysiological parameters. Our analysis of 1998 − 2007 flux tower measurements at five Bowen ratio–energy balance (BREB) and three eddy covariance (EC) sites characterized seasonal and interannual variability of gross photosynthesis and ecosystem respiration. Identification of the nonrectangular hyperbolic equation for the diurnal CO2 exchange, with vapor pressure deficit (VPD) limitation and exponential temperature response, quantified quantum yield α, photosynthetic capacity Amax, and respiration rate rd with variation ranges (19 \\< α \\< 51 mmol mol− 1, 0.48 \\< Amax \\< 2.1 mg CO2 m− 2 s− 1, 0.15 \\< rd \\< 0.49 mg CO2 m− 2 s− 1). Gross photosynthesis varied from 1 100 to 2 700 g CO2 m− 2 yr− 1, respiration from 900 to 3,000 g CO2 m− 2 yr− 1, and net ecosystem production from − 900 to + 700 g CO2 m− 2 yr− 1, indicating that SGS may switch from a sink to a source depending on weather. Comparison of the 2004 − 2006 measurements at two BREB and two parallel EC flux towers located at comparable SGS sites showed moderately higher photosynthesis, lower respiration, and higher net production at the BREB than EC sites. However, the difference was not related only to methodologies, as the normalized difference vegetation index at the BREB sites was higher than at the EC sites. Overall magnitudes and seasonal patterns at the BREB and the EC sites during the 3-yr period were similar, with trajectories within the ± 1.5 standard deviation around the mean of the four sites and mostly reflecting the effects of meteorology.

WhiteRef: a new tower-based hyperspectral system for continuous reflectance measurements.

PubMed

Sakowska, Karolina; Gianelle, Damiano; Zaldei, Alessandro; MacArthur, Alasdair; Carotenuto, Federico; Miglietta, Franco; Zampedri, Roberto; Cavagna, Mauro; Vescovo, Loris

2015-01-08

Proximal sensing is fundamental to monitor the spatial and seasonal dynamics of ecosystems and can be considered as a crucial validation tool to upscale in situ observations to the satellite level. Linking hyperspectral remote sensing with carbon fluxes and biophysical parameters is critical to allow the exploitation of spatial and temporal extensive information for validating model simulations at different scales. In this study, we present the WhiteRef, a new hyperspectral system designed as a direct result of the needs identified during the EUROSPEC ES0903 Cost Action, and developed by Fondazione Edmund Mach and the Institute of Biometeorology, CNR, Italy. The system is based on the ASD FieldSpec Pro spectroradiometer and was designed to acquire continuous radiometric measurements at the Eddy Covariance (EC) towers and to fill a gap in the scientific community: in fact, no system for continuous spectral measurements in the Short Wave Infrared was tested before at the EC sites. The paper illustrates the functioning of the WhiteRef and describes its main advantages and disadvantages. The WhiteRef system, being based on a robust and high quality commercially available instrument, has a clear potential for unattended continuous measurements aiming at the validation of satellites' vegetation products.

A gap-filling model for eddy covariance latent heat flux: Estimating evapotranspiration of a subtropical seasonal evergreen broad-leaved forest as an example

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Yi-Ying; Chu, Chia-Ren; Li, Ming-Hsu

2012-10-01

SummaryIn this paper we present a semi-parametric multivariate gap-filling model for tower-based measurement of latent heat flux (LE). Two statistical techniques, the principal component analysis (PCA) and a nonlinear interpolation approach were integrated into this LE gap-filling model. The PCA was first used to resolve the multicollinearity relationships among various environmental variables, including radiation, soil moisture deficit, leaf area index, wind speed, etc. Two nonlinear interpolation methods, multiple regressions (MRS) and the K-nearest neighbors (KNNs) were examined with random selected flux gaps for both clear sky and nighttime/cloudy data to incorporate into this LE gap-filling model. Experimental results indicated that the KNN interpolation approach is able to provide consistent LE estimations while MRS presents over estimations during nighttime/cloudy. Rather than using empirical regression parameters, the KNN approach resolves the nonlinear relationship between the gap-filled LE flux and principal components with adaptive K values under different atmospheric states. The developed LE gap-filling model (PCA with KNN) works with a RMSE of 2.4 W m-2 (˜0.09 mm day-1) at a weekly time scale by adding 40% artificial flux gaps into original dataset. Annual evapotranspiration at this study site were estimated at 736 mm (1803 MJ) and 728 mm (1785 MJ) for year 2008 and 2009, respectively.

Detecting Soil Moisture Related Impacts on Gross Primary Productivity using the MODIS-based Photochemical Reflectance Index

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

He, M.; Kimball, J. S.; Running, S. W.; Ballantyne, A.; Guan, K.; Huemmrich, K. F.

2016-12-01

Satellite remote sensing provides continuous observations of vegetation properties that can be used to estimate ecosystem gross primary production (GPP). The Photochemical Reflectance Index (PRI) has been shown to be sensitive to photosynthetic light use efficiency (LUE), GPP and canopy water-stress. The NASA EOS MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) sensor provides potential PRI estimation globally at daily time step and 1-km spatial resolution for more than 10 years. Here, we use the MODIS based PRI with eddy covariance CO2 flux measurements and meteorological observations from 20 tower sites representing 5 major plant functional types (PFT) within the continental USA (CONUS) to assess GPP sensitivity to seasonal water supply variability. The sPRI (scaled PRI) derived using MODIS band 13 as a reference band (sPRI13) generally shows higher correspondence with tower GPP observations than other potential MODIS reference bands (MODIS band 1, 4, 10 and 12). The sPRI13 was used to represent soil moisture related water supply constraints to LUE within a terrestrial carbon flux model to estimate GPP (GPPPRI). The GPPPRI calculations show generally strong relationships with tower GPP observations (0.457 ≤ R2 ≤ 0.818), except for lower GPPPRI performance over evergreen needleleaf forest (ENF) sites. A regional model sensitivity analysis using the sPRI13 as a proxy for soil moisture related water supply limits indicated that water restrictions limit GPP over more than 21% of the CONUS domain, particularly in northwest and southwest CONUS subregions, and drier climate areas where atmospheric moisture deficits (VPD) alone are insufficient to represent both atmosphere demand and soil water supply controls affecting productivity. Our results indicate strong potential of the MODIS sPRI13 to represent GPP sensitivity to seasonal soil moisture related water supply variability, with enhanced (1-km resolution) delineation of these processes closer to the scale of in situ tower observations, providing an effective tool to characterize sub-grid spatial heterogeneity in soil moisture related water supply controls that inform coarser scale observations and estimates determined from other satellite observations and global carbon, and climate models.

Evapotranspiration estimates from eddy covariance towers and hydrologic modeling in managed forests in Northern Wisconsin, USA

Treesearch

Ge Sun; A. Noormets; J. Chen; S.G. McNulty

2008-01-01

Direct measurement of ecosystem evapotranspiration by the eddy covariance method and simulation modeling were employed to quantify the growing season (May–October) evapotranspiration (ET) of eight forest ecosystems representing a management gradient in dominant forest types and age classes in the Upper Great Lakes Region from 2002 to 2003. We measured net exchange of...

The shifting seasonality of productivity in California during the 2015 drought

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, X.; Lee, J. E.

2016-12-01

Drought can significantly affect the ecosystem productivity through increasing surface temperature and reducing water availability. Accurately assessing how drought impacts the ecosystem productivity is critical to understand the terrestrial carbon cycle and food security; however, the assessment has been unclear partly because of lacking spatially-explicit means of measuring photosynthesis. The 2012-2015 California drought is considered to be one of the largest droughts in California during the last 1000 years. Here we used multiple satellite products including the ground meteorological and eddy covariance measurements and solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF), a proxy for terrestrial productivity, to estimate the change in the seasonal gross primary productivity (GPP) in California during the drought years, especially in 2015 when the drought was at its fourth consecutive year. We show that with the decreasing water availability since 2012, SIF of all four vegetation types (forests, crops, savannas, and grasslands) showed significant decrease, shifting the peak-growing season about a month earlier, similar to the shift observed from the available flux-tower measurements. During 2015, vegetation productivity in forests and savannas increased in the spring (Jan-Apr) due to warm temperature and increased rainfall in the previous year, but the enhancement quickly diminished due to reduction in soil moisture. Overall, GPP decreased in more than 70% of the vegetation in California, and 50-70% of the vegetation display a negative abnormality beyond one standard deviation from the normal trend. Eddy covariance tower measurements suggested that the net carbon storage also decreased as a result of greater reduction in GPP comparing with the ecosystem respiration. We conclude that an increase in future drought events and intensity would likely shift the peak growing season earlier and shorten the growing season.

Temperature response of respiration across heterogeneous microtopography in the Arctic tundra, Utqiaġvik, Alaska

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilkman, E.; Zona, D.; Tang, Y.; Gioli, B.; Lipson, D.; Oechel, W. C.

2017-12-01

The response of ecosystem respiration to warming in the Arctic is not well constrained, partly due to the presence of ice-wedge polygons in continuous permafrost areas. These formations lead to substantial variation in vegetation, soil moisture, water table, and active layer depth over the meter scale that can drive respiratory carbon loss. Accurate calculations of in-situ temperature sensitivities (Q10) are vital for the prediction of future Arctic emissions, and while the eddy covariance technique has commonly been used to determine the diurnal and season patterns of net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of CO2, the lack of suitable dark periods in the Arctic summer has limited our ability to estimate and interpret ecosystem respiration. To therefore improve our understanding of and define controls on ecosystem respiration, we directly compared CO2 fluxes measured from automated chambers across the main local polygonised landscape forms (high and low centers, polygon rims, and polygon troughs) to estimates from an adjacent eddy covariance tower. Low-centered polygons and polygon troughs had the greatest cumulative respiration rates, and ecosystem type appeared to be the most important explanatory variable for these rates. Despite the difference in absolute respiration rates, Q10 was surprisingly similar across all microtopographic features, despite contrasting water levels and vegetation types. Conversely, Q10 varied temporally, with higher values during the early and late summer and lower values during the peak growing season. Finally, good agreement was found between chamber and tower based Q10 estimates during the peak growing season. Overall, this study suggests that it is possible to simplify estimates of the temperature sensitivity of respiration across heterogeneous landscapes, but that seasonal changes in Q10 should be incorporated into current and future model simulations.

Atmospheric Profiles of Carbon Dioxide Obtained with a UAS: Constraints on Square Kilometre Scale Carbon Budgets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kunz, M.; Lavric, J. V.; Grant, R. H.; Gerbig, C.; Heimann, M.; Flatt, J. E.; Zeeman, M. J.; Wolf, B.

2016-12-01

The exchange of carbon between biosphere and atmosphere is a topic of high interest, particularly because the magnitude of biospheric climate feedback is uncertain. Soil chambers and eddy covariance systems, the traditional tools for the measurement of exchange fluxes, are subject to inherent limitations: chambers cover only small areas of typically less than on square meter, and eddy covariance is not applicable under very low wind conditions. Complementary methods can help to deal with these limitations and provide more confidence in up-scaling. During the ScaleX 2016 campaign an ecosystem was studied with a combination of multiple measurement approaches, including soil chambers, an eddy covariance station, a weather station, quasi-continuous CO2 measurements on a 10 m tower, multiple UAS with different sensors and remote sensing of temperature, humidity and wind profiles. The campaign took place at Fendt in Southern Germany on a flat valley floor covered by grass. We deployed COCAP, a compact carbon dioxide analyser for airborne platforms developed at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena, on a commercial multicopter (DJI S1000). COCAP measures carbon dioxide dry air mole fraction to an accuracy of 2 ppm as well as ambient pressure, temperature and relative humidity. At a total mass of 1 kg it contains a GPS receiver, on-board data logging capabilities and a radio transmitter which allows for real-time data visualisation on a ground station computer. In consecutive vertical profile measurements at night-time, reaching up to a maximum height of 150 m, we see a strong build-up of CO2 close to the ground which we attribute to exchange fluxes from the surface into the atmosphere that are trapped below a nocturnal inversion. We estimate these fluxes from the change in observed column amount of CO2 over time and compare our results to other methods. Challenges in the measurement and data analysis as well as the influence of wind, rotor downwash and valley drainage flows are discussed.

Verifying the distributed temperature sensing Bowen ratio method for measuring evaporation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schilperoort, Bart; Coenders-Gerrits, Miriam; Luxemburg, Willem; Cisneros Vaca, César; Ucer, Murat

2016-04-01

Evaporation is an important process in the hydrological cycle, therefore measuring evaporation accurately is essential for water resource management, hydrological management and climate change models. Current techniques to measure evaporation, like eddy covariance systems, scintillometers, or lysimeters, have their limitations and therefore cannot always be used to estimate evaporation correctly. Also the conventional Bowen ratio surface energy balance method has as drawback that two sensors are used, which results in large measuring errors. In Euser et al. (2014) a new method was introduced, the DTS-based Bowen ratio (BR-DTS), that overcomes this drawback. It uses a distributed temperature sensing technique (DTS) whereby a fibre optic cable is placed vertically, going up and down along a measurement tower. One stretch of the cable is dry, the other wrapped with cloth and kept wet, akin to a psychrometer. Using this, the wet and dry bulb temperatures are determined every 12.5 cm over the height, from which the Bowen ratio can be determined. As radiation and wind have an effect on the cooling and heating of the cable's sheath as well, the DTS cables do not necessarily always measure dry and wet bulb temperature of the air accurately. In this study the accuracy in representing the dry and wet bulb temperatures of the cable are verified, and evaporation observations of the BR-DTS method are compared to Eddy Covariance (EC) measurements. Two ways to correct for errors due to wind and solar radiation warming up the DTS cables are presented: one for the dry cable and one for the wet cable. The measurements were carried out in a pine forest near Garderen (The Netherlands), along a 46-meter tall scaffold tower (15 meters above the canopy). Both the wet (Twet) and dry (Tdry) temperature of the DTS cable were compared to temperature and humidity (from which Twet is derived) observations from sensors placed along the height of the tower. Underneath the canopy, where there was barely any direct sunlight, the non-corrected temperatures correlated well for both Tdry (R2=0.998) and Twet (R2=0.995). Above the canopy the two temperature corrections worked well Tdry (R2=0.978) and Twet (R2=0.979). The comparison of the latent and sensible heat flux from the BR-DTS and the EC-system was often not possible, due to large energy balance residuals estimated during north-eastern winds (using an averaging interval of 30 minutes). For the limited days with other wind directions the BR-DTS overestimated the latent and sensible heat flux. Additionally, we even found that the applied temperature corrections resulted in a lower performance due to increased uncertainties in the applied corrections. Furthermore, we found that both the corrected and uncorrected DTS-temperatures resulted in rather similar latent and sensible heat fluxes, due to the fact that BR-DTS applies gradients of temperatures over the height, rather than absolute values. Hence, based on our limited data, the correction methods are not recommended if one is interested in the fluxes.

Bathypelagic particle flux signatures from a suboxic eddy in the oligotrophic tropical North Atlantic: production, sedimentation and preservation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fischer, G.; Karstensen, J.; Romero, O.; Baumann, K.-H.; Donner, B.; Hefter, J.; Mollenhauer, G.; Iversen, M.; Fiedler, B.; Monteiro, I.; Körtzinger, A.

2015-11-01

Particle fluxes at the Cape Verde Ocean Observatory (CVOO) in the eastern tropical North Atlantic for the period December 2009 until May 2011 are discussed based on bathypelagic sediment trap time series data collected at 1290 and 3439 m water depth. The typically oligotrophic particle flux pattern with weak seasonality is modified by the appearance of a highly productive and low oxygen anticyclonic modewater eddy (ACME) in winter 2010. The eddy passage was accompanied by unusually high mass fluxes, lasting from December 2009 to May 2010. Distinct biogenic silica (BSi) and organic carbon flux peaks were observed in February-March 2010 when the eddy approached CVOO. The flux of the lithogenic component, mostly mineral dust, was well correlated to that of organic carbon in particular in the deep trap samples, suggesting a close coupling. The lithogenic ballasting obviously resulted in high particle settling rates and, thus, a fast transfer of epi-/mesopelagic signatures to the bathypelagic traps. Molar C : N ratios of organic matter during the ACME passage were around 18 and 25 for the upper and lower trap samples, respectively. This suggests that some production under nutrient (nitrate) limitation in the upper few tens of meters above the zone of suboxia might have occurred in the beginning of 2010. The δ15N record showed a decrease from January to March 2010 while the organic carbon and N fluxes increased. The causes of enhanced sedimentation from the eddy in February/March 2010 remain elusive but nutrient depletion and/or a high availability of dust as ballast mineral for organic-rich aggregates might have contributed to the elevated fluxes during the eddy passage. Remineralization of sinking organic-rich particles could have contributed to the formation of a suboxic zone at shallow depth. Although the eddy has been formed in the African coastal area in summer 2009, no indication of coastal flux signatures were found in the sediment traps, suggesting an alteration of the eddy since its formation. This confirms the assumption that suboxia developed within the eddy en-route. Screening of the biomarker fractions for the occurrence of ladderane fatty acids that could indicate the presence of anammox (anaeobic ammonia oxidation) bacteria, and isorenieratene derivatives, indicative for the presence of green sulfur bacteria and, thus for photic zone suboxia/anoxia was negative. This could indicate that suboxic conditions in the eddy had recently developed and the respective bacterial stocks had not yet reached detection thresholds. Another explanation is that the fast sinking organic-rich particles produced in the surface layer did not interact with bacteria from the suboxic zone below. Carbonate fluxes dropped considerably in February 2010, mainly due to reduced contribution of shallow dwelling planktonic foraminifera and pteropods. The deep-dwelling foraminifera Globorotalia menardii, however, showed a major flux peak in February 2010, most probably due to the suboxia/hypoxia. The low oxygen conditions forced at least some zooplankton to stop diel vertical migration. Reduced "flux feeding" by zooplankton in the epipelagic could have contributed to the enhanced fluxes of organic materials to the bathypelagic traps during the eddy passage.

How drought severity constrains GPP and its partitioning among carbon pools in a Quercus ilex coppice?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rambal, S.; Lempereur, M.; Limousin, J. M.; Martin-StPaul, N. K.; Ourcival, J. M.; Rodríguez-Calcerrada, J.

2014-06-01

The partitioning of photosynthates toward biomass compartments has a crucial role in the carbon sink function of forests. Few studies have examined how carbon is allocated toward plant compartments in drought prone forests. We analyzed the fate of GPP in relation to yearly water deficit in an old evergreen Mediterranean Quercus ilex coppice severely affected by water limitations. Gross and net carbon fluxes between the ecosystem and the atmosphere were measured with an eddy-covariance flux tower running continuously since 2001. Discrete measurements of litterfall, stem growth and fAPAR allowed us to derive annual productions of leaves, wood, flowers and acorns and an isometric relationship between stem and belowground biomass has been used to estimate perennial belowground growth. By combining eddy-covariance fluxes with annual productions we managed to close a C budget and derive values of autotrophic and heterotrophic respirations, NPP and carbon use efficiency (CUE, the ratio between NPP and GPP). Average values of yearly NEP, GPP and Reco were 282, 1259 and 977 g C m-2. The corresponding ANPP components were 142.5, 26.4 and 69.6 g C m-2 for leaves, reproductive effort (flowers and fruits) and stems. Gross and net carbon exchange between the ecosystem and the atmosphere were affected by annual water deficit. Partitioning to the different plant compartments was also impacted by drought, with a hierarchy of responses going from the most affected, the stem growth, to the least affected, the leaf production. The average CUE was 0.40, which is well in the range for Mediterranean-type forest ecosystems. CUE tended to decrease more slightly in response to drought than GPP and NPP, probably due to drought-acclimation of autotrophic respiration. Overall, our results provide a baseline for modeling the inter-annual variations of carbon fluxes and allocation in this widespread Mediterranean ecosystem and highlight the value of maintaining continuous experimental measurements over the long term.

How drought severity constrains gross primary production(GPP) and its partitioning among carbon pools in a Quercus ilex coppice?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rambal, S.; Lempereur, M.; Limousin, J. M.; Martin-StPaul, N. K.; Ourcival, J. M.; Rodríguez-Calcerrada, J.

2014-12-01

The partitioning of photosynthates toward biomass compartments plays a crucial role in the carbon (C) sink function of forests. Few studies have examined how carbon is allocated toward plant compartments in drought-prone forests. We analyzed the fate of gross primary production (GPP) in relation to yearly water deficit in an old evergreen Mediterranean Quercus ilex coppice severely affected by water limitations. Carbon fluxes between the ecosystem and the atmosphere were measured with an eddy covariance flux tower running continuously since 2001. Discrete measurements of litterfall, stem growth and fAPAR allowed us to derive annual productions of leaves, wood, flowers and acorns, and an isometric relationship between stem and belowground biomass has been used to estimate perennial belowground growth. By combining eddy covariance fluxes with annual net primary productions (NPP), we managed to close a C budget and derive values of autotrophic, heterotrophic respirations and carbon-use efficiency (CUE; the ratio between NPP and GPP). Average values of yearly net ecosystem production (NEP), GPP and Reco were 282, 1259 and 977 g C m-2. The corresponding aboveground net primary production (ANPP) components were 142.5, 26.4 and 69.6 g C m-2 for leaves, reproductive effort (flowers and fruits) and stems, respectively. NEP, GPP and Reco were affected by annual water deficit. Partitioning to the different plant compartments was also impacted by drought, with a hierarchy of responses going from the most affected - the stem growth - to the least affected - the leaf production. The average CUE was 0.40, which is well in the range for Mediterranean-type forest ecosystems. CUE tended to decrease less drastically in response to drought than GPP and NPP did, probably due to drought acclimation of autotrophic respiration. Overall, our results provide a baseline for modeling the inter-annual variations of carbon fluxes and allocation in this widespread Mediterranean ecosystem, and they highlight the value of maintaining continuous experimental measurements over the long term.

Relating chamber measurements to eddy correlation measurements of methane flux

Treesearch

R.J. Clement; S.B. Verma; E.S. Verry

1995-01-01

Methane fluxes were measured using eddy correlation and chamber techniques during 1991 and 1997 at a peatland in north central Minnesota. Comparisons of the two techniques were made using averages of methane flux data available during 1-week periods. The seasonal patterns of fluxes measured by the two techniques compared well. Chamber flux, in 1991, was about 1.8 mg m...

Eddy covariance measurements of methane fluxes over grazed native and improved prairies in Oklahoma

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Although several studies have reported eddy covariance (EC) measurements at several tallgrass prairie sites to investigate the dynamics of carbon and water vapor fluxes, the EC measurements of methane (CH4) fluxes over grazed tallgrass prairie sites are lacking. CH4 fluxes were measured during the 2...

Tests of a robust eddy correlation system for sensible heat flux

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blanford, J. H.; Gay, L. W.

1992-03-01

Sensible heat flux estimates from a simple, one-propeller eddy correlation system (OPEC) were compared with those from a sonic anemometer eddy correlation system (SEC). In accordance with similarity theory, the performance of the OPEC system improved with increasing height of the sensor above the surface. Flux totals from the two systems at sites with adequate fetch were in excellent agreement after frequency response corrections were applied. The propeller system appears suitable for long periods of unattended measurement. The sensible heat flux measurements can be combined with net radiation and soil heat flux measurements to estimate latent heat as a residual in the surface energy balance.

AmeriFlux US-Sne Sherman Island Restored Wetland

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Baldocchi, Dennis

This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-Sne Sherman Island Restored Wetland. Site Description - A new restored wetland on the old Sherman Pasture site. The new tower is about 67m northwest (300deg) of the old tower site.

Comparing inversion techniques for constraining CO2 fluxes in the Brazilian Amazon Basin with aircraft observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chow, V. Y.; Gerbig, C.; Longo, M.; Koch, F.; Nehrkorn, T.; Eluszkiewicz, J.; Ceballos, J. C.; Longo, K.; Wofsy, S. C.

2012-12-01

The Balanço Atmosférico Regional de Carbono na Amazônia (BARCA) aircraft program spanned the dry to wet and wet to dry transition seasons in November 2008 & May 2009 respectively. It resulted in ~150 vertical profiles covering the Brazilian Amazon Basin (BAB). With the data we attempt to estimate a carbon budget for the BAB, to determine if regional aircraft experiments can provide strong constraints for a budget, and to compare inversion frameworks when optimizing flux estimates. We use a LPDM to integrate satellite-, aircraft-, & surface-data with mesoscale meteorological fields to link bottom-up and top-down models to provide constraints and error bounds for regional fluxes. The Stochastic Time-Inverted Lagrangian Transport (STILT) model driven by meteorological fields from BRAMS, ECMWF, and WRF are coupled to a biosphere model, the Vegetation Photosynthesis Respiration Model (VPRM), to determine regional CO2 fluxes for the BAB. The VPRM is a prognostic biosphere model driven by MODIS 8-day EVI and LSWI indices along with shortwave radiation and temperature from tower measurements and mesoscale meteorological data. VPRM parameters are tuned using eddy flux tower data from the Large-Scale Biosphere Atmosphere experiment. VPRM computes hourly CO2 fluxes by calculating Gross Ecosystem Exchange (GEE) and Respiration (R) for 8 different vegetation types. The VPRM fluxes are scaled up to the BAB by using time-averaged drivers (shortwave radiation & temperature) from high-temporal resolution runs of BRAMS, ECMWF, and WRF and vegetation maps from SYNMAP and IGBP2007. Shortwave radiation from each mesoscale model is validated using surface data and output from GL 1.2, a global radiation model based on GOES 8 visible imagery. The vegetation maps are updated to 2008 and 2009 using landuse scenarios modeled by Sim Amazonia 2 and Sim Brazil. A priori fluxes modeled by STILT-VPRM are optimized using data from BARCA, eddy covariance sites, and flask measurements. The aircraft mixing ratios are applied as a top down constraint in Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) and Bayesian inversion frameworks that solves for parameters controlling the flux. Posterior parameter estimates are used to estimate the carbon budget of the BAB. Preliminary results show that the STILT-VPRM model simulates the net emission of CO2 during both transition periods reasonably well. There is significant enhancement from biomass burning during the November 2008 profiles and some from fossil fuel combustion during the May 2009 flights. ΔCO/ΔCO2 emission ratios are used in combination with continuous observations of CO to remove the CO2 contributions from biomass burning and fossil fuel combustion from the observed CO2 measurements resulting in better agreement of observed and modeled aircraft data. Comparing column calculations for each of the vertical profiles shows our model represents the variability in the diurnal cycle. The high altitude CO2 values from above 3500m are similar to the lateral boundary conditions from CarbonTracker 2010 and GEOS-Chem indicating little influence from surface fluxes at these levels. The MLE inversion provides scaling factors for GEE and R for each of the 8 vegetation types and a Bayesian inversion is being conducted. Our initial inversion results suggest the BAB represents a small net source of CO2 during both of the BARCA intensives.

Non-closure of the surface energy balance explained by phase difference between vertical velocity and scalars of large atmospheric eddies

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gao, Zhongming; Liu, Heping; Katul, Gabriel G.

It is now accepted that large-scale turbulent eddies impact the widely reported non-closure of the surface energy balance when latent and sensible heat fluxes are measured using the eddy covariance method in the atmospheric surface layer (ASL). However, a mechanistic link between large eddies and non-closure of the surface energy balance remains a subject of inquiry. Here, measured 10 Hz time series of vertical velocity, air temperature, and water vapor density collected in the ASL are analyzed for conditions where entrainment and/or horizontal advection separately predominate. The series are decomposed into small- and large- eddies based on a frequency cutoffmore » and their contributions to turbulent fluxes are analyzed. Phase difference between vertical velocity and water vapor density associated with large eddies reduces latent heat fluxes, especially in conditions where advection prevails. Furthermore, enlarged phase difference of large eddies linked to entrainment or advection occurrence leads to increased residuals of the surface energy balance.« less

Non-closure of the surface energy balance explained by phase difference between vertical velocity and scalars of large atmospheric eddies

DOE PAGES

Gao, Zhongming; Liu, Heping; Katul, Gabriel G.; ...

2017-03-16

It is now accepted that large-scale turbulent eddies impact the widely reported non-closure of the surface energy balance when latent and sensible heat fluxes are measured using the eddy covariance method in the atmospheric surface layer (ASL). However, a mechanistic link between large eddies and non-closure of the surface energy balance remains a subject of inquiry. Here, measured 10 Hz time series of vertical velocity, air temperature, and water vapor density collected in the ASL are analyzed for conditions where entrainment and/or horizontal advection separately predominate. The series are decomposed into small- and large- eddies based on a frequency cutoffmore » and their contributions to turbulent fluxes are analyzed. Phase difference between vertical velocity and water vapor density associated with large eddies reduces latent heat fluxes, especially in conditions where advection prevails. Furthermore, enlarged phase difference of large eddies linked to entrainment or advection occurrence leads to increased residuals of the surface energy balance.« less

Effects of Environmental Conditions on an Urban Wetland's Methane Fluxes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Naor Azrieli, L.; Morin, T. H.; Bohrer, G.; Schafer, K. V.; Brooker, M.; Mitsch, W. J.

2013-12-01

Methane emissions from wetlands are the largest natural source of uncertainty in the global methane (CH4) budget. Wetlands are highly productive ecosystems with a large carbon sequestration potential. While wetlands are a net sink for carbon dioxide, they also release methane, a potent greenhouse gas. To effectively develop wetland management techniques, it is important to properly calculate the carbon budget of wetlands by understand the driving factors of methane fluxes. We constructed an eddy flux covariance system in the Olentangy River Wetland Research Park, a series of created and restored wetland in Columbus Ohio. Through the use of high frequency open path infrared gas analyzer (IRGA) sensors, we have continuously monitored the methane fluxes associated with the wetland since May 2011. To account for the heterogeneous landscape surrounding the tower, a footprint analysis was used to isolate data originating from within the wetland. Continuous measurements of the meteorological and environmental conditions at the wetlands coinciding with the flux measurements allow the interactions between methane fluxes and the climate and ecological forcing to be studied. The wintertime daily cycle of methane peaks around midday indicating a typical diurnal pattern in cold months. In the summer, the peak shifts to earlier in the day and also includes a daily peak occurring at approximately 10 AM. We believe this peak is associated with the onset of photosynthesis in Typha latifolia flushing methane from the plant's air filled tissue. Correlations with methane fluxes include latent heat flux, soil temperature, and incoming radiation. The connection to radiation may be further evidence of plant activity as a driver of methane fluxes. Higher methane fluxes corresponding with higher soil temperature indicates that warmer days stimulate the methanogenic consortium. Further analysis will focus on separating the methane fluxes into emissions from different terrain types within the wetland.

Observations-based GPP estimates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Joiner, J.; Yoshida, Y.; Jung, M.; Tucker, C. J.; Pinzon, J. E.

2017-12-01

We have developed global estimates of gross primary production based on a relatively simple satellite observations-based approach using reflectance data from the MODIS instruments in the form of vegetation indices that provide information about photosynthetic capacity at both high temporal and spatial resolution and combined with information from chlorophyll solar-induced fluorescence from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment-2 instrument that is noisier and available only at lower temporal and spatial scales. We compare our gross primary production estimates with those from eddy covariance flux towers and show that they are competitive with more complicated extrapolated machine learning gross primary production products. Our results provide insight into the amount of variance in gross primary production that can be explained with satellite observations data and also show how processing of the satellite reflectance data is key to using it for accurate GPP estimates.

Consequences to precipitation regimes of replacing native Brazilian Cerrado by managed Eucalyptus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Siqueira, M. B.; Mota, F. C. M.

2016-12-01

Before the large people influx and development of the central part of Brazil in the sixties, due to new capital Brasília, Cerrado, a typical Brazilian savanna-type vegetation, used to occupy about 2 million km2, going from the Amazon tropical forest, in the north, to the edges of what used to be the Atlantic forest in the southeast. Today, somewhat 50% of this area has given place to agriculture, pasture and managed forests. Understanding how Cerrado interacts with the atmosphere and how this interaction will be modified with this land-use change is a crucial step towards improving predictions of future climate-change scenarios. Cerrado is a vegetation adapted to a climate characterized by two distinct seasons, a wet season (Nov-Mar) and dry season (May-Ago), with April and October being transitions between seasons. Typically, 75% of precipitation happens in the wet-season months and only 5% during dry-season. In this study, it is investigated the potential impacts of the substitution of Cerrado to the eco-hydrological characteristics of the region. The focus here is Eucalyptus plantation, which has increased substantially in the last decade due to government incentives. Two eddy-covariance (EC) systems were installed, one in an undisturbed Cerrado Stricto area and other in a recently-established Eucalyptus plantation. The two areas are 1,400m apart and are subjected to the same meteorology and similar edaphic conditions. Besides instrumentation typical of EC towers, a soil-moisture profiling system was installed in each site. Surface flux data from the eddy-covariance towers, along with daily upper air sounding profiles collected at the Brasília International Airport (located 10Km from the towers), were used to drive a simplified Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL) slab model in order to investigate possible consequences of a large-scale shift from Cerrado to Eucalyptus to precipitation regimes in the region. Preliminary results show that replacing Cerrado for Eucalyptus causes reduction in ABL temperature, increase in ABL water-vapor mixing ratio and slightly reduces ABL height. Consequences of those changes on the hydrology could be most important in the season transition stages.

Influence of magnet eddy current on magnetization characteristics of variable flux memory machine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Hui; Lin, Heyun; Zhu, Z. Q.; Lyu, Shukang

2018-05-01

In this paper, the magnet eddy current characteristics of a newly developed variable flux memory machine (VFMM) is investigated. Firstly, the machine structure, non-linear hysteresis characteristics and eddy current modeling of low coercive force magnet are described, respectively. Besides, the PM eddy current behaviors when applying the demagnetizing current pulses are unveiled and investigated. The mismatch of the required demagnetization currents between the cases with or without considering the magnet eddy current is identified. In addition, the influences of the magnet eddy current on the demagnetization effect of VFMM are analyzed. Finally, a prototype is manufactured and tested to verify the theoretical analyses.

Large eddy simulation for atmospheric boundary layer flow over flat and complex terrains

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Han, Yi; Stoellinger, Michael; Naughton, Jonathan

2016-09-01

In this work, we present Large Eddy Simulation (LES) results of atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) flow over complex terrain with neutral stratification using the OpenFOAM-based simulator for on/offshore wind farm applications (SOWFA). The complete work flow to investigate the LES for the ABL over real complex terrain is described including meteorological-tower data analysis, mesh generation and case set-up. New boundary conditions for the lateral and top boundaries are developed and validated to allow inflow and outflow as required in complex terrain simulations. The turbulent inflow data for the terrain simulation is generated using a precursor simulation of a flat and neutral ABL. Conditionally averaged met-tower data is used to specify the conditions for the flat precursor simulation and is also used for comparison with the simulation results of the terrain LES. A qualitative analysis of the simulation results reveals boundary layer separation and recirculation downstream of a prominent ridge that runs across the simulation domain. Comparisons of mean wind speed, standard deviation and direction between the computed results and the conditionally averaged tower data show a reasonable agreement.

Four-year measurement of methane flux over a temperate forest with a relaxed eddy accumulation method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sakabe, A.; Kosugi, Y.; Ueyama, M.; Hamotani, K.; Takahashi, K.; Iwata, H.; Itoh, M.

2013-12-01

Forests are generally assumed to be an atmospheric methane (CH4) sink (Le Mer and Roger, 2001). However, under Asian monsoon climate, forests are subject to wide spatiotemporal range in soil water status, where forest soils often became water-saturated condition heterogeneously. In such warm and humid conditions, forests may act as a CH4 source and/or sink with considerable spatiotemporal variations. Micrometeorological methods such as eddy covariance (EC) method continuously measure spatially-representative flux at a canopy scale without artificial disturbance. In this study, we measured CH4 fluxes over a temperate forest during four-year period using a CH4 analyzer based on tunable diode laser spectroscopy detection with a relaxed eddy accumulation (REA) method (Hamotani et al., 1996, 2001). We revealed the amplitude and seasonal variations of canopy-scale CH4 fluxes. The REA method is the attractive alternative to the EC method to measure trace-gas flux because it allows the use of analyzers with an optimal integration time. We also conducted continuous chamber measurements on forest floor to reveal spatial variations in soil CH4 fluxes and its controlling processes. The observations were made in an evergreen coniferous forest in central Japan. The site has a warm temperate monsoon climate with wet summer. Some wetlands were located in riparian zones along streams within the flux footprint area. For the REA method, the sonic anemometer (SAT-550, Kaijo) was mounted on top of the 29-m-tall tower and air was sampled from just below the sonic anemometer to reservoirs according to the direction of vertical wind velocity (w). After accumulating air for 30 minutes, the air in the reservoirs was pulled into a CO2/H2O gas analyzer (LI-840, Li-Cor) and a CH4 analyzer (FMA-200, Los Gatos Research). Before entering the analyzers, the sampled air was dried using a gas dryer (PD-50 T-48; Perma Pure Inc.). The REA flux is obtained from the difference in the mean concentrations of the reservoirs. In the chamber method, automated dynamic-closed chambers were located at three points of water-unsaturated forest floor. Soil CO2 and CH4 fluxes were measured using the same analyzers with the REA method. CH4 fluxes showed seasonal variations at both canopy and plot scales. Based on the chamber measurements, water-unsaturated forest floor mostly consumed CH4 throughout a year. In contrast, canopy-scale CH4 fluxes by the REA method seasonally fluctuated between emission and absorption. The seasonal variation of canopy-scale CH4 fluxes varied at years to years. Every year, no notable emission nor absorption was observed during winter when daily average air temperature was less than about 10°C. In this forest, the canopy-scale CH4 fluxes could be determined by a balance between sources by methanogens and sinks by methanotrophs. Since these two processes were influenced by soil conditions (e.g., soil temperature and soil moisture), canopy-scale CH4 fluxes were influenced by CH4 fluxes from wetlands within the forest, because magnitude of wetland emission was a few order larger than those of absorption. We will discuss the factors of interannual variation of the canopy- and plot-scale CH4 fluxes in terms of precipitation patterns.

Spatial Interpretation of Tower, Chamber and Modelled Terrestrial Fluxes in a Tropical Forest Plantation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Whidden, E.; Roulet, N.

2003-04-01

Interpretation of a site average terrestrial flux may be complicated in the presence of inhomogeneities. Inhomogeneity may invalidate the basic assumptions of aerodynamic flux measurement. Chamber measurement may miss or misinterpret important temporal or spatial anomalies. Models may smooth over important nonlinearities depending on the scale of application. Although inhomogeneity is usually seen as a design problem, many sites have spatial variance that may have a large impact on net flux, and in many cases a large homogeneous surface is unrealistic. The sensitivity and validity of a site average flux are investigated in the presence of an inhomogeneous site. Directional differences are used to evaluate the validity of aerodynamic methods and the computation of a site average tower flux. Empirical and modelling methods are used to interpret the spatial controls on flux. An ecosystem model, Ecosys, is used to assess spatial length scales appropriate to the ecophysiologic controls. A diffusion model is used to compare tower, chamber, and model data, by spatially weighting contributions within the tower footprint. Diffusion model weighting is also used to improve tower flux estimates by producing footprint averaged ecological parameters (soil moisture, soil temperature, etc.). Although uncertainty remains in the validity of measurement methods and the accuracy of diffusion models, a detailed spatial interpretation is required at an inhomogeneous site. Flux estimation between methods improves with spatial interpretation, showing the importance to an estimation of a site average flux. Small-scale temporal and spatial anomalies may be relatively unimportant to overall flux, but accounting for medium-scale differences in ecophysiological controls is necessary. A combination of measurements and modelling can be used to define the appropriate time and length scales of significant non-linearity due to inhomogeneity.

Onshore Wind Stress and Buoyancy Flux Observed on a Dissipative Mediterranean Beach

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-12-01

a climatologically Mediterranean coastline to explore the wind stress and buoyancy flux. An eddy covariance system was deployed in the intertidal... climatologically Mediterranean coastline to explore the wind stress and buoyancy flux. An eddy covariance system was deployed in the intertidal zone

FLUXPART: An FOSS solution for Eddy covariance flux partitioning

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

We report on efforts to develop a FOSS solution for a particular geoscience application. Eddy covariance (EC) instruments are routinely used to measure field-scale evapotranspiration and CO2 fluxes. For many applications, it is desirable to partition the measured evapotranspiration flux into its c...

A multi-site analysis of random error in tower-based measurements of carbon and energy fluxes

Treesearch

Andrew D. Richardson; David Y. Hollinger; George G. Burba; Kenneth J. Davis; Lawrence B. Flanagan; Gabriel G. Katul; J. William Munger; Daniel M. Ricciuto; Paul C. Stoy; Andrew E. Suyker; Shashi B. Verma; Steven C. Wofsy; Steven C. Wofsy

2006-01-01

Measured surface-atmosphere fluxes of energy (sensible heat, H, and latent heat, LE) and CO2 (FCO2) represent the ``true?? flux plus or minus potential random and systematic measurement errors. Here, we use data from seven sites in the AmeriFlux network, including five forested sites (two of which include ``tall tower?? instrumentation), one grassland site, and one...

Assessing the net impact of long-term drainage disturbance on a permafrost ecosystem through multi-disciplinary observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goeckede, Mathias; Kwon, Min Jung; Kittler, Fanny; Burjack, Ina; Heimann, Martin; Zimov, Nikita; Zimov, Sergey

2016-04-01

This study presents findings from a multi-disciplinary disturbance experiment established on the floodplain of the Kolyma River near Chersky, Northeast Siberia. Parts of our site have been artificially drained by ditches since 2004 to study shifts in biogeochemical and biogeophysical ecosystem properties following a sustained lowering of the water table. In particular, we are interested in changes in carbon and energy flux patterns, and resulting effects on the sustainability of the permafrost carbon pool. We conduct a paired experiment with two uniformly instrumented sites representing drained and reference tundra, respectively. Year-round fluxes of carbon (CO2 and CH4) and energy are available from two eddy-covariance towers, supplemented by a comprehensive monitoring of surface layer meteorology. These tower datasets are supplemented by observations targeting microsite flux rates with flux chamber transects, microbial and vegetation community structures, radiocarbon signals, nutrient availability and seasonal dynamics in phenology. Through our multi-disciplinary observations we can document that the drainage triggered a suite of secondary changes in ecosystem properties, including e.g. vegetation structure (more tussocks and shrubs), snow cover regime (earlier buildup, earlier snow melt), soil temperature (warmer soils throughout the year) and thaw depth (reduced). Concerning the energy budget, this results in an intensification of energy transfer to the lower atmosphere, particularly in form of sensible heat. The CO2 exchange between ecosystem and atmosphere is intensified as well, with drainage leading to both higher assimilation (taller vegetation) and respiration (warmer topsoils) rates. Increases in respiration dominate here, thus the net sink strength of the ecosystem for CO2 is reduced as a consequence of lowering the water table. CH4 emissions are reduced by more then 50% following the drainage, since in the disturbed area conditions for both production (dryer soils) and transport (less plant-mediated transport due to shifts in vegetation) have negative impacts on flux rates. Summarizing, drainage results in complex effects with both positive and negative contributions to the net global warming potential of this ecosystem, with the long-term effect most likely leading to a positive feedback with global warming.

Management matters: Testing a mitigation strategy of nitrous oxide emissions on managed grassland

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fuchs, Kathrin; Hörtnagl, Lukas; Eugster, Werner; Koller, Patrick; Käslin, Florian; Merbold, Lutz

2017-04-01

The magnitude of greenhouse gas (GHG) exchange between managed grasslands and the atmosphere depends besides climate predominantly on management practices. While natural or extensively managed grasslands are known to function as GHG sinks, intensively managed grasslands are characterized by substantial nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions diminishing their sink function. One potential N2O mitigation strategy is to reduce the required amount of nitrogen (N) fertilizer input by using biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) via legumes. However, the effect of legumes on nitrous oxide emissions is still not fully understood. In this study we quantify net GHG fluxes from two differently managed grassland parcels (mitigation, control) and relate our results to productivity (yields). In addition, we aim at revealing the influence of various driver variables on N2O exchange. Our experimental setup consisted of an eddy covariance tower that measured the net exchange of the three major anthropogenic GHGs, nitrous oxide (N2O), methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2). Both grassland parcels can be covered with this tower due to two prevailing wind directions. GHG flux measurements were accompanied by measurements of commonly known driver variables such as water filled pore space, soil temperature, soil oxygen concentrations and mineral N to disentangle the soil meteorological influence of N2O fluxes from human drivers. Following organic fertilizer application, we measured elevated N2O emissions (>1 nmol m-2 s-1) at the control parcel and unchanged N2O emissions at the treatment parcel. Net annual fluxes were 54% and 50% lower at the experimental parcel in 2015 and 2016, respectively. Annual yields did not significantly differ between parcels, but were slightly lower at the experimental parcel compared to the control parcel. Significantly lower nitrous oxide fluxes under experimental management indicate that nitrous oxide emissions can be effectively reduced at very low costs with a clover-based management. Long-term effects on the N budget, implications for the quality of animal feed as well as potential consequences at the farming system level (i.e. manure management) need further evaluation.

A Restricted Boltzman Neural Net to Infer Carbon Uptake from OCO-2 Satellite Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Halem, M.; Dorband, J. E.; Radov, A.; Barr-Dallas, M.; Gentine, P.

2015-12-01

For several decades, scientists have been using satellite observations to infer climate budgets of terrestrial carbon uptake employing inverse methods in conjunction with ecosystem models and coupled global climate models. This is an extremely important Big Data calculation today since the net annual photosynthetic carbon uptake changes annually over land and removes on average ~20% of the emissions from human contributions to atmospheric loading of CO2 from fossil fuels. Unfortunately, such calculations have large uncertainties validated with in-situ networks of measuring stations across the globe. One difficulty in using satellite data for these budget calculations is that the models need to assimilate surface fluxes of CO2 as well as soil moisture, vegatation cover and the eddy covariance of latent and sensible heat to calculate the carbon fixed in the soil while satellite spectral observations only provide near surface concentrations of CO2. In July 2014, NASA successfully launched OCO-2 which provides 3km surface measurements of CO2 over land and oceans. We have collected nearly one year of Level 2 XCO2 data from the OCO-2 satellite for 3 sites of ~200 km2 at equatorial, temperate and high latitudes. Each selected site was part of the Fluxnet or ARM system with tower stations for measuring and collecting CO2 fluxes on an hourly basis, in addition to eddy transports of the other parameters. We are also planning to acquire the 4km NDVI products from MODIS and registering the data to the 3km XCO2 footprints for the three sites. We have implemented a restricted Boltzman machine on the quantum annealing D-Wave computer, a novel deep learning neural net, to be used for training with station data to infer CO2 fluxes from collocated XCO2, MODIS vegetative land cover and MERRA reanalysis surface exchange products. We will present performance assessments of the D-Wave Boltzman machine for generating XCO2 fluxes from the OCO-2 satellite observations for the 3 sites by validating with monthly station flux data for one year as a potential assimilation input to the LIS model for obtaining the Net Ecosystem Exchange.

Assessing net ecosystem carbon exchange of U.S. terrestrial ecosystems by integrating eddy covariance flux measurements and satellite observations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Xiao, Jingfeng; Zhuang, Qianlai; Law, Beverly E.

2011-01-01

More accurate projections of future carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere and associated climate change depend on improved scientific understanding of the terrestrial carbon cycle. Despite the consensus that U.S. terrestrial ecosystems provide a carbon sink, the size, distribution, and interannual variability of this sink remain uncertain. Here we report a terrestrial carbon sink in the conterminous U.S. at 0.63 pg C yr-1 with the majority of the sink in regions dominated by evergreen and deciduous forests and savannas. This estimate is based on our continuous estimates of net ecosystem carbon exchange (NEE) with high spatial (1 km) and temporalmore » (8-day) resolutions derived from NEE measurements from eddy covariance flux towers and wall-to-wall satellite observations from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). We find that the U.S. terrestrial ecosystems could offset a maximum of 40% of the fossil-fuel carbon emissions. Our results show that the U.S. terrestrial carbon sink varied between 0.51 and 0.70 pg C yr-1 over the period 2001–2006. The dominant sources of interannual variation of the carbon sink included extreme climate events and disturbances. Droughts in 2002 and 2006 reduced the U.S. carbon sink by ~20% relative to a normal year. Disturbances including wildfires and hurricanes reduced carbon uptake or resulted in carbon release at regional scales. Our results provide an alternative, independent, and novel constraint to the U.S. terrestrial carbon sink.« less

Assessing net ecosystem carbon exchange of U S terrestrial ecosystems by integrating eddy covariance flux measurements and satellite observations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhuang, Qianlai; Law, Beverly E.; Baldocchi, Dennis

2011-01-01

More accurate projections of future carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere and associated climate change depend on improved scientific understanding of the terrestrial carbon cycle. Despite the consensus that U.S. terrestrial ecosystems provide a carbon sink, the size, distribution, and interannual variability of this sink remain uncertain. Here we report a terrestrial carbon sink in the conterminous U.S. at 0.63 pg C yr 1 with the majority of the sink in regions dominated by evergreen and deciduous forests and savannas. This estimate is based on our continuous estimates of net ecosystem carbon exchange (NEE) with high spatial (1 km) andmore » temporal (8-day) resolutions derived from NEE measurements from eddy covariance flux towers and wall-to-wall satellite observations from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). We find that the U.S. terrestrial ecosystems could offset a maximum of 40% of the fossil-fuel carbon emissions. Our results show that the U.S. terrestrial carbon sink varied between 0.51 and 0.70 pg C yr 1 over the period 2001 2006. The dominant sources of interannual variation of the carbon sink included extreme climate events and disturbances. Droughts in 2002 and 2006 reduced the U.S. carbon sink by 20% relative to a normal year. Disturbances including wildfires and hurricanes reduced carbon uptake or resulted in carbon release at regional scales. Our results provide an alternative, independent, and novel constraint to the U.S. terrestrial carbon sink.« less

The Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Leak : Large Eddy Simulations for Modeling Atmospheric Dynamics and Interpretation of Observations.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prasad, K.; Thorpe, A. K.; Duren, R. M.; Thompson, D. R.; Whetstone, J. R.

2016-12-01

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has supported the development and demonstration of a measurement capability to accurately locate greenhouse gas sources and measure their flux to the atmosphere over urban domains. However, uncertainties in transport models which form the basis of all top-down approaches can significantly affect our capability to attribute sources and predict their flux to the atmosphere. Reducing uncertainties between bottom-up and top-down models will require high resolution transport models as well as validation and verification of dispersion models over an urban domain. Tracer experiments involving the release of Perfluorocarbon Tracers (PFTs) at known flow rates offer the best approach for validating dispersion / transport models. However, tracer experiments are limited by cost, ability to make continuous measurements, and environmental concerns. Natural tracer experiments, such as the leak from the Aliso Canyon underground storage facility offers a unique opportunity to improve and validate high resolution transport models, test leak hypothesis, and to estimate the amount of methane released.High spatial resolution (10 m) Large Eddy Simulations (LES) coupled with WRF atmospheric transport models were performed to simulate the dynamics of the Aliso Canyon methane plume and to quantify the source. High resolution forward simulation results were combined with aircraft and tower based in-situ measurements as well as data from NASA airborne imaging spectrometers. Comparison of simulation results with measurement data demonstrate the capability of the LES models to accurately model transport and dispersion of methane plumes over urban domains.

Comparison Of Landscape-level Carbon Flux Estimates from Budgeting The Planetary Boundary Layer And Footprinting On Remote Sensing Images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, B.; Chen, J. M.; Mo, G.

2006-12-01

Carbon balance estimation at the landscape/regional scale is a challenge because of the heterogeneity of the land surface and the nonlinearity inherent in ecophysiological processes. Two methodologies, a simple atmospheric boundary-layer budgeting method and an integrated modeling method, were explored and compared in this study. Studies of the atmospheric boundary-layer (ABL) budget of CO2 have the potential to provide information on carbon balance of the land surface on a regional scale. Indeed, the surface area of integration by the ABL moving through a tower in one day was estimated to be ~104 km2. Two novel methodologies to retrieve the landscape/regional carbon balance information captured by the CO2 concentration measurements are explored and compared in this study: boundary-layer budgeting and remote sensing-based footprint integration. We investigated four boreal continental sites in this study. Boundary-layer budgeting: By assuming the horizontal advection is negligible, the regional surface net flux (representative of an upwind area ~105 km2) can be calculated as, Fc=(Cm-CFT)ù+dC/dt*zi, where ù is the mean vertical velocity, zi is the mean ABL height, and and are the biweekly mean mixing ratio of CO2 in the ABL and the free troposphere, respectively. ù is from the NCEP (National Centers for Environmental Prediction) reanalysis data, while zi was simulated by an one-dimensional ABL model. The CO2 flux in the upwind area of the tower was also estimated based on ecosystem modeling using remote sensing measurements. Remote sensing-based footprint integration: The total regional flux captured by the sensor on a tower (mixing ratio) is the weighted sum of the upwind footprint source areas (Ømega), Fc= Σ FiWi, where Fi and Wi are the CO2 flux and its weighting factor for each pixel, respectively. Fiis calculated using an ecosystem model (BEPS: Boreal Ecosystem Productivity Simulator). Wiis comparative contribution factor of footprint function for each pixel within the whole footprint area as, Wi= fi/Σ fi, while the footprint function fi (the pixel i with x,y coordinates; x and y are along and the cross daily mean wind direction, respectively) is computed using a concentration footprint model as, fi(x,y,zm-z0)=Dy(x,y)Dz(x,zm)/U(x) Where Dy and Dz are the crosswind and vertical concentration distribution function, respectively and U(x) is the effective speed of plume advection. They are dependant on standard surface-layer scaling parameters and based on an analytical solution of Eulerian theory. Methodology comparison: The regional fluxes estimated using these two methods matched well. These regional net CO2 flux estimates were also comparable to local-scale measurements by eddy covariance techniques. The calculated upwind regional CO2 flux shows considerable seasonal and inter-annual variations. Annual regional flux was sensitive to air temperature in boreal regions and the temperature-sensitivities were region dependent. Larger fluxes are found in the warmer growing seasons and warmer years in the boreal forest regions.

AmeriFlux US-Blo Blodgett Forest

DOE Data Explorer

Goldstein, Allen [University of California, Berkeley

2016-01-01

This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-Blo Blodgett Forest. Site Description - The flux tower site at Blodgett Forest is on a 1200 ha parcel of land owned by Sierra Pacific Industries in the Sierra Nevada range near Georgetown, California. The field site was established in May 1997 with continuous operation since May 1999. The site is situated in a ponderosa pine plantation, mixed-evergreen coniferous forest, located adjacent to Blodgett Forest Research Station. The Mediterranean-type climate of California is characterized by a protracted summer drought, with precipitation occurring mainly from October through May. The infrastructure for the ecosystem scale flux measurements includes a walkup measurement tower, two temperature controlled instrument buildings, and an electrical generation system powered by a diesel generator. Typical wind patterns at the site include upslope flow during the day (from the west) and downslope flow at night (from the east). The plantation is relatively flat, and contains a homogenous mixture of evenly aged ponderosa pine with other trees and shrubs scattered throughout the ecosystem making up less than 30% of the biomass. The daytime fetch for the tower measurements extends approximately 200 m to the southwest of the tower (this region contributes ~90% of the daytime flux), thus remote sensing images to be used for modeling should probably be centered approximately 100 m from the tower at an angle of 225 deg.

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Wildlife Detection and Observation Technologies at a Solar Power Tower Facility.

PubMed

Diehl, Robert H; Valdez, Ernest W; Preston, Todd M; Wellik, Michael J; Cryan, Paul M

2016-01-01

Solar power towers produce electrical energy from sunlight at an industrial scale. Little is known about the effects of this technology on flying animals and few methods exist for automatically detecting or observing wildlife at solar towers and other tall anthropogenic structures. Smoking objects are sometimes observed co-occurring with reflected, concentrated light ("solar flux") in the airspace around solar towers, but the identity and origins of such objects can be difficult to determine. In this observational pilot study at the world's largest solar tower facility, we assessed the efficacy of using radar, surveillance video, and insect trapping to detect and observe animals flying near the towers. During site visits in May and September 2014, we monitored the airspace surrounding towers and observed insects, birds, and bats under a variety of environmental and operational conditions. We detected and broadly differentiated animals or objects moving through the airspace generally using radar and near solar towers using several video imaging methods. Video revealed what appeared to be mostly small insects burning in the solar flux. Also, we occasionally detected birds flying in the solar flux but could not accurately identify birds to species or the types of insects and small objects composing the vast majority of smoking targets. Insect trapping on the ground was somewhat effective at sampling smaller insects around the tower, and presence and abundance of insects in the traps generally trended with radar and video observations. Traps did not tend to sample the larger insects we sometimes observed flying in the solar flux or found dead on the ground beneath the towers. Some of the methods we tested (e.g., video surveillance) could be further assessed and potentially used to automatically detect and observe flying animals in the vicinity of solar towers to advance understanding about their effects on wildlife.

Quantifying the relative importance of greenhouse gas emissions from current and future savanna land use change across northern Australia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bristow, Mila; Hutley, Lindsay B.; Beringer, Jason; Livesley, Stephen J.; Edwards, Andrew C.; Arndt, Stefan K.

2016-11-01

The clearing and burning of tropical savanna leads to globally significant emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs); however there is large uncertainty relating to the magnitude of this flux. Australia's tropical savannas occupy the northern quarter of the continent, a region of increasing interest for further exploitation of land and water resources. Land use decisions across this vast biome have the potential to influence the national greenhouse gas budget. To better quantify emissions from savanna deforestation and investigate the impact of deforestation on national GHG emissions, we undertook a paired site measurement campaign where emissions were quantified from two tropical savanna woodland sites; one that was deforested and prepared for agricultural land use and a second analogue site that remained uncleared for the duration of a 22-month campaign. At both sites, net ecosystem exchange of CO2 was measured using the eddy covariance method. Observations at the deforested site were continuous before, during and after the clearing event, providing high-resolution data that tracked CO2 emissions through nine phases of land use change. At the deforested site, post-clearing debris was allowed to cure for 6 months and was subsequently burnt, followed by extensive soil preparation for cropping. During the debris burning, fluxes of CO2 as measured by the eddy covariance tower were excluded. For this phase, emissions were estimated by quantifying on-site biomass prior to deforestation and applying savanna-specific emission factors to estimate a fire-derived GHG emission that included both CO2 and non-CO2 gases. The total fuel mass that was consumed during the debris burning was 40.9 Mg C ha-1 and included above- and below-ground woody biomass, course woody debris, twigs, leaf litter and C4 grass fuels. Emissions from the burning were added to the net CO2 fluxes as measured by the eddy covariance tower for other post-deforestation phases to provide a total GHG emission from this land use change. The total emission from this savanna woodland was 148.3 Mg CO2-e ha-1 with the debris burning responsible for 121.9 Mg CO2-e ha-1 or 82 % of the total emission. The remaining emission was attributed to CO2 efflux from soil disturbance during site preparation for agriculture (10 % of the total emission) and decay of debris during the curing period prior to burning (8 %). Over the same period, fluxes at the uncleared savanna woodland site were measured using a second flux tower and over the 22-month observation period, cumulative net ecosystem exchange (NEE) was a net carbon sink of -2.1 Mg C ha-1, or -7.7 Mg CO2-e ha-1. Estimated emissions for this savanna type were then extrapolated to a regional-scale to (1) provide estimates of the magnitude of GHG emissions from any future deforestation and (2) compare them with GHG emissions from prescribed savanna burning that occurs across the northern Australian savanna every year. Emissions from current rate of annual savanna deforestation across northern Australia was double that of reported (non-CO2 only) savanna burning. However, if the total GHG emission, CO2 plus non-CO2 emissions, is accounted for, burning emissions are an order of magnitude larger than that arising from savanna deforestation. We examined a scenario of expanded land use that required additional deforestation of savanna woodlands over and above current rates. This analysis suggested that significant expansion of deforestation area across the northern savanna woodlands could add an additional 3 % to Australia's national GHG account for the duration of the land use change. This bottom-up study provides data that can reduce uncertainty associated with land use change for this extensive tropical ecosystem and provide an assessment of the relative magnitude of GHG emissions from savanna burning and deforestation. Such knowledge can contribute to informing land use decision making processes associated with land and water resource development.

Prospects for Problems Associated with Integrative and Inter-comparative Analysis of Eddy Flux Data Sets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kobayashi, Y.; Miyata, A.; Nagai, H.; Mano, M.; Yamamoto, S.

2005-12-01

In last decade, numerous long-term eddy flux measurements have been conducted worldwide to assess annual/seasonal energy, water and carbon exchanges between terrestrial ecosystem and the atmosphere. And FLUXNET communities now seem to come into a next phase with the objectives: integration of flux data observed at various ecosystems and/or inter-sites comparative studies. For example, a big research project "S-1" is ongoing in Japan and other eastern Asian region to set up terrestrial carbon management of Asia in the 21st century. One of the highlights of S-1 project is to provide a carbon budget map of all over Asia based on integrated and inter-compared eddy flux data collected at 15 sites of S-1 membership. FLUXNET communities including S-1 project have recognized that integration and inter-comparison of eddy flux data are the key issues to understand aspects of energy, water and carbon budgets at regional scale. However, the issues have difficulties to be settled because each flux site applies own data processing methods and gap-filling methods with site-specified classification and threshold values. In order to conduct appropriate integrative and inter-comparative analysis for eddy flux data effectively, we made it clear that how the differences in the data processing method affect the obtained flux values and searched for suitable and common gap-filling methodology. The differences in the data processing methods affect the obtained flux data in the present study was discussed based on a comparative experiment in S-1 project. We prepared one-month common test data sets, which consisted of 10 Hz eddy covariance raw data and related half-hourly meteorological data obtained at a larch forest site and a paddy site, in the comparative experiment. The 15 sites of S-1 memberships processed the test data by using their own processing methods. The results indicated that combined influences of coordinate rotation, detrending and frequency response correction brought about up to 10% of flux discrepancy, and that the forest sites were more sensitive to differences in the data processing methods than the non-forest sites. Multiple imputation method (MI), one of the statistical operations for analyzing incomplete multivariate data set, is likely to be an easy-to-use and objective gap-filling method to account for missing eddy flux data. We also discussed validity of application of MI to fill missing flux data by comparing a gap-filled complete eddy flux data set obtained by MI with that by nonlinear regression method and look-up table method. It was revealed that, with suitable separation of the periods to be filled and proper selection of reference variables, MI has potential to be applied commonly to gap-filling missing flux data, and that MI can be a useful tool for FLUXNET communities to make inter-site comparison of long-term flux data.

The impact of greenhouse climate change on the energetics and hydrologic processes of mid-latitude transient eddies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Branscome, Lee E.; Gutowski, William J., Jr.

1991-01-01

Atmospheric transient eddies contribute significantly to mid-latitude energy and water vapor transports. Changes in the global climate, as induced by greenhouse enhancement, will likely alter transient eddy behavior. Unraveling all the feedbacks that occur in general circulation models (GCMs) can be difficult. The transient eddies are isolated from the feedbacks and are focused on the response of the eddies to zonal-mean climate changes that result from CO2-doubling. Using a primitive-equation spectral model, the impact of climate change on the life cycles of transient eddies is examined. Transient eddy behavior in experiments is compared with initial conditions that are given by the zonal-mean climates of the GCMs with current and doubled amounts of CO2. The smaller meridional temperature gradient in a doubled CO2 climate leads to a reduction in eddy kinetic energy, especially in the subtropics. The decrease in subtropical eddy energy is related to a substantial reduction in equatorward flux of eddy activity during the latter part of the life cycle. The reduction in equatorward energy flux alters the moisture cycle. Eddy meridional transport of water vapor is shifted slightly poleward and subtropical precipitation is reduced. The water vapor transport exhibits a relatively small change in magnitude, compared to changes in eddy energy, due to the compensating effect of higher specific humidity in the doubled-CO2 climate. An increase in high-latitude precipitation is related to the poleward shift in eddy water vapor flux. Surface evaporation amplifies climatic changes in water vapor transport and precipitation in the experiments.

Siting Background Towers to Characterize Incoming Air for Urban Greenhouse Gas Estimation: A Case Study in the Washington, DC/Baltimore Area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mueller, K.; Yadav, V.; Lopez-Coto, I.; Karion, A.; Gourdji, S.; Martin, C.; Whetstone, J.

2018-03-01

There is increased interest in understanding urban greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To accurately estimate city emissions, the influence of extraurban fluxes must first be removed from urban greenhouse gas (GHG) observations. This is especially true for regions, such as the U.S. Northeastern Corridor-Baltimore/Washington, DC (NEC-B/W), downwind of large fluxes. To help site background towers for the NEC-B/W, we use a coupled Bayesian Information Criteria and geostatistical regression approach to help site four background locations that best explain CO2 variability due to extraurban fluxes modeled at 12 urban towers. The synthetic experiment uses an atmospheric transport and dispersion model coupled with two different flux inventories to create modeled observations and evaluate 15 candidate towers located along the urban domain for February and July 2013. The analysis shows that the average ratios of extraurban inflow to total modeled enhancements at urban towers are 21% to 36% in February and 31% to 43% in July. In July, the incoming air dominates the total variability of synthetic enhancements at the urban towers (R2 = 0.58). Modeled observations from the selected background towers generally capture the variability in the synthetic CO2 enhancements at urban towers (R2 = 0.75, root-mean-square error (RMSE) = 3.64 ppm; R2 = 0.43, RMSE = 4.96 ppm for February and July). However, errors associated with representing background air can be up to 10 ppm for any given observation even with an optimal background tower configuration. More sophisticated methods may be necessary to represent background air to accurately estimate urban GHG emissions.

Confronting the WRF and RAMS mesoscale models with innovative observations in the Netherlands: Evaluating the boundary layer heat budget

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Steeneveld, G. J.; Tolk, L. F.; Moene, A. F.; Hartogensis, O. K.; Peters, W.; Holtslag, A. A. M.

2011-12-01

The Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) and the Regional Atmospheric Mesoscale Model System (RAMS) are frequently used for (regional) weather, climate and air quality studies. This paper covers an evaluation of these models for a windy and calm episode against Cabauw tower observations (Netherlands), with a special focus on the representation of the physical processes in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL). In addition, area averaged sensible heat flux observations by scintillometry are utilized which enables evaluation of grid scale model fluxes and flux observations at the same horizontal scale. Also, novel ABL height observations by ceilometry and of the near surface longwave radiation divergence are utilized. It appears that WRF in its basic set-up shows satisfactory model results for nearly all atmospheric near surface variables compared to field observations, while RAMS needed refining of its ABL scheme. An important inconsistency was found regarding the ABL daytime heat budget: Both model versions are only able to correctly forecast the ABL thermodynamic structure when the modeled surface sensible heat flux is much larger than both the eddy-covariance and scintillometer observations indicate. In order to clarify this discrepancy, model results for each term of the heat budget equation is evaluated against field observations. Sensitivity studies and evaluation of radiative tendencies and entrainment reveal that possible errors in these variables cannot explain the overestimation of the sensible heat flux within the current model infrastructure.

Potential for using remote sensing to estimate carbon fluxes across northern peatlands - A review.

PubMed

Lees, K J; Quaife, T; Artz, R R E; Khomik, M; Clark, J M

2018-02-15

Peatlands store large amounts of terrestrial carbon and any changes to their carbon balance could cause large changes in the greenhouse gas (GHG) balance of the Earth's atmosphere. There is still much uncertainty about how the GHG dynamics of peatlands are affected by climate and land use change. Current field-based methods of estimating annual carbon exchange between peatlands and the atmosphere include flux chambers and eddy covariance towers. However, remote sensing has several advantages over these traditional approaches in terms of cost, spatial coverage and accessibility to remote locations. In this paper, we outline the basic principles of using remote sensing to estimate ecosystem carbon fluxes and explain the range of satellite data available for such estimations, considering the indices and models developed to make use of the data. Past studies, which have used remote sensing data in comparison with ground-based calculations of carbon fluxes over Northern peatland landscapes, are discussed, as well as the challenges of working with remote sensing on peatlands. Finally, we suggest areas in need of future work on this topic. We conclude that the application of remote sensing to models of carbon fluxes is a viable research method over Northern peatlands but further work is needed to develop more comprehensive carbon cycle models and to improve the long-term reliability of models, particularly on peatland sites undergoing restoration. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Recent Results From the NOAA/ESRL GMD Tall Tower Network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Andrews, A. E.; Tans, P. P.; Peters, W.; Hirsch, A.; Sweeney, C.; Petron, G.; Kofler, J.; Zhao, C.; Masarie, K.; Wofsy, S. C.; Matross, D. M.; Mahadevan, P.; Longo, M.; Gerbig, C.; Lin, J. C.

2006-12-01

We will present a summary of new results from NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory`s Tall Tower greenhouse gas monitoring network. The tower network is operated by the Global Monitoring Division, which also maintains the global Cooperative Air Sampling network and a network of aircraft profiling sites over North America. Tall tower CO2 mixing ratio measurements are sensitive to upwind fluxes over scales of hundreds of kilometers, and the primary objective of the tower network is to obtain regionally representative carbon flux estimates for the North American continent. Mixing ratios of CO2 and CO are measured semi-continuously at the towers, and the KWKT-TV tower site near Moody, TX has recently also been equipped with sensors to measure radon and O3. Daily flask samples are collected at the KWKT tower and analyzed for CO2, CO, CH4, SF6, N2O, H2, stable isotopes of CO2 and CH4, COS, and a variety of halocarbon and hydrocarbon species. Daily flask sampling will be implemented at all tower sites within the next few years. We have used the Stochastic Time Inverted Lagrangian Transport (STILT) model to investigate upwind influences on the tower observations. CO measurements provide an indicator of polluted air masses, and we will present a summary of the frequency and origin of pollution events observed at the towers. We will present an analysis of the primary factors contributing to observed CO2 variability along with average seasonal and diurnal cycles of CO2 at the tower sites. Tower measurements are being used to evaluate atmospheric transport models in the context of the Transcom Continuous experiment and are an important constraint for CO2 data assimilation systems that produce regional to global carbon flux estimates with up to weekly resolution.

Bathypelagic particle flux signatures from a suboxic eddy in the oligotrophic tropical North Atlantic: production, sedimentation and preservation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fischer, Gerhard; Karstensen, Johannes; Romero, Oscar; Baumann, Karl-Heinz; Donner, Barbara; Hefter, Jens; Mollenhauer, Gesine; Iversen, Morten; Fiedler, Björn; Monteiro, Ivanice; Körtzinger, Arne

2016-06-01

Particle fluxes at the Cape Verde Ocean Observatory (CVOO) in the eastern tropical North Atlantic for the period December 2009 until May 2011 are discussed based on bathypelagic sediment trap time-series data collected at 1290 and 3439 m water depth. The typically oligotrophic particle flux pattern with weak seasonality is modified by the appearance of a highly productive and low oxygen (minimum concentration below 2 µmol kg-1 at 40 m depth) anticyclonic modewater eddy (ACME) in winter 2010. The eddy passage was accompanied by unusually high mass fluxes of up to 151 mg m-2 d-1, lasting from December 2009 to May 2010. Distinct biogenic silica (BSi) and organic carbon flux peaks of ˜ 15 and 13.3 mg m-2 d-1, respectively, were observed in February-March 2010 when the eddy approached the CVOO. The flux of the lithogenic component, mostly mineral dust, was well correlated with that of organic carbon, in particular in the deep trap samples, suggesting a tight coupling. The lithogenic ballasting obviously resulted in high particle settling rates and, thus, a fast transfer of epi-/meso-pelagic signatures to the bathypelagic traps. We suspect that the two- to three-fold increase in particle fluxes with depth as well as the tight coupling of mineral dust and organic carbon in the deep trap samples might be explained by particle focusing processes within the deeper part of the eddy. Molar C : N ratios of organic matter during the ACME passage were around 18 and 25 for the upper and lower trap samples, respectively. This suggests that some productivity under nutrient (nitrate) limitation occurred in the euphotic zone of the eddy in the beginning of 2010 or that a local nitrogen recycling took place. The δ15N record showed a decrease from 5.21 to 3.11 ‰ from January to March 2010, while the organic carbon and nitrogen fluxes increased. The causes of enhanced sedimentation from the eddy in February/March 2010 remain elusive, but nutrient depletion and/or an increased availability of dust as a ballast mineral for organic-rich aggregates might have contributed. Rapid remineralisation of sinking organic-rich particles could have contributed to oxygen depletion at shallow depth. Although the eddy formed in the West African coastal area in summer 2009, no indications of coastal flux signatures (e.g. from diatoms) were found in the sediment trap samples, confirming the assumption that the suboxia developed within the eddy en route. However, we could not detect biomarkers indicative of the presence of anammox (anaerobic ammonia oxidation) bacteria or green sulfur bacteria thriving in photic zone suboxia/hypoxia, i.e. ladderane fatty acids and isorenieratene derivatives, respectively. This could indicate that suboxic conditions in the eddy had recently developed and/or the respective bacterial stocks had not yet reached detection thresholds. Another explanation is that the fast-sinking organic-rich particles produced in the surface layer did not interact with bacteria from the suboxic zone below. Carbonate fluxes dropped from ˜ 52 to 21.4 mg m-2 d-1 from January to February 2010, respectively, mainly due to reduced contribution of shallow-dwelling planktonic foraminifera and pteropods. The deep-dwelling foraminifera Globorotalia menardii, however, showed a major flux peak in February 2010, most probably due to the suboxia/hypoxia. The low oxygen conditions forced at least some zooplankton to reduce diel vertical migration. Reduced "flux feeding" by zooplankton in the epipelagic could have contributed to the enhanced fluxes of organic materials to the bathypelagic traps during the eddy passage. Further studies are required on eddy-induced particle production and preservation processes and particle focusing.

The Dynamics of Laurentian Great Lakes Surface Energy Budgets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Spence, C.; Blanken, P.; Lenters, J. D.; Gronewold, A.; Kerkez, B.; Xue, P.; Froelich, N.

2015-12-01

The Laurentian Great Lakes constitute the largest freshwater surface in the world and are a valuable North American natural and socio-economic resource. In response to calls for improved monitoring and research on the energy and water budgets of the lakes, there has been a growing ensemble of in situ measurements - including offshore eddy flux towers, buoy-based sensors, and vessel-based platforms -deployed through an ongoing, bi-national collaboration known as the Great Lakes Evaporation Network (GLEN). The objective of GLEN is to reduce uncertainty in Great Lakes seasonal and 6-month water level forecasts, as well as climate change projections of the surface energy balance and water level fluctuations. Although It remains challenging to quantify and scale energy budgets and fluxes over such large water bodies, this presentation will report on recent successes in three areas: First, in estimating evaporation rates over each of the Great Lakes; Second, defining evaporation variability among the lakes, especially in winter and; Third, explaining the interaction between ice cover, water temperature, and evaporation across a variety of temporal and spatial scales. Research gaps remain, particularly those related to spatial variability and scaling of turbulent fluxes, so the presentation will also describe how this will be addressed with enhanced instrument and platform arrays.

Effects of Mesoscale Eddies in the Active Mixed Layer: Test of the Parametrisation in Eddy Resolving Simulations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Luneva, M. V.; Clayson, C. A.; Dubovikov, Mikhail

2015-01-01

In eddy resolving simulations, we test a mixed layer mesoscale parametrisation, developed recently by Canuto and Dubovikov [Ocean Model., 2011, 39, 200-207]. With no adjustable parameters, the parametrisation yields the horizontal and vertical mesoscale fluxes in terms of coarse-resolution fields and eddy kinetic energy (EKE). We compare terms of the parametrisation diagnosed from coarse-grained fields with the eddy mesoscale fluxes diagnosed directly from the high resolution model. An expression for the EKE in terms of mean fields has also been found to get a closed parametrisation in terms of the mean fields only. In 40 numerical experiments we simulated two types of flows: idealised flows driven by baroclinic instabilities only, and more realistic flows, driven by wind and surface fluxes as well as by inflow-outflow. The diagnosed quasi-instantaneous horizontal and vertical mesoscale buoyancy fluxes (averaged over 1-2 degrees and 10 days) demonstrate a strong scatter typical for turbulent flows, however, the fluxes are positively correlated with the parametrisation with higher (0.5-0.74) correlations at the experiments with larger baroclinic radius Rossby. After being averaged over 3-4 months, diffusivities diagnosed from the eddy resolving simulations are consistent with the parametrisation for a broad range of parameters. Diagnosed vertical mesoscale fluxes restratify mixed layer and are in a good agreement with the parametrisation unless vertical turbulent mixing in the upper layer becomes strong enough in comparison with mesoscale advection. In the latter case, numerical simulations demonstrate that the deviation of the fluxes from the parametrisation is controlled by dimensionless parameter estimating the ratio of vertical turbulent mixing term to mesoscale advection. An analysis using a modified omega-equation reveals that the effects of the vertical mixing of vorticity is responsible for the two-three fold amplification of vertical mesoscale flux. Possible physical mechanisms, responsible for the amplification of vertical mesoscale flux are discussed.

3D Magnetic Field Analysis of a Turbine Generator Stator Core-end Region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wakui, Shinichi; Takahashi, Kazuhiko; Ide, Kazumasa; Takahashi, Miyoshi; Watanabe, Takashi

In this paper we calculated magnetic flux density and eddy current distributions of a 71MVA turbine generator stator core-end using three-dimensional numerical magnetic field analysis. Subsequently, the magnetic flux densities and eddy current densities in the stator core-end region on the no-load and three-phase short circuit conditions obtained by the analysis have good agreements with the measurements. Furthermore, the differences of eddy current and eddy current loss in the stator core-end region for various load conditions are shown numerically. As a result, the facing had an effect that decrease the eddy current loss of the end plate about 84%.

Transport driven by eddy momentum fluxes in the Gulf Stream Extension region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Greatbatch, R. J.; Zhai, X.; Claus, M.; Czeschel, L.; Rath, W.

2010-12-01

The importance of the Gulf Stream Extension region in climate and seasonal prediction research is being increasingly recognised. Here we use satellite-derived eddy momentum fluxes to drive a shallow water model for the North Atlantic Ocean that includes the realistic ocean bottom topography. The results show that the eddy momentum fluxes can drive significant transport, sufficient to explain the observed increase in transport of the Gulf Stream following its separation from the coast at Cape Hatteras, as well as the observed recirculation gyres. The model also captures recirculating gyres seen in the mean sea surface height field within the North Atlantic Current system east of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, including a representation of the Mann Eddy.

BOREAS TF-4 SSA-YJP Tower Flux, Meteorological, and Canopy Condition Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Striegl, Robert; Wickland, Kimberly; Hall, Forrest G. (Editor); Huemmrich, Karl (Editor)

2000-01-01

The BOReal Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study Tower Flux (BOREAS TF-4) team collected energy, carbon dioxide, and water vapor flux data at the BOREAS Southern Study Area-Young Jack Pine (SSA-YJP) site during the growing season of 1994. In addition, meteorological data were collected both above and within the canopy. The data are available in tabular ASCII files.

Multi-model analysis of terrestrial carbon cycles in Japan: limitations and implications of model calibration using eddy flux observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ichii, K.; Suzuki, T.; Kato, T.; Ito, A.; Hajima, T.; Ueyama, M.; Sasai, T.; Hirata, R.; Saigusa, N.; Ohtani, Y.; Takagi, K.

2010-07-01

Terrestrial biosphere models show large differences when simulating carbon and water cycles, and reducing these differences is a priority for developing more accurate estimates of the condition of terrestrial ecosystems and future climate change. To reduce uncertainties and improve the understanding of their carbon budgets, we investigated the utility of the eddy flux datasets to improve model simulations and reduce variabilities among multi-model outputs of terrestrial biosphere models in Japan. Using 9 terrestrial biosphere models (Support Vector Machine - based regressions, TOPS, CASA, VISIT, Biome-BGC, DAYCENT, SEIB, LPJ, and TRIFFID), we conducted two simulations: (1) point simulations at four eddy flux sites in Japan and (2) spatial simulations for Japan with a default model (based on original settings) and a modified model (based on model parameter tuning using eddy flux data). Generally, models using default model settings showed large deviations in model outputs from observation with large model-by-model variability. However, after we calibrated the model parameters using eddy flux data (GPP, RE and NEP), most models successfully simulated seasonal variations in the carbon cycle, with less variability among models. We also found that interannual variations in the carbon cycle are mostly consistent among models and observations. Spatial analysis also showed a large reduction in the variability among model outputs. This study demonstrated that careful validation and calibration of models with available eddy flux data reduced model-by-model differences. Yet, site history, analysis of model structure changes, and more objective procedure of model calibration should be included in the further analysis.

First results of tall tower based nitrous oxide flux monitoring over an agricultural region in Central Europe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haszpra, László; Hidy, Dóra; Taligás, Tímea; Barcza, Zoltán

2018-03-01

Nitrous oxide is one of the atmospheric greenhouse gases whose amount is significantly influenced by human activity. Its major anthropogenic sources are the agricultural soils but the emission is known only with large uncertainty yet. The paper presents a tall tower based measuring system installed in Hungary, which is designed for the long-term monitoring of nitrous oxide emission of a regionally typical composition of agricultural fields by means of eddy covariance technique. Due to the careful calibration of the gas analyzer applied the measuring system is also suitable for the recording of the atmospheric concentration of nitrous oxide on the globally compatible scale (WMO X2006A). The paper reports the results of the first two years of the monitoring program, which is the first of its kind in Central Europe. For the period of July 2015-June 2017 the concentration measurements indicate an increasing trend of 0.91 nmol mol-1 year-1 with an average concentration of 330.64 nmol mol-1. During the two years of the project, the monitoring system recorded a total of 441 ± 195 mg N2O-N m-2 nitrous oxide emission with late spring/early summer maximum. The measurements also revealed the episodic nature of the emission typically triggered by major precipitation events.

Estimating of gross primary production in an Amazon-Cerrado transitional forest using MODIS and Landsat imagery.

PubMed

Danelichen, Victor H M; Biudes, Marcelo S; Velasque, Maísa C S; Machado, Nadja G; Gomes, Raphael S R; Vourlitis, George L; Nogueira, José S

2015-09-01

The acceleration of the anthropogenic activity has increased the atmospheric carbon concentration, which causes changes in regional climate. The Gross Primary Production (GPP) is an important variable in the global carbon cycle studies, since it defines the atmospheric carbon extraction rate from terrestrial ecosystems. The objective of this study was to estimate the GPP of the Amazon-Cerrado Transitional Forest by the Vegetation Photosynthesis Model (VPM) using local meteorological data and remote sensing data from MODIS and Landsat 5 TM reflectance from 2005 to 2008. The GPP was estimated using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) calculated by MODIS and Landsat 5 TM images. The GPP estimates were compared with measurements in a flux tower by eddy covariance. The GPP measured in the tower was consistent with higher values during the wet season and there was a trend to increase from 2005 to 2008. The GPP estimated by VPM showed the same increasing trend observed in measured GPP and had high correlation and Willmott's coefficient and low error metrics in comparison to measured GPP. These results indicated high potential of the Landsat 5 TM images to estimate the GPP of Amazon-Cerrado Transitional Forest by VPM.

New challenges and opportunities in the eddy-covariance methodology for long-term monitoring networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Papale, Dario; Fratini, Gerardo

2013-04-01

Eddy-covariance is the most direct and most commonly applied methodology for measuring exchange fluxes of mass and energy between ecosystems and the atmosphere. In recent years, the number of environmental monitoring stations deploying eddy-covariance systems increased dramatically at the global level, exceeding 500 sites worldwide and covering most climatic and ecological regions. Several long-term environmental research infrastructures such as ICOS, NEON and AmeriFlux selected the eddy-covariance as a method to monitor GHG fluxes and are currently collaboratively working towards defining common measurements standards, data processing approaches, QA/QC procedures and uncertainty estimation strategies, to the aim of increasing defensibility of resulting fluxes and intra and inter-comparability of flux databases. In the meanwhile, the eddy-covariance research community keeps identifying technical and methodological flaws that, in some cases, can introduce - and can have introduced to date - significant biases in measured fluxes or increase their uncertainty. Among those, we identify three issues of presumably greater concern, namely: (1) strong underestimation of water vapour fluxes in closed-path systems, and its dependency on relative humidity; (2) flux biases induced by erroneous measurement of absolute gas concentrations; (3) and systematic errors due to underestimation of vertical wind variance in non-orthogonal anemometers. If not properly addressed, these issues can reduce the quality and reliability of the method, especially as a standard methodology in long-term monitoring networks. In this work, we review the status of the art regarding such problems, and propose new evidences based on field experiments as well as numerical simulations. Our analyses confirm the potential relevance of these issues but also hint at possible coping approaches, to minimize problems during setup design, data collection and post-field flux correction. Corrections are under implementation in eddy-covariance processing software and will be readily applicable by individual investigators as well as by centralized processing facilities of long-term research infrastructures. This new understandings suggest that a reanalysis of eddy-covariance data collected in the last 20 years may be appropriate in order to obtain more accurate and consistent flux time series. The availability of dedicated powerful computing facilities at the research infrastructures today makes this goal achievable at an affordable cost.

Uncertainty in eddy covariance flux estimates resulting from spectral attenuation [Chapter 4

Treesearch

W. J. Massman; R. Clement

2004-01-01

Surface exchange fluxes measured by eddy covariance tend to be underestimated as a result of limitations in sensor design, signal processing methods, and finite flux-averaging periods. But, careful system design, modern instrumentation, and appropriate data processing algorithms can minimize these losses, which, if not too large, can be estimated and corrected using...

Reflections on the surface energy imbalance problem

Treesearch

Ray Leuning; Eva van Gorsela; William J. Massman; Peter R. Isaac

2012-01-01

The 'energy imbalance problem' in micrometeorology arises because at most flux measurement sites the sum of eddy fluxes of sensible and latent heat (H + λE) is less than the available energy (A). Either eddy fluxes are underestimated or A is overestimated. Reasons for the imbalance are: (1) a failure to satisfy the fundamental assumption of one-...

Water Vapor Exchange in a Costa Rican Lower Montane Tropical Forest

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Andrews, R.; Miller, G. R.; Cahill, A. T.; Moore, G. W.; Aparecido, L. M. T.

2015-12-01

Because of high canopy interception in tropical forests, evaporation from wet canopy surfaces makes up a sizeable portion of the total water vapor flux. The modeling complexities presented by changing canopy wetness, along with a scarcity of land-atmosphere flux exchange data from tropical forests, means evapotranspiration (ET) processes have been poorly represented in the tropics in land-surface modeling schemes. To better understand tropical forest ET, we will evaluate the influence of canopy wetness and various micrometeorological data on ET partitioning and total ET flux. We have collected flux data from a lower montane forest in Costa Rica at a newly established AmeriFlux site, which notably has the highest mean annual precipitation of any site in the network. The site features a 39-m canopy tower, equipped with two eddy covariance systems (LI-7200, LI-COR), a CO2/H2O atmospheric profile system (AP200, Campbell Scientific), leaf wetness sensors (LWS, Decagon Devices), sap flow sensors, and a soil respiration chamber (LI-8100A, LI-COR) as well as an array of other micrometeorological sensors. At the site, total ET is driven primarily by available energy, and to a lesser extent, by vapor pressure deficit. Average daily latent energy fluxes peak at values of 160, 75, and 35 W m-2 for dry, partially wet, and wet canopy conditions respectively. Correlations between latent energy flux and all other variables are strongest for drier canopy conditions. Complex relationships between canopy wetness and tropical forest ET cause the environmental controls on these fluxes to be significantly different from those in other biomes. As a result, a new modeling paradigm is needed to more accurately model ET differences between tropical forests and other vegetation types.

Fluxes all of the time? A primer on the temporal representativeness of FLUXNET

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chu, Housen; Baldocchi, Dennis D.; John, Ranjeet; Wolf, Sebastian; Reichstein, Markus

2017-02-01

FLUXNET, the global network of eddy covariance flux towers, provides the largest synthesized data set of CO2, H2O, and energy fluxes. To achieve the ultimate goal of providing flux information "everywhere and all of the time," studies have attempted to address the representativeness issue, i.e., whether measurements taken in a set of given locations and measurement periods can be extrapolated to a space- and time-explicit extent (e.g., terrestrial globe, 1982-2013 climatological baseline). This study focuses on the temporal representativeness of FLUXNET and tests whether site-specific measurement periods are sufficient to capture the natural variability of climatological and biological conditions. FLUXNET is unevenly representative across sites in terms of the measurement lengths and potentials of extrapolation in time. Similarity of driver conditions among years generally enables the extrapolation of flux information beyond measurement periods. Yet such extrapolation potentials are further constrained by site-specific variability of driver conditions. Several driver variables such as air temperature, diurnal temperature range, potential evapotranspiration, and normalized difference vegetation index had detectable trends and/or breakpoints within the baseline period, and flux measurements generally covered similar and biased conditions in those drivers. About 38% and 60% of FLUXNET sites adequately sampled the mean conditions and interannual variability of all driver conditions, respectively. For long-record sites (≥15 years) the percentages increased to 59% and 69%, respectively. However, the justification of temporal representativeness should not rely solely on the lengths of measurements. Whenever possible, site-specific consideration (e.g., trend, breakpoint, and interannual variability in drivers) should be taken into account.

Carbon Fluxes in Dissolved and Gaseous Forms for a Restored Peatland in British Columbia, Canada

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

D'Acunha, B.; Johnson, M. S.; Lee, S. C.; Christen, A.

2016-12-01

Peatlands are wetlands where gross primary production exceeds organic matter decomposition causing an accumulation of partially decomposed matter, also called peat. These ecosystems can accumulate more carbon than tropical rainforests. However, dissolved and gaseous fluxes of carbon (as dissolved organic carbon (DOC), CO2 and methane (CH4)) must also be considered to determine if these ecosystems are net sinks or sources of greenhouse gases (GHGs) to the atmosphere, which depends in part on the environmental conditions and the state of the ecosystem. We conducted research in Burns Bog, Delta, BC, Canada, a raised domed peat bog located in the Fraser River Delta and one of the largest raised peat bogs on the west coast of the Americas, but which has been heavily impacted by a range of human activities. Currently, ecological restoration efforts are underway by a large-scale ditch blocking program, with the aim to re-establish a high water table. This is approached in partnership with research on the ecosystem services that the bog provides, including its role in a regional GHG inventory. Here we present data on ecosystem-scale fluxes of CO2 and CH4 determined by eddy covariance (EC) on a floating tower platform, and complementary data on (i) evasion fluxes of CO2, CH4 and nitrous oxide (N2O) from the water surface to the atmosphere, and (ii) the flux and composition of dissolved organic carbon in water draining Burns Bog. Concentrations of dissolved CO2, CH4 and N2O were determined by headspace equilibration, and evasion rates from the water surface were quantified and are used to estimate the role of the hydrosphere in the ecosystem-scale measurements. Water samples collected from five saturated areas in the flux tower footprint were analyzed for DOC concentrations and composition. Results indicated that, even though the whole system is a net C sink, the water surface behaved as a source of CO2 and CH4, and a sink for N2O throughout the study period. Drainage waters were high in DOC (> 30 mg L-1). DOC export was found to offset about 20% of the apparent net C uptake determined by EC, indicating that the EC system overestimates carbon accumulation by not accounting for DOC drainage.

Evaluation of a scalar eddy transport coefficient based on geometric constraints

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bachman, S. D.; Marshall, D. P.; Maddison, J. R.; Mak, J.

2017-01-01

A suite of idealized models is used to evaluate and compare several previously proposed scalings for the eddy transport coefficient in downgradient mesoscale eddy closures. Of special interest in this comparison is a scaling introduced as part of the eddy parameterization framework of Marshall et al. (2012), which is derived using the inherent geometry of the Eliassen-Palm eddy flux tensor. The primary advantage of using this coefficient in a downgradient closure is that all dimensional terms are explicitly specified and the only uncertainty is a nondimensional parameter, α, which is bounded by one in magnitude. In each model a set of passive tracers is initialized, whose flux statistics are used to invert for the eddy-induced tracer transport. Unlike previous work, where this technique has been employed to diagnose the tensor coefficient of a linear flux-gradient relationship, the idealization of these models allows the lateral eddy transport to be described by a scalar coefficient. The skill of the extant scalings is then measured by comparing their predicted values against the coefficients diagnosed using this method. The Marshall et al. (2012), scaling is shown to scale most closely with the diagnosed coefficients across all simulations. It is shown that the skill of this scaling is due to its functional dependence on the total eddy energy, and that this scaling provides an excellent match to the diagnosed fluxes even in the limit of constant α. Possible extensions to this work, including how to incorporate the resultant transport coefficient into the Gent and McWilliams parameterization, are discussed.

Long-term Lake Evaporation Measurements in Southeastern Brazil

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dias, N. L.; Cancelli, D. M.

2007-05-01

We report here for the first time the results of a long-term (37 months) campaign of lake evaporation measurements with the eddy-covariance (EC) method. The measurements were made at Furnas Lake, a large lake (1440 km2) in Southeastern Brazil (20° 44'S, 45° 58'W and 771.8 m ASL). Mean and maximum depths at the Maximum Normal Operating Level are 13 m and 90 m respectively. Taking advantage of a long drought during 2000--2001, a large metal tower was erected over the lake's dry bed. After the water level recovered, we were left with a stable platform for performing EC measurements in one of the lake's many basins. Fetch conditions over the prevailing wind directions were excellent (1000 m from the North, and more than 3000 m from the East), with the closest land at 420 m (from NE) and 440 m (from SW). Measurements included hourly means of water surface temperature, air temperature, specific humidity, downwelling solar radiation, net radiation, wind speed, and wind direction. 10-Hz eddy covariance measurements were made of turbulent fluctuations of 3 wind components, sonic virtual temperature, air temperature (with a fine-wire thermocouple) and of fluctuating specific humidity with a specially adapted capacitive hygrometer. The validation of this sensor to measure latent heat fluxes at high frequency was made on intensive field campaigns that deployed state-of-the art Ultra-Violet and Infra-Red fast-response hygrometers. Our data analysis indicates that atmospheric stability can be far from neutral, and that it plays a very important role in the mass-transfer and heat-transfer equations for the water vapor and sensible heat fluxes. We have also found that significantly different scalar roughenesses for water vapor and for sensible heat were necessary to calibrate properly the Monin-Obukhov Similarity Theory (MOST)-based transfer equations. Due to these differences, gradient-based Bowen ratios (as usually applied in the Energy Budget Bowen Ratio method in the absence of turbulence measurements) do not agree with flux-based Bowen ratios given directly by the ratio of the sensible heat flux and the latent heat flux. Finally, we give the mean monthly values for these two fluxes from July, 2003 to June, 2006 (with 5 months of missing data).

BOREAS TGB-1 CH4 Concentration and Flux Data from NSA Tower Sites

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hall, Forrest G. (Editor); Conrad, Sara K. (Editor); Crill, Patrick; Varner, Ruth K.

2000-01-01

The BOREAS TGB-1 team made numerous measurements of trace gas concentrations and fluxes at various NSA sites. This data set contains half-hourly averages of ambient methane (CH4) measurements and calculated fluxes for the NSA-Fen in 1996 and the NSA-BP and NSA-OJP tower sites in 1994. The purpose of this study was to determine the CH4 flux from the study area by measuring ambient CH 4 concentrations. This flux can then be compared to the chamber flux measurements taken at the same sites. The data are provided in tabular ASCII files.

Statistical partitioning of a three-year time series of direct urban net CO2 flux measurements into biogenic and anthropogenic components

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Menzer, Olaf; McFadden, Joseph P.

2017-12-01

Eddy covariance flux measurements are increasingly used to quantify the net carbon dioxide exchange (FC) in urban areas. FC represents the sum of anthropogenic emissions, biogenic carbon release from plant and soil respiration, and carbon uptake by plant photosynthesis. When FC is measured in natural ecosystems, partitioning into respiration and photosynthesis is a well-established procedure. In contrast, few studies have partitioned FC at urban flux tower sites due to the difficulty of accounting for the temporal and spatial variability of the multiple sources and sinks. Here, we partitioned a three-year time series of flux measurements from a suburban neighborhood of Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA. We segregated FC into one subset that captured fluxes from a residential neighborhood and into another subset that covered a golf course. For both land use types we modeled anthropogenic flux components based on winter data and extrapolated them to the growing season, to estimate gross primary production (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (Reco) at half-hourly, daily, monthly and annual scales. During the growing season, GPP had the largest magnitude (up to - 9.83 g C m-2 d-1) of any component CO2 flux, biogenic or anthropogenic, and both GPP and Reco were more dynamic seasonally than anthropogenic fluxes. Owing to the balancing of Reco against GPP, and the limitations of the growing season in a cold temperate climate zone, the net biogenic flux was only 1.5%-4.5% of the anthropogenic flux in the dominant residential land use type, and between 25%-31% of the anthropogenic flux in highly managed greenspace. Still, the vegetation sink at our site was stronger than net anthropogenic emissions on 16-20 days over the residential area and on 66-91 days over the recreational area. The reported carbon flux sums and dynamics are a critical step toward developing models of urban CO2 fluxes within and across cities that differ in vegetation cover.

Modeling Gross Primary Production of Agro-Forestry Ecosystems by Assimilation of Satellite-Derived Information in a Process-Based Model

PubMed Central

Migliavacca, Mirco; Meroni, Michele; Busetto, Lorenzo; Colombo, Roberto; Zenone, Terenzio; Matteucci, Giorgio; Manca, Giovanni; Seufert, Guenther

2009-01-01

In this paper we present results obtained in the framework of a regional-scale analysis of the carbon budget of poplar plantations in Northern Italy. We explored the ability of the process-based model BIOME-BGC to estimate the gross primary production (GPP) using an inverse modeling approach exploiting eddy covariance and satellite data. We firstly present a version of BIOME-BGC coupled with the radiative transfer models PROSPECT and SAILH (named PROSAILH-BGC) with the aims of i) improving the BIOME-BGC description of the radiative transfer regime within the canopy and ii) allowing the assimilation of remotely-sensed vegetation index time series, such as MODIS NDVI, into the model. Secondly, we present a two-step model inversion for optimization of model parameters. In the first step, some key ecophysiological parameters were optimized against data collected by an eddy covariance flux tower. In the second step, important information about phenological dates and about standing biomass were optimized against MODIS NDVI. Results obtained showed that the PROSAILH-BGC allowed simulation of MODIS NDVI with good accuracy and that we described better the canopy radiation regime. The inverse modeling approach was demonstrated to be useful for the optimization of ecophysiological model parameters, phenological dates and parameters related to the standing biomass, allowing good accuracy of daily and annual GPP predictions. In summary, this study showed that assimilation of eddy covariance and remote sensing data in a process model may provide important information for modeling gross primary production at regional scale. PMID:22399948

Modeling gross primary production of agro-forestry ecosystems by assimilation of satellite-derived information in a process-based model.

PubMed

Migliavacca, Mirco; Meroni, Michele; Busetto, Lorenzo; Colombo, Roberto; Zenone, Terenzio; Matteucci, Giorgio; Manca, Giovanni; Seufert, Guenther

2009-01-01

In this paper we present results obtained in the framework of a regional-scale analysis of the carbon budget of poplar plantations in Northern Italy. We explored the ability of the process-based model BIOME-BGC to estimate the gross primary production (GPP) using an inverse modeling approach exploiting eddy covariance and satellite data. We firstly present a version of BIOME-BGC coupled with the radiative transfer models PROSPECT and SAILH (named PROSAILH-BGC) with the aims of i) improving the BIOME-BGC description of the radiative transfer regime within the canopy and ii) allowing the assimilation of remotely-sensed vegetation index time series, such as MODIS NDVI, into the model. Secondly, we present a two-step model inversion for optimization of model parameters. In the first step, some key ecophysiological parameters were optimized against data collected by an eddy covariance flux tower. In the second step, important information about phenological dates and about standing biomass were optimized against MODIS NDVI. Results obtained showed that the PROSAILH-BGC allowed simulation of MODIS NDVI with good accuracy and that we described better the canopy radiation regime. The inverse modeling approach was demonstrated to be useful for the optimization of ecophysiological model parameters, phenological dates and parameters related to the standing biomass, allowing good accuracy of daily and annual GPP predictions. In summary, this study showed that assimilation of eddy covariance and remote sensing data in a process model may provide important information for modeling gross primary production at regional scale.

Turbulence characteristics of velocity and scalars in an internal boundary-layer above a lake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sahlee, E.; Rutgersson, A.; Podgrajsek, E.

2012-12-01

We analyze turbulence measurements, including methane, from a small island in a Swedish lake. The turbulence structure was found to be highly influenced by the surrounding land during daytime. Variance spectra of both horizontal velocity and scalars during both unstable and stable stratification displayed a low frequency peak. The energy at lower frequencies displayed a daily variation, increasing in the morning and decreasing in the afternoon. We interpret this behavior as a sign of spectral lag, where the low frequency energy, large eddies, originate from the convective boundary layer above the surrounding land. When the air is advected over the lake the small eddies rapidly equilibrates with new surface forcing. However, the larger eddies remain for an appreciable distance and influence the turbulence in the developing lake boundary layer. The variance of the horizontal velocity is increased by these large eddies however, momentum fluxes and scalar variances and fluxes appear unaffected. The drag coefficient, Stanton number and Dalton number used to parameterize the momentum flux, heat flux and latent heat flux respectively all compare very well with parameterizations developed for open ocean conditions.

Secondary Circulations between an isolated semi-arid Pine Forest and the surrounding Shrub Land: A LES Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kroeniger, K.; De Roo, F.; Huq, S.; Brugger, P.; Mauder, M.

2017-12-01

Afforestation in semi-arid regions is a topic of growing interest in times of changing climate. However, due to the extreme environmental conditions in these regions, survival of artificial eco-systems is not guaranteed a priori and therefore needs to be investigated. As an example of an artificially planted semi-arid forest, we study the Israeli pine forest Yatir, which is located at the northern edge of the Negev desert. The coincidence of large global radiation with the low forest albedo results in net radiation intensities of more than 700 W m-2, requiring an efficient mechanism of heat removal, indispensable for tree survival. In the distinct dry summer periods evaporative cooling becomes negligible, while a substantially enhanced sensible heat flux removes the largest part of the incoming energy load. This enhanced sensible heat flux above the forest is believed to be amplified by the albedo difference between the forest and the surrounding shrub land, generating secondary circulations between these two eco-systems. The focus of our work is studying the interconnection of enhanced sensible heat flux and secondary circulations in varying conditions. We perform large eddy simulations (LES) for a region that is sufficiently large to model the forest and parts of the surrounding shrub land (20 km x 20 km) with a grid resolution of 2.5 m. This fine resolution allows us to explicitly resolve the forest canopy, to obtain more realistic results than by applying roughness length parametrizations. The LES are initialized by measured data from several field campaigns, eddy covariance towers and satellite images. By varying the background wind and the underlying topography in several LES, we study the influence of those parameters on the canopy-atmosphere exchange. Additional, we compare the LES output to LIDAR measurements taken above and upstream of the forest for model validation.

Mesoscale Eddies, Satellite Altimetry, and New Production in the Sargasso Sea

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Siegel, David A.; McGillicuddy, Dennis J., Jr.; Fields, Erik A.

1999-01-01

Satellite altimetry and hydrographic observations are used to characterize the mesoscale eddy field in the Sargasso Sea near Bermuda and to address the role of physical processes on the supply of new nutrients to the euphotic zone. The observed sea level anomaly (SLA) field is dominated by the occurrence of westward propagating features with SLA signatures as large as 25 cm, Eulerian temporal scales of roughly a month, lifetimes of several months, spatial scales of approximately 200 km, and a propagation of approximately 5 cm/s. Hydrographic estimates of dynamic height anomaly (referenced to 4000 dbar) are well correlated with satellite SLA (r(exp 2) = 0.65), and at least 85% of the observed dynamic height variability is associated with the first baroclinic mode of motion. This allows us to apply the satellite observations to remotely sensed estimate isopycnal displacements and the flux of nutrients into the euphotic zone due to eddy pumping. Eddy pumping is the process by which mesoscale eddies induce isopycnal displacements that lift nutrient-replete waters into the euphotic zone, driving new primary production. A kinematic approach to the estimation of the eddy pumping results in a flux of 0.24 +/- 0.1 mol N/sq m (including a scale estimate for the small contribution due to 18 deg water eddies). This flux is more than an order of magnitude larger than the diapycnal diffusive flux as well as scale estimates for the vertical transport due to isopycnal mixing along sloping isopycnal surfaces. Eddy pumping and wintertime convection are the two dominant mechanisms transporting new nutrients into the euphotic zone, and the sum of all physical new nutrient supply fluxes effectively balances previous geochemical estimates of annual new production for this site. However, if biological transports (e.g., nitrogen fixation, etc.) are significant, the new nitrogen supply budget will be in excess of geochemical new production estimates. This suggests that the various physical and biological transport fluxes, as well as geochemical inferences of new production, still need to be reconciled and many outstanding questions remain.

Mesoscale Eddies, Satellite Altimetry, and New Production in the Sargasso Sea

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Siegel, David A.; McGillicuddy, Dennis J., Jr.; Fields, Erik A.

1999-01-01

Satellite altimetry and hydrographic observations are used to characterize the mesoscale eddy field in the Sargasso Sea near Bermuda and to address the role of physical processes on the supply of new nutrients to the euphotic zone. The observed sea level anomaly (SLA) field is dominated by the occurrence of westward propagating features with SLA signatures as large as 25 cm, Eulerian temporal scales of roughly a month, lifetimes of several months, spatial scales of approximately 200 km, and a propagation of approximately 5 cm/s . Hydrographic estimates of dynamic height anomaly (referenced to 4000 dbar) are well correlated with satellite SLA (r(sup 2) = 0.65), and at least 85% of the observed dynamic height variability is associated with the first baroclinic mode of motion. This allows us to apply the satellite observations to remotely estimate isopycnal displacements and the flux of nutrients into the euphotic zone due to eddy pumping. Eddy pumping is the process by which mesoscale eddies induce isopycnal displacements that lift nutrient- replete waters into the euphotic zone, driving new primary production. A kinematic approach to the estimation of the eddy pumping results in a flux of 0.24+/-0.1 mol N/sq m/yr (including a scale estimate for the small contribution due to 18 deg water eddies). This flux is more than an order of magnitude larger than the diapycnal diffusive flux as well as scale estimates for the vertical transport due to isopycnal mixing along sloping isopycnal surfaces. Eddy pumping and wintertime convection are the two dominant mechanisms transporting new nutrients into the euphotic zone, and the sum of all physical new nutrient supply fluxes effectively balances previous geochemical estimates of annual new production for this site. However, if biological transports (e.g., nitrogen fixation, etc.) are significant, the new nitrogen supply budget will be in excess of geochemical new production estimates. This suggests that the various physical and biological transport fluxes, as well as geochemical inferences of new production, still need to be reconciled and many outstanding questions remain.

Evaluating the performance of commonly used gas analysers for methane eddy covariance flux measurements: the InGOS inter-comparison field experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peltola, O.; Hensen, A.; Helfter, C.; Belelli Marchesini, L.; Bosveld, F. C.; van den Bulk, W. C. M.; Elbers, J. A.; Haapanala, S.; Holst, J.; Laurila, T.; Lindroth, A.; Nemitz, E.; Röckmann, T.; Vermeulen, A. T.; Mammarella, I.

2014-01-01

The performance of eight fast-response methane (CH4) gas analysers suitable for eddy covariance flux measurements were tested at a grassland site near the Cabauw tall tower (Netherlands) during June 2012. The instruments were positioned close to each other in order to minimize the effect of varying turbulent conditions. The moderate CH4 fluxes observed at the location, of the order of 25 nmol m-2 s-1, provided a suitable signal for testing the instruments' performance. Generally, all analysers tested were able to quantify the concentration fluctuations at the frequency range relevant for turbulent exchange and were able to deliver high-quality data. The tested cavity ring-down spectrometer (CRDS) instruments from Picarro, models G2311-f and G1301-f, were superior to other CH4 analysers with respect to instrumental noise. As an open-path instrument susceptible to the effects of rain, the LI-COR LI-7700 achieved lower data coverage and also required larger density corrections; however, the system is especially useful for remote sites that are restricted in power availability. In this study the open-path LI-7700 results were compromised due to a data acquisition problem in our data-logging setup. Some of the older closed-path analysers tested do not measure H2O vapour concentrations alongside CH4 (i.e. FMA1 and DLT-100 by Los Gatos Research) and this complicates data processing since the required corrections for dilution and spectroscopic interactions have to be based on external information. To overcome this issue, we used H2O mole fractions measured by other gas analysers, adjusted them with different methods and then applied them to correct the CH4 fluxes. Following this procedure we estimated a bias on the order of 0.1 g (CH4) m-2 (8% of the measured mean flux) in the processed and corrected CH4 fluxes on a monthly scale due to missing H2O concentration measurements. Finally, cumulative CH4 fluxes over 14 days from three closed-path gas analysers, G2311-f (Picarro Inc.), FGGA (Los Gatos Research) and FMA2 (Los Gatos Research), which were measuring H2O vapour concentrations in addition to CH4, agreed within 3% (355-367 mg (CH4) m-2) and were not clearly different from each other, whereas the other instruments derived total fluxes which showed small but distinct differences (±10%, 330-399 mg (CH4) m-2).

Evaluating the performance of commonly used gas analysers for methane eddy covariance flux measurements: the InGOS inter-comparison field experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peltola, O.; Hensen, A.; Helfter, C.; Belelli Marchesini, L.; Bosveld, F. C.; van den Bulk, W. C. M.; Elbers, J. A.; Haapanala, S.; Holst, J.; Laurila, T.; Lindroth, A.; Nemitz, E.; Röckmann, T.; Vermeulen, A. T.; Mammarella, I.

2014-06-01

The performance of eight fast-response methane (CH4) gas analysers suitable for eddy covariance flux measurements were tested at a grassland site near the Cabauw tall tower (Netherlands) during June 2012. The instruments were positioned close to each other in order to minimise the effect of varying turbulent conditions. The moderate CH4 fluxes observed at the location, of the order of 25 nmol m-2 s-1, provided a suitable signal for testing the instruments' performance. Generally, all analysers tested were able to quantify the concentration fluctuations at the frequency range relevant for turbulent exchange and were able to deliver high-quality data. The tested cavity ringdown spectrometer (CRDS) instruments from Picarro, models G2311-f and G1301-f, were superior to other CH4 analysers with respect to instrumental noise. As an open-path instrument susceptible to the effects of rain, the LI-COR LI-7700 achieved lower data coverage and also required larger density corrections; however, the system is especially useful for remote sites that are restricted in power availability. In this study the open-path LI-7700 results were compromised due to a data acquisition problem in our data-logging setup. Some of the older closed-path analysers tested do not measure H2O concentrations alongside CH4 (i.e. FMA1 and DLT-100 by Los Gatos Research) and this complicates data processing since the required corrections for dilution and spectroscopic interactions have to be based on external information. To overcome this issue, we used H2O mole fractions measured by other gas analysers, adjusted them with different methods and then applied them to correct the CH4 fluxes. Following this procedure we estimated a bias of the order of 0.1 g (CH4) m-2 (8% of the measured mean flux) in the processed and corrected CH4 fluxes on a monthly scale due to missing H2O concentration measurements. Finally, cumulative CH4 fluxes over 14 days from three closed-path gas analysers, G2311-f (Picarro Inc.), FGGA (Los Gatos Research) and FMA2 (Los Gatos Research), which were measuring H2O concentrations in addition to CH4, agreed within 3% (355-367 mg (CH4) m-2) and were not clearly different from each other, whereas the other instruments derived total fluxes which showed small but distinct differences (±10%, 330-399 mg (CH4) m-2).

Eddy covariance measurement of CO2 flux to the atmosphere from a area of high volcanogenic emissions, Mammoth Mountain, California

USGS Publications Warehouse

Anderson, D.E.; Farrar, C.D.

2001-01-01

Three pilot studies were performed to assess application of the eddy covariance micrometeorological method in the measurement of carbon dioxide (CO2) flux of volcanic origin. The selected study area is one of high diffuse CO2 emission on Mammoth Mountain, CA. Because terrain and source characteristics make this a complex setting for this type of measurement, added consideration was given to source area and upwind fetch. Footprint analysis suggests that the eddy covariance measurements were representative of an upwind elliptical source area (3.8 ?? 103 m2) which can vary with mean wind direction, surface roughness, and atmospheric stability. CO2 flux averaged 8-16 mg m-2 s-1 (0.7-1.4 kg m-2 day-1). Eddy covariance measurements of flux were compared with surface chamber measurements made in separate studies [Geophys. Res. Lett. 25 (1998a) 1947; EOS Trans. 79 (1998) F941.] and were found to be similar. ?? 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Evidence of a robust relationship between solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence and gross primary productivity across dryland ecosystems of southwestern North America

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith, W. K.; Biederman, J. A.; Scott, R. L.; Moore, D. J.; Kimball, J. S.; He, M.; Yan, D.; Hudson, A.; Barnes, M.; MacBean, N.; Fox, A. M.; Litvak, M. E.

2017-12-01

Satellite remote sensing provides unmatched spatiotemporal information on multiple facets of vegetation dynamics including seasonal to interannual total photosynthesis, termed gross primary productivity (GPP). Yet, our understanding of the relationship between GPP and remote sensing observations - and how this relationship changes with scale, biophysical constraint, vegetation type, etc. - remains limited. This knowledge gap is especially apparent for dryland ecosystems, which have high spatial and temporal variability and are under-represented by long-term, continuous field measurements. Here, utilizing a new synthesis of eddy covariance flux tower data for southwestern North America, we present a first assessment of the ability of novel satellite remote sensing vegetation proxies to accurately capture seasonal to interannual GPP dynamics across the region. We evaluate the greenness-based Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) and emerging proxies linked to plant physiological function, Solar-Induced Fluorescence (SIF) and Photochemical Reflectivity Index (PRI). We find that SIF observations more consistently correlate with seasonal GPP dynamics (R = 0.90) compared to EVI (R = 0.85) and PRI (R = 0.78). More, we find that SIF observations are also more sensitive to interannual GPP variability (linear slope = 0.80) relative to EVI (linear slope = 0.63) and PRI (linear slope = 0.35). This is likely due to increased sensitivity of SIF to GPP during periods of decoupling between greenness and photosynthesis due to water-limitation / stomatal closure. Conversely, EVI and PRI observations better capture spatial GPP variability between flux tower sites. These results suggest that combinations of these independent vegetation growth proxies could yield synergistic improvements in satellite-based GPP estimates.

A Model-based Approach to Scaling GPP and NPP in Support of MODIS Land Product Validation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Turner, D. P.; Cohen, W. B.; Gower, S. T.; Ritts, W. D.

2003-12-01

Global products from the Earth-orbiting MODIS sensor include land cover, leaf area index (LAI), FPAR, 8-day gross primary production (GPP), and annual net primary production (NPP) at the 1 km spatial resolution. The BigFoot Project was designed specifically to validate MODIS land products, and has initiated ground measurements at 9 sites representing a wide array of vegetation types. An ecosystem process model (Biome-BGC) is used to generate estimates of GPP and NPP for each 5 km x 5 km BigFoot site. Model inputs include land cover and LAI (from Landsat ETM+), daily meteorological data (from a centrally located eddy covariance flux tower), and soil characteristics. Model derived outputs are validated against field-measured NPP and flux tower-derived GPP. The resulting GPP and NPP estimates are then aggregated to the 1 km resolution for direct spatial comparison with corresponding MODIS products. At the high latitude sites (tundra and boreal forest), the MODIS GPP phenology closely tracks the BigFoot GPP, but there is a high bias in the MODIS GPP. In the temperate zone sites, problems with the timing and magnitude of the MODIS FPAR introduce differences in MODIS GPP compared to the validation data at some sites. However, the MODIS LAI/FPAR data are currently being reprocessed (=Collection 4) and new comparisons will be made for 2002. The BigFoot scaling approach permits precise overlap in spatial and temporal resolution between the MODIS products and BigFoot products, and thus permits the evaluation of specific components of the MODIS NPP algorithm. These components include meteorological inputs from the NASA Data Assimilation Office, LAI and FPAR from other MODIS algorithms, and biome-specific parameters for base respiration rate and light use efficiency.

Estimating riparian and agricultural evapotranspiration by reference crop evapotranspiration and MODIS Enhanced Vegetation Index

USGS Publications Warehouse

Nagler, Pamela L.; Glenn, Edward P.; Nguyen, Uyen; Scott, Russell; Doody, Tania

2013-01-01

Dryland river basins frequently support both irrigated agriculture and riparian vegetation and remote sensing methods are needed to monitor water use by both crops and natural vegetation in irrigation districts. We developed an algorithm for estimating actual evapotranspiration (ETa) based on the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) sensor on the EOS-1 Terra satellite and locally-derived measurements of reference crop ET (ETo). The algorithm was calibrated with five years of ETa data from three eddy covariance flux towers set in riparian plant associations on the upper San Pedro River, Arizona, supplemented with ETa data for alfalfa and cotton from the literature. The algorithm was based on an equation of the form ETa = ETo [a(1 − e−bEVI) − c], where the term (1 − e−bEVI) is derived from the Beer-Lambert Law to express light absorption by a canopy, with EVI replacing leaf area index as an estimate of the density of light-absorbing units. The resulting algorithm capably predicted ETa across riparian plants and crops (r2 = 0.73). It was then tested against water balance data for five irrigation districts and flux tower data for two riparian zones for which season-long or multi-year ETa data were available. Predictions were within 10% of measured results in each case, with a non-significant (P = 0.89) difference between mean measured and modeled ETa of 5.4% over all validation sites. Validation and calibration data sets were combined to present a final predictive equation for application across crops and riparian plant associations for monitoring individual irrigation districts or for conducting global water use assessments of mixed agricultural and riparian biomes.

Exploring the influence of surface waves in the carbon dioxide transfer velocity between the ocean and atmosphere in the coastal region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ocampo-Torres, Francisco Javier; Francisco Herrera, Carlos; Gutiérrez-Loza, Lucía; Osuna, Pedro

2016-04-01

Field measurements have been carried out in order to better understand the possible influence of ocean surface waves in the transfer of carbon dioxide between the ocean and atmosphere in the coastal zone. The CO2 fluxes are being analysed and results are shown in a contribution by Gutiérrez-Loza et al., in this session. Here we try to highlight the findings regarding the transfer velocity (kCO2) once we have incorporated direct measurements of carbon dioxide concentration in the water side. In this study direct measurements of CO2 fluxes were obtained with an eddy covariance tower located in the shoreline equipped with an infrared open-path gas analyzer (LI-7500, LI-COR) and a sonic anemometer (R3-100 Professional Anemometer, Gill Instruments), both at about 13 m above the mean sea level, and sampling at 20 Hz. For some period of time simultaneous information of waves was recorded with a sampling rate of 2 Hz using an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (Workhorse Sentinel, Teledyne RD Instruments) at 10 m depth and 350 m away from the tower. Besides, recently the concentration of CO2 in water has also been recorded making use of a SAMI-CO2 instrument. A subtle effect of the wave field is detected in the estimated kCO2. Looking into details of the surface currents being detected very near the air-sea interface through an ADPC, a certain association can be found with the gas transfer velocity. Furthermore, some of the possible effects of breaking wave induced turbulence in the coastal zone is to be addressed. This work represents a RugDiSMar Project (CONACYT 155793) contribution. The support from CB-2011-01-168173 CONACYT project is greatly acknowledged.

Effect of mesoscale oceanic eddies on mid-latitude storm-tracks.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Foussard, Alexis; Lapeyre, Guillaume; Plougonven, Riwal

2017-04-01

Sharp sea surface temperature (SST) gradients associated with oceanic western boundary currents (WBC) exert an influence on the position and intensity of mid-latitude storm-tracks. This occurs through strong surface baroclinicity maintained by cross frontal SST gradient and deep vertical atmospheric motion due to convection on the warm flank of the WBC. However the additional role of mesoscale oceanic structures (30-300km) has not yet been explored although they have a non-negligible influence on surface heat fluxes. Using the Weather Research and Forecasting model, we investigate the potential role of these oceanic eddies in the case of an idealized atmospheric mid-latitude storm track forced by a mesoscale oceanic eddy field superposed with a large-scale SST gradient. Surface latent and sensible fluxes are shown to react with a non-linear response to the SST variations, providing additional heat and moisture supply at large scales. The atmospheric response is not restricted to the boundary layer but reaches the free troposphere, especially through increased water vapor vertical transport and latent heat release. This additional heating in presence of eddies is balanced by a shift of the storm-track and its poleward heat flux toward high latitudes, with amplitude depending on atmospheric configuration and eddies amplitude. We also explore how this displacement of perturbations changes the position and structure of the mid-latitude jet through eddy momentum fluxes.

Momentum, sensible heat and CO2 correlation coefficient variability: what can we learn from 20 years of continuous eddy covariance measurements?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hurdebise, Quentin; Heinesch, Bernard; De Ligne, Anne; Vincke, Caroline; Aubinet, Marc

2017-04-01

Long-term data series of carbon dioxide and other gas exchanges between terrestrial ecosystems and atmosphere become more and more numerous. Long-term analyses of such exchanges require a good understanding of measurement conditions during the investigated period. Independently of climate drivers, measurements may indeed be influenced by measurement conditions themselves subjected to long-term variability due to vegetation growth or set-up changes. The present research refers to the Vielsalm Terrestrial Observatory (VTO) an ICOS candidate site located in a mixed forest (beech, silver fir, Douglas fir, Norway spruce) in the Belgian Ardenne. Fluxes of momentum, carbon dioxide and sensible heat have been continuously measured there by eddy covariance for more than 20 years. During this period, changes in canopy height and measurement height occurred. The correlation coefficients (for momemtum, sensible heat and CO2) and the normalized standard deviations measured for the past 20 years at the Vielsalm Terrestrial Observatory (VTO) were analysed in order to define how the fluxes, independently of climate conditions, were affected by the surrounding environment evolution, including tree growth, forest thinning and tower height change. A relationship between canopy aerodynamic distance and the momentum correlation coefficient was found which is characteristic of the roughness sublayer, and suggests that momentum transport processes were affected by z-d. In contrast, no relationship was found for sensible heat and CO2 correlation coefficients, suggesting that the z-d variability observed did not affect their turbulent transport. There were strong differences in these coefficients, however, between two wind sectors, characterized by contrasted stands (height differences, homogeneity) and different hypotheses were raised to explain it. This study highlighted the importance of taking the surrounding environment variability into account in order to ensure the spatio-temporal consistency of datasets.

Simulation of Deep Convective Clouds with the Dynamic Reconstruction Turbulence Closure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shi, X.; Chow, F. K.; Street, R. L.; Bryan, G. H.

2017-12-01

The terra incognita (TI), or gray zone, in simulations is a range of grid spacing comparable to the most energetic eddy diameter. Spacing in mesoscale and simulations is much larger than the eddies, and turbulence is parameterized with one-dimensional vertical-mixing. Large eddy simulations (LES) have grid spacing much smaller than the energetic eddies, and use three-dimensional models of turbulence. Studies of convective weather use convection-permitting resolutions, which are in the TI. Neither mesoscale-turbulence nor LES models are designed for the TI, so TI turbulence parameterization needs to be discussed. Here, the effects of sub-filter scale (SFS) closure schemes on the simulation of deep tropical convection are evaluated by comparing three closures, i.e. Smagorinsky model, Deardorff-type TKE model and the dynamic reconstruction model (DRM), which partitions SFS turbulence into resolvable sub-filter scales (RSFS) and unresolved sub-grid scales (SGS). The RSFS are reconstructed, and the SGS are modeled with a dynamic eddy viscosity/diffusivity model. The RSFS stresses/fluxes allow backscatter of energy/variance via counter-gradient stresses/fluxes. In high-resolution (100m) simulations of tropical convection use of these turbulence models did not lead to significant differences in cloud water/ice distribution, precipitation flux, or vertical fluxes of momentum and heat. When model resolutions are coarsened, the Smagorinsky and TKE models overestimate cloud ice and produces large-amplitude downward heat flux in the middle troposphere (not found in the high-resolution simulations). This error is a result of unrealistically large eddy diffusivities, i.e., the eddy diffusivity of the DRM is on the order of 1 for the coarse resolution simulations, the eddy diffusivity of the Smagorinsky and TKE model is on the order of 100. Splitting the eddy viscosity/diffusivity scalars into vertical and horizontal components by using different length scales and strain rate components helps to reduce the errors, but does not completely remedy the problem. In contrast, the coarse resolution simulations using the DRM produce results that are more consistent with the high-resolution results, suggesting that the DRM is a more appropriate turbulence model for simulating convection in the TI.

Eddy Fluxes and Sensitivity of the Water Cycle to Spatial Resolution in Idealized Regional Aquaplanet Model Simulations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hagos, Samson M.; Leung, Lai-Yung R.; Gustafson, William I.

2014-02-28

A multi-scale moisture budget analysis is used to identify the mechanisms responsible for the sensitivity of the water cycle to spatial resolution using idealized regional aquaplanet simulations. In the higher resolution simulations, moisture transport by eddies fluxes dry the boundary layer enhancing evaporation and precipitation. This effect of eddies, which is underestimated by the physics parameterizations in the low-resolution simulations, is found to be responsible for the sensitivity of the water cycle both directly, and through its upscale effect, on the mean circulation. Correlations among moisture transport by eddies at adjacent ranges of scales provides the potential for reducing thismore » sensitivity by representing the unresolved eddies by their marginally resolved counterparts.« less

A turnkey data logger program for field-scale energy flux density measurements using eddy covariance and surface renewal

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Micrometeorological methods and ecosystem-scale energy and mass flux density measurements have become increasingly important in soil, agricultural, and environmental sciences. For many scientists without formal training in atmospheric science, these techniques are relatively inaccessible. Eddy cov...

Determination of eddy current response with magnetic measurements.

PubMed

Jiang, Y Z; Tan, Y; Gao, Z; Nakamura, K; Liu, W B; Wang, S Z; Zhong, H; Wang, B B

2017-09-01

Accurate mutual inductances between magnetic diagnostics and poloidal field coils are an essential requirement for determining the poloidal flux for plasma equilibrium reconstruction. The mutual inductance calibration of the flux loops and magnetic probes requires time-varying coil currents, which also simultaneously drive eddy currents in electrically conducting structures. The eddy current-induced field appearing in the magnetic measurements can substantially increase the calibration error in the model if the eddy currents are neglected. In this paper, an expression of the magnetic diagnostic response to the coil currents is used to calibrate the mutual inductances, estimate the conductor time constant, and predict the eddy currents response. It is found that the eddy current effects in magnetic signals can be well-explained by the eddy current response determination. A set of experiments using a specially shaped saddle coil diagnostic are conducted to measure the SUNIST-like eddy current response and to examine the accuracy of this method. In shots that include plasmas, this approach can more accurately determine the plasma-related response in the magnetic signals by eliminating the field due to the eddy currents produced by the external field.

Examining the Influence of Teleconnection Patterns on CO2 Fluxes at an Old-Growth Forest Scaling from Stand to Region Using MODIS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wharton, S.; Chasmer, L.; Falk, M.; Paw U, K.

2007-12-01

In this study, year-to-year variability in three of the major Pacific teleconnection patterns were examined to determine if CO2 and H2O fluxes at an old-growth forest in the Pacific Northwest were affected by climatic changes associated with these patterns. The three cycles examined are the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, Pacific/North American Oscillation and El Niño-Southern Oscillation. We centered our study on the Wind River Canopy Crane, an AmeriFlux tower located in a 500 year old conifer forest in southern Washington State. CO2 and H2O fluxes have been measured continuously for six years using the eddy covariance method. The objectives of this study are to: 1. determine to what extent teleconnection patterns influence measured CO2 and H2O fluxes through mechanistic anomalies; 2. ascertain if climatic shifts affect annual vegetation canopy characteristics; and 3. make comparisons at the local and regional scales using MODIS. The ecosystem was a significant sink of carbon (-207 gC m-2 year-1) in 1999 but turned into a large carbon source (+ 100 gC m-2 year-1) in 2003. NEE significantly (above the 95th CI) lags the PNA, ENSO and PDO indicating that these patterns affect the forest carbon budget across overlapping time scales. To ascertain the influence of atmospheric patterns on fluxes, we categorized the flux measurement years based on in-phase climate events (1999 = La Niña/cool PDO, 2003 = El Niño/warm PDO, 2000-2002, 2004 = neutral ENSO years). The results of this analysis indicate that the Pacific Ocean/atmospheric oscillation anomalies explain much of variance in annual NEE (R2 = 0.78 between NEE and the PDO, R2 = 0.87 for the PNA, and R2 = 0.56 for ENSO). Teleconnection patterns are found to be associated mostly with air temperature, precipitation, and incoming light radiation (cloudy vs. sunny conditions). Important meteorological driving mechanisms of fluxes include: water- use efficiency (WUE), light-use efficiency (LUE) and canopy structure parameters (e.g., fPAR). Tower-based fPAR was strongly related to NEE (R2 = 0.78) and climatic patterns (R2 = 0.84 with ENSO and R2 = 0.76 with PDO). Variability in fluxes may be a result of changes in the canopy structural characteristics; for example higher, fPAR (e.g., 2003) correlated well with increased respiration fluxes. MODIS data (200 km X 200 km area) were obtained to determine if anomalies in vegetation indices and canopy structure could be linked to teleconnection patterns at the site level and across the region. The MODIS-derived Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) correlated well with yearly cumulative NEE at the tower and regional EVI anomalies were strongly negatively correlated with the annual PDO index (R2 = 0.9). MODIS-derived fPAR product correlated with yearly variability in the PDO (R2 = 0.34) at the site level. Therefore, there is reasonable expectation that structural changes, as a result of climate variability during strongly positive or negative teleconnection patterns, will be observed in other parts of the Pacific Northwest. MODIS data is useful for identifying the effects of teleconnections across a regional scale.

The HartX-synthesis: An experimental approach to water and carbon exchange of a Scots pine plantation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bernhofer, Ch.; Gay, L. W.; Granier, A.; Joss, U.; Kessler, A.; Köstner, B.; Siegwolf, R.; Tenhunen, J. D.; Vogt, R.

1996-03-01

In May 1992 during the interdisciplinary measurement campaign HartX (Hartheim eXperiment), several independent estimates of stand water vapor flux were compared at a 12-m high Scots pine ( Pinus silvestris) plantation on a flat fluvial terrace of the Rhine close to Freiburg, Germany. Weather during the HartX period was characterized by ten consecutive clear days with exceptionally high input of available energy for this time of year and with a slowly shifting diurnal pattern in atmospheric variables like vapor pressure deficit. Methods utilized to quantify components of stand water flux included porometry measurements on understory graminoid leaves and on pine needles and three different techniques for determining individual tree xylem sap flow. Micrometeorological methods included eddy covariance and eddy covariance energy balance techniques with six independent systems on two towers separated by 40 m. Additionally, Bowen ratio energy balance estimates of water flux were conducted and measurements of the gradients in water vapor, CO2, and trace gases within and above the stand were carried out with an additional, portable 30 m high telescoping mast. Biologically-based estimates of overstory transpiration were obtained by up-scaling tree sap flow rates to stand level via cumulative sapwood area. Tree transpiration contributed between 2.2 and 2.6 mm/day to ET for a tree leaf area index (LAI) of 2.8. The pine stand had an understory dominated by sedge and grass species with overall average LAI of 1.5. Mechanistic canopy gas exchange models that quantify both water vapor and CO2 exchange were applied to both understory and tree needle ecosystem compartments. Thus, the transpiration by graminoid species was estimated at approximately 20% of total stand ET. The modelled estimates for understory contribution to stand water flux compared well with micrometeorologically-based determinations. Maximum carbon gain was estimated from the canopy models at approximately 425 mmol/(m2day) for the tree needles and at 100 mmol/(m2day) for the understory. Carbon gain was suggested by the modelling analysis to remain relatively constant during the HartX period, while water use efficiency in carbon fixation increased with decreasing vapor pressure deficit. Biologically- and micrometeorologically-based estimates of stand water flux showed good general agreement with variation of up to 20% that reflects both errors due to the inherent assumptions associated with different methods as well as natural spatial variability in fluxes. The various methods support a reliable estimate of average ET from this homogeneous canopy during HartX of about 2.6 mm/day (a maximum of about 3.1 mm/day) with an insignificant decreasing trend in correlation with decreasing vapor pressure deficit and possibly soil moisture. Findings during HartX were embedded in local scale heterogeneity with greater roughness over the forest and much higher ET over the surrounding agricultural fields which results in weak but clearly existant circulation patterns. A variety of measurements were continued after the HartX campaign. They allow us to extend our findings for six months with changing environmental conditions, including shortage of soil moisture. Hydrological estimates of soil water extractions and micrometeorological estimates of ET by the one-propeller eddy covariance (OPEC) system were in very good agreement, supporting the use of this robust eddy covariance energy balance technique for long-term monitoring.

AmeriFlux US-Ha1 Harvard Forest EMS Tower (HFR1)

DOE Data Explorer

Munger, J. William [Harvard University

2016-01-01

This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-Ha1 Harvard Forest EMS Tower (HFR1). Site Description - The Harvard Forest tower is on land owned by Harvard University. The site is designated as an LTER site. Most of the surrounding area was cleared for agrigulture during European settlement in 1600-1700. The site has been regrowing since before 1900 (based on tree ring chronologies) and is now predominantly red oak and red maple, with patches of mature hemlock stand and individual white pine. Overstory trees were uprooted by hurricane in 1938. Climate measurements have been made at Harvard Forest since 1964.

Precision Gas Sampling (PGS) Validation2011-2014 Final Campaign Report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tom, M. S.; Fischer, M. L.; Biraud, S. C.

In this field campaign, we used eddy covariance towers to quantify carbon, water, and energy fluxes from a pasture and a wheat field that were converted to switchgrass. The U.S. Department of Energy is investing in switchgrass as a cellulosic bioenergy crop, but there is little data available that could be used to develop or test land surface model representations of the crop. This campaign was a collaboration between Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service. Unfortunately, in 2011, Oklahoma had one of the most severe droughts on record, and the crop in onemore » of the switchgrass fields experienced almost complete die-off. The crop was replanted, but subsequent drought conditions prevented its establishment. Then, in April 2012, a large tornado demolished the instruments at our site in Woodward, Oklahoma. These two events meant that we have some interesting data on land response to extreme weather; however, we were not able to collect continuous data for annual sums as originally intended. We did observe that, because of the drought, the net ecosystem exchange of CO 2 was much lower in 2011 than in 2010. Concomitantly, sensible heat fluxes increased and latent heat fluxes decreased. These conditions would have large consequences for land surface forcing of convection. Data from all years were submitted to the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility Data Archive, and the sites were registered in AmeriFlux.« less

Net ecosystem production: A comprehensive measure of net carbon accumulation by ecosystems

USGS Publications Warehouse

Randerson, J.T.; Chapin, F. S.; Harden, J.W.; Neff, J.C.; Harmon, M.E.

2002-01-01

The conceptual framework used by ecologists and biogeochemists must allow for accurate and clearly defined comparisons of carbon fluxes made with disparate techniques across a spectrum of temporal and spatial scales. Consistent with usage over the past four decades, we define "net ecosystem production" (NEP) as the net carbon accumulation by ecosystems. Past use of this term has been ambiguous, because it has been used conceptually as a measure of carbon accumulation by ecosystems, but it has often been calculated considering only the balance between gross primary production (GPP) and ecosystem respiration. This calculation ignores other carbon fluxes from ecosystems (e.g., leaching of dissolved carbon and losses associated with disturbance). To avoid conceptual ambiguities, we argue that NEP be defined, as in the past, as the net carbon accumulation by ecosystems and that it explicitly incorporate all the carbon fluxes from an ecosystem, including autotrophic respiration, heterotrophic respiration, losses associated with disturbance, dissolved and particulate carbon losses, volatile organic compound emissions, and lateral transfers among ecosystems. Net biome productivity (NBP), which has been proposed to account for carbon loss during episodic disturbance, is equivalent to NEP at regional or global scales. The multi-scale conceptual framework we describe provides continuity between flux measurements made at the scale of soil profiles and chambers, forest inventories, eddy covariance towers, aircraft, and inversions of remote atmospheric flask samples, allowing a direct comparison of NEP estimates made at all temporal and spatial scales.

CentNet—A deployable 100-station network for surface exchange research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oncley, S.; Horst, T. W.; Semmer, S.; Militzer, J.; Maclean, G.; Knudson, K.

2014-12-01

Climate, air quality, atmospheric composition, surface hydrology, and ecological processes are directly affected by the Earth's surface. Complexity of this surface exists at multiple spatial scales, which complicates the understanding of these processes. NCAR/EOL currently provides a facility to the research community to make direct eddy-covariance flux observations to quantify surface-atmosphere interactions. However, just as model resolution has continued to increase, there is a need to increase the spatial density of flux measurements to capture the wide variety of scales that contribute to exchange processes close to the surface. NCAR/EOL now has developed the CentNet facility, that is envisioned to have on the order of 100 surface flux stations deployable for periods of months to years. Each station would measure standard meteorological variables, all components of the surface energy balance (including turbulence fluxes and radiation), atmospheric composition, and other quantities to characterize the surface. Thus, CentNet can support observational research in the biogeosciences, hydrology, urban meteorology, basic meteorology, and turbulence. CentNet has been designed to be adaptable to a wide variety of research problems while keeping operations manageable. Tower infrastructure has been designed to be lightweight, easily deployed, and with a minimal set-up footprint. CentNet uses sensor networks to increase spatial sampling at each station. The data system saves every sample on site to retain flexibility in data analysis. We welcome guidance on development and funding priorities as we build CentNet.

Contrasting Convective Flux Gradients in the U.S. Corn Belt as a Result of Vegetation Land Cover Type

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hiestand, M.

2017-12-01

Phenological differences between extensive croplands and remnant forests in the U.S. Corn Belt have been suggested as enhancing spatial gradients of latent and sensible heat fluxes that contribute to the distribution and amounts of convective rainfall on mesoscales. However, the exact magnitude of the intra-seasonal variability in convective fluxes between these two land-cover types has yet to be quantified. Previous work suggesting that non-classical mesoscale circulations operate within the Corn Belt has not involved direct flux observations obtained using the eddy flux covariance technique. This study compares five day running means of daily heat fluxes between two Ameriflux towers (US-Bo1 in Illinois and US-MMS in Indiana) representing rain-fed cropland and remnant forest, respectively for the growing seasons of 1999-2008. Latent heat values normalized to the net radiation show higher rates of evapotranspiration at the forested site than over the cropland during the start of the growing season. However, toward the end of the growing season, latent heat fluxes from the forest decrease and the cropland becomes the dominate source of evapotranspiration. Conversely, croplands dominate sensible heat fluxes at the start of the growing season whereas the remnant forests are associated with strong sensible heat fluxes in late summer. These intra-seasonal spatial differences of latent and sensible heat fluxes across the Corn Belt imply differences in moisture pooling that are suggested as enhancing atmospheric convection during favorable synoptic conditions, especially near the boundaries of these two land cover types. Understanding the physical mechanisms by which the spatial distribution of vegetated land cover can generate contrasting latent and sensible heat fluxes will lay the groundwork for improving mesoscale precipitation forecasts in the Corn Belt, and determining the possible impacts of ongoing land-cover and climate changes there.

A meso-network of eddy covariance towers across the Northwest Territories to assess high-latitude carbon and water budgets under increasing pressure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hurkuck, M.; Marsh, P.; Quinton, W. L.; Humphreys, E.; Lafleur, P.; Helbig, M.; Hould Gosselin, G.; Sonnentag, O.

2017-12-01

Given their large areal coverage, high carbon densities, unique land surface properties, and disturbance regimes, Canada's diverse high-latitude ecosystems across its multiple Arctic, subarctic and boreal ecozones are integral components of the global and regional climate systems. In northwestern Canada, large portions of these ecozones contain permafrost, i.e., perennially cryotic ground. Here, we describe efforts towards a meso-network of nine eddy covariance towers to measure carbon, water and energy fluxes across the Northwest Territories to shed light on high-latitude carbon and water budgets and their rapidly changing biotic and abiotic controls in response to increasing natural and anthropogenic pressures. Distributed across six research sites (Trail Valley Creek, 68.7°N, 133.3°W; Havikpak Creek, 68.3°N, 133.3°W; Daring Lake, 64.8°N, 111.5°W; Smith Creek, 63.1°N, 123.2°W; Scotty Creek, 63.1°N, 123.2°W; Yellowknife, 62.5°N, 114.4°W), the meso-network spans the central portion of the extended ABoVE Study Domain, covering two ecozones (Taiga Plains, Southern Arctic) with differing permafrost regimes (sporadic, discontinuous, continuous), climatic settings (coastal, interior), and seven high-latitude ecosystem types: forested permafrost peat plateau, permafrost-free collapse-scar bog, subarctic woodland, mixed and dwarf-shrub tundra, and sedge fen. With our contribution, we report on the current status of the meso-network development and present results from various synthesis activities examining the role of climatic setting and resulting tundra carbon and water budgets, quantifying the impact of permafrost thaw and associated wetland expansion on boreal forest carbon and water budgets, and determining the relative importance of treeline advance compared to shrub proliferation on tundra carbon and water budgets.

A comparison between energy transfer and atmospheric turbulent exchanges over alpine meadow and banana plantation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ding, Zhangwei; Ma, Yaoming; Wen, Zhiping; Ma, Weiqiang; Chen, Shiji

2017-07-01

Banana plantation and alpine meadow ecosystems in southern China and the Tibetan Plateau (TP) are unique in the underlying surfaces they exhibit. In this study, we used eddy covariance and a micrometeorological tower to examine the characteristics of land surface energy exchanges over a banana plantation in southern China and an alpine meadow in the Tibetan Plateau from May 2010 to August 2012. The results showed that the diurnal and seasonal variations in upward shortwave radiation flux and surface soil heat flux were larger over the alpine meadow than over the banana plantation surface. Dominant energy partitioning varied with season. Latent heat flux was the main consumer of net radiation flux in the growing season, whereas sensible heat flux was the main consumer during other periods. The Monin-Obukhov similarity theory was employed for comparative purposes, using sonic anemometer observations of flow over the surfaces of banana plantations in the humid southern China monsoon region and the semi-arid areas of the TP, and was found to be applicable. Over banana plantation and alpine meadow areas, the average surface albedo and surface aerodynamic roughness lengths under neutral atmospheric conditions were ˜0.128 and 0.47 m, and ˜0.223 and 0.01 m, respectively. During the measuring period, the mean annual bulk transfer coefficients for momentum and sensible heat were 1.47 × 10-2 and 7.13 × 10-3, and 2.91 × 10-3 and 1.96 × 10-3, for banana plantation and alpine meadow areas, respectively.

Prediction of Continental-Scale Net Ecosystem Carbon Exchange by Combining MODIS and AmeriFlux Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xiao, J.; Zhuang, Q.

2007-12-01

There is growing interest in scaling up net ecosystem exchange (NEE) measured at eddy covariance flux towers to regional scales. Here we used remote sensing data from the MODIS instrument on board NASA's Terra satellite to extrapolate NEE measured at AmeriFlux sites to the continental scale. We combined MODIS data and NEE measurements from a number of AmeriFlux sites with a variety of vegetation types (e.g., forests, grasslands, shrublands, savannas, and croplands) to develop a predictive NEE model using a regression tree approach. The model was trained using 2000-2003 NEE measurements, and the performance of the model was evaluated using independent data over the period 2004-2006. We found that the model predicted NEE with reasonable accuracy at the continental scale. The R-squared values are 0.50 for all vegetation types combined and 0.72 for deciduous forests. We then applied the model to the conterminous U.S. and predicted NEE for each 500m by 500m cell over the period 2001-2006. Based on the wall-to-wall NEE estimates, we examined the spatial and temporal distributions of annual NEE and interannual variability of annual NEE across the conterminous U.S. over the study period (2001-2006). Our scaling-up approach implicitly considered the effects of climate variability, land use/land cover change, disturbances, extreme climate events, and management practices, and thus our annual NEE estimates represents the net carbon fluxes between the terrestrial biosphere and the atmosphere in the conterminous U.S.

The North American Monsoon GPS Hydrometeorological Network 2017: A New Look at an Old Problem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Adams, D. K.

2017-12-01

Quantifying moisture recycling and determining water vapor source regions for deep convective precipitation have been problematic, particular in tropical continental regions. More than an academic concern, modeling convective precipitation, from cloud-resolving to global climate models, depends critically on properly representing atmospheric water vapor transport, its vertical distribution, as well as surface latent heat flux contributions. The North American Monsoon region, given its complex topography, proximity to warm oceans, striking vegetation "green up" and oftentimes subtle dynamical forcing is particular challenging in this regard. Recent studies, employing modeling and observational approaches, give a prominent role for moisture recycling in fomenting deep convective precipitation. Likewise, these studies argue for the increased importance of transport from the Gulf of Mexico/Central America and the Atlantic Ocean, relative to the Pacific Ocean/Gulf of California. In this presentation, we critically review these studies which served to motivate the NAM GPS Hydrometeorological Network 2017, detailed here. This bi-national (Mexico-US) 3-month campaign to examine water vapor source regions, and specifically, land-surface water vapor fluxes consists of 10 experimental GPS meteorological sites as well as TLALOCNet and Suominet GPS sites in the Mexican states of Sonora, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, and Baja California and in Arizona and New Mexico. Near Rayón Sonora, inside the larger regional GPSmet array, a 30km eddy covariance flux tower triangular array, with collocated GPSmet, measures continuous energy fluxes and precipitable water vapor. Preliminary results examining the local flux contribution in the triangular array to total precipitable water vapor measured are presented. Further research is then outlined.

Optical Sensing of Ecosystem Carbon Fluxes Combining Spectral Reflectance Indices with Solar Induced Fluorescence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huemmrich, K. F.; Middleton, E.; Corp, L. A.; Campbell, P. K.; Kustas, W. P.

2014-12-01

Optical sampling of spectral reflectance and solar induced fluorescence provide information on the physiological status of vegetation that can be used to infer stress responses and estimates of production. Multiple repeated observations are required to observe the effects of changing environmental conditions on vegetation. This study examines the use of optical signals to determine inputs to a light use efficiency (LUE) model describing productivity of a cornfield where repeated observations of carbon flux, spectral reflectance and fluorescence were collected. Data were collected at the Optimizing Production Inputs for Economic and Environmental Enhancement (OPE3) fields (39.03°N, 76.85°W) at USDA Beltsville Agricultural Research Center. Agricultural Research Service researchers measured CO2 fluxes using eddy covariance methods throughout the growing season. Optical measurements were made from the nearby tower supporting the NASA FUSION sensors. The sensor system consists of two dual channel, upward and downward looking, spectrometers used to simultaneously collect high spectral resolution measurements of reflected and fluoresced light from vegetation canopies. Estimates of chlorophyll fluorescence, combined with measures of vegetation pigment content and the Photosynthetic Reflectance Index (PRI) derived from the spectral reflectance are compared with CO2 fluxes over diurnal periods for multiple days. PRI detects changes in Xanthophyll cycle pigments using reflectance at 531 nm compared to a reference band at 570 nm. The relationships among the different optical measurements indicate that they are providing different types of information on the vegetation and that combinations of these measurements provide improved retrievals of CO2 fluxes than any index alone.

Optical Sensing of Ecosystem Carbon Fluxes Combining Spectral Reflectance Indices with Solar Induced Fluorescence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huemmrich, K. F.; Corp, L.; Campbell, P. K.; Cook, B. D.; Middleton, E.; Cheng, Y.; Zhang, Q.; Russ, A.; Kustas, W. P.

2013-12-01

Optical sampling of spectral reflectance and solar induced fluorescence provide information on the physiological status of vegetation that can be used to infer stress responses and estimates of production. Multiple repeated observations can observe the effects of changing environmental conditions on vegetation. This study examines the use of optical signals to determine inputs to a light use efficiency (LUE) model describing productivity of a cornfield where repeated observations of carbon flux, spectral reflectance and fluorescence were collected. Data were collected at the Optimizing Production Inputs for Economic and Environmental Enhancement (OPE3) fields (39.03°N, 76.85°W) at USDA Beltsville Agricultural Research Center. Agricultural Research Service researchers measured CO2 fluxes using eddy covariance methods throughout the growing season. Optical measurements were made from the nearby tower supporting the NASA FUSION sensors. This sensor system consists of two dual channel, upward and downward looking, spectrometers used to simultaneously collect high spectral resolution measurements of reflected and fluoresced light from vegetation canopies. Estimates of chlorophyll fluorescence, combined with measures of vegetation pigment content and the Photosynthetic Reflectance Index (PRI) derived from the spectral reflectance are compared with CO2 fluxes over diurnal periods for multiple days. PRI detects changes in Xanthophyll cycle pigments using reflectance at 531 nm compared to a reference band at 570 nm. The relationships among the different optical measurements indicate that they are providing different types of information on the vegetation and that combinations of these measurements provide improved retrievals of CO2 fluxes than any index alone.

Moisture and wave-mean flow interactions in the general circulation of Earth's atmosphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yamada, Ray

Baroclinic eddies play an important role in shaping the midlatitude climate and its variability. They are the dominant means by which heat, momentum, and water vapor are transported in the atmosphere, but their turbulent nature makes it challenging to grasp their aggregate effect on the mean circulation. Wave-mean flow diagnostics provide an effective means for understanding the interactions between eddies and the mean circulation. These diagnostics are derived by dynamically motivated averaging of the equations of motion, which exposes the total explicit eddy effect on the mean circulation tendency. Most of the classic formulations of these diagnostics have been limited by the fact that they do not account for the eddy flux of water vapor, which can drive circulation through latent heat released from condensation. In the first part of this thesis, a moist isentropic generalization of the Eliassen-Palm (EP) flux diagnostic is developed. Moist isentropes are often not invertible with height, which prevents the standard techniques used to derive the dry diagnostic from being applied in the moist case. This issue is resolved by using a conditional-averaging approach to define a weak coordinate transformation. The primitive equations, EP flux, and EP theorem are derived in generality for non- invertible coordinates, without assumptions of quasi-geostrophy or small wave-amplitude. It is shown that, in the reanalysis climatology, the moist EP flux is twice as strong as the dry EP flux and has a greater equatorward extent. Physically, the increase in momentum exchange is tied to an enhancement of the form drag associated with the horizontal structure of midlatitude eddies, where the poleward flow of moist air is located in regions of strong eastward pressure gradients. The second part of this thesis studies the effect of latent heating on the mean flow adjustment in idealized baroclinic life cycles. The life cycles are simulated in an idealized moist general circulation model (GCM) with no convective parameterizations and diabatic heating is due entirely to the latent heat released from large-scale condensation. A series of life cycle simulations are run varying only the initially prescribed value of the relative humidity. It is shown that increasing relative humidity acts to decrease the baroclinic shear of the adjusting zonal jet. By solving a moist elliptic equation for the Eulerian-mean circulation forced by the eddy fluxes, it is shown that the eddy moisture flux drives an indirect Eulerian circulation on the equatorward flank of the jet. This in turn increases the strength and equatorward extent of the developing surface westerlies. The reduction of baroclinicity is consistent with the earlier idea that moisture fluxes increase the EP flux and form drag associated with baroclinic eddies. The final topic of this thesis is about the extratropical internal variability of the atmosphere. The annular mode (AM) has long been considered the dominant mode of atmospheric variability driven by midlatitude storms. It describes a north-south vacillation of the eddy-driven jet on intraseasonal timescales which are considerably longer than the life cycle of typical synoptic storms. This low-frequency variability of the AM is thought to be supported by a mean-eddy feedback, in which a poleward shift of the jet is supported by a poleward shift of the baroclinic zone. However, it is shown that the atmospheric energy transport and isentropic circulation shift equatorward in the monthly AM composites. This shift is mainly the result of a poleward shift of the Ferrel cell. An alternative mean-eddy feedback mechanism based on the idea of the jet acting as a mixing barrier is proposed as an explanation for the small response of the eddy energy flux.

Combining tower mixing ratio and community model data to estimate regional-scale net ecosystem carbon exchange by boundary layer inversion over four flux towers in the United States

Treesearch

Xueri Dang; Chun-Ta Lai; David Y. Hollinger; Andrew J. Schauer; Jingfeng Xiao; J. William Munger; Clenton Owensby; James R. Ehleringer

2011-01-01

We evaluated an idealized boundary layer (BL) model with simple parameterizations using vertical transport information from community model outputs (NCAR/NCEP Reanalysis and ECMWF Interim Analysis) to estimate regional-scale net CO2 fluxes from 2002 to 2007 at three forest and one grassland flux sites in the United States. The BL modeling...

What can we learn about ammonia fluxes from open-path eddy covariance measurements?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pan, D.; Zondlo, M. A.; Benedict, K. B.; Schichtel, B. A.; Ham, J. M.; Shonkwiler, K. B.; Collett, J. L., Jr.

2016-12-01

Ammonia (NH3) is an important component of bio-atmospheric N cycle with implications of regional air quality, human and ecosystem health degradation, and global climate change. NH3 fluxes have high spatiotemporal variability controlled by several factors, such as atmospheric NH3 concentration, meteorological conditions, and compensation point of underlying surfaces. Quantifying NH3 fluxes is further complicated by severe measurement challenges including adsorption to instrument surfaces, low mole fractions, and gas-particle phase partitioning. To overcome these challenges, we have developed an open-path, eddy covariance NH3 instrument that minimizes these sampling issues. Eddy covariance measurements in 2015 and 2016 in the Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP), Colorado showed the capabilities of the system to measure fluxes in clean and moderate-polluted regions. Interesting patterns of NH3 fluxes and NH3 concentration variations were observed, such as deposition of NH3 associated plumes from urban and agricultural areas and reemission of a similar magnitude when clean free-tropospheric air passing the site. Observed downward fluxes during midnight and upward fluxes in early morning also indicated NH3 fluxes related to dew formation and evaporation events. More details about these patterns and their relationships with ambient temperature, relative humidity, and other fluxes will be presented. These measurements also provided an opportunity to evaluate our current understanding of transport and deposition of NH3. Micrometeorological method, backward trajectory model, and bidirectional NH3 flux model were used to analyze observed variability of NH3 concentrations and fluxes. Implications of these results and how eddy covariance measurements combined with other measurements may provide insights to better quantify NH3 fluxes will be discussed.

Estimating lake-atmosphere CO2 exchange

USGS Publications Warehouse

Anderson, D.E.; Striegl, Robert G.; Stannard, D.I.; Michmerhuizen, C.M.; McConnaughey, T.A.; LaBaugh, J.W.

1999-01-01

Lake-atmosphere CO2 flux was directly measured above a small, woodland lake using the eddy covariance technique and compared with fluxes deduced from changes in measured lake-water CO2 storage and with flux predictions from boundary-layer and surface-renewal models. Over a 3-yr period, lake-atmosphere exchanges of CO2 were measured over 5 weeks in spring, summer, and fall. Observed springtime CO2 efflux was large (2.3-2.7 ??mol m-2 s-1) immediately after lake-thaw. That efflux decreased exponentially with time to less than 0.2 ??mol m-2 s-1 within 2 weeks. Substantial interannual variability was found in the magnitudes of springtime efflux, surface water CO2 concentrations, lake CO2 storage, and meteorological conditions. Summertime measurements show a weak diurnal trend with a small average downward flux (-0.17 ??mol m-2 s-1) to the lake's surface, while late fall flux was trendless and smaller (-0.0021 ??mol m-2 s-1). Large springtime efflux afforded an opportunity to make direct measurement of lake-atmosphere fluxes well above the detection limits of eddy covariance instruments, facilitating the testing of different gas flux methodologies and air-water gas-transfer models. Although there was an overall agreement in fluxes determined by eddy covariance and those calculated from lake-water storage change in CO2, agreement was inconsistent between eddy covariance flux measurements and fluxes predicted by boundary-layer and surface-renewal models. Comparison of measured and modeled transfer velocities for CO2, along with measured and modeled cumulative CO2 flux, indicates that in most instances the surface-renewal model underpredicts actual flux. Greater underestimates were found with comparisons involving homogeneous boundary-layer models. No physical mechanism responsible for the inconsistencies was identified by analyzing coincidentally measured environmental variables.

Leaf-level to Canopy Exchange of NOx and Ozone in a Forest at the University of Michigan Biological Station

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, W.; Ganzeveld, L.; Helmig, D.; Hueber, J.; Rossabi, S.; Vogel, C. S.

2017-12-01

During the month-long PROPHET-AMOS campaign in July, 2016 we investigated NOx and ozone dynamics at the University of Michigan AmeriFlux Tower (US-UMB tower) and the PROPHET Tower research sites at the University of Michigan Biological Station (UMBS), using a multi-pronged experimental approach. The two sites are within 100 m of each other, located in a mixed forest on the northern lower peninsula of Michigan, USA. In a previous study, it was found that invoking a leaf-level compensation point for NOx uptake and emission provided better agreement between observed and model-simulated in- and above-canopy NOx concentrations in this forest. To further examine the role of foliar exchange relative to other in-canopy sources and sinks of NOx, we conducted detailed vertical gradient measurements of NOx and ozone at ten heights from the forest floor to above the canopy, along with micrometeorological conditions at the AmeriFlux Tower. In parallel, to investigate the leaf-level exchanges of NOx and ozone, we carried out branch enclosure experiments near the PROPHET tower on the dominant tree species of this forest. We combine these observations with micrometeorological data from the AmeriFlux Tower to constrain simulations with the Multi-Layer Canopy Chemical Exchange Model (MLC-CHEM) for investigation of sources, sinks, and dynamics that determine NOx concentrations, vertical gradients, and fluxes in this forest. We will compare our results with previous studies and other observations during the PHOPHET-AMOS campaign.

The formation processes of phytoplankton growth and decline in mesoscale eddies in the western North Pacific Ocean

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chang, Yu-Lin; Miyazawa, Yasumasa; Oey, Lie-Yauw; Kodaira, Tsubasa; Huang, Shihming

2017-05-01

In this study, we investigate the processes of phytoplankton growth and decline in mesoscale eddies in the western North Pacific Ocean based on the in situ chlorophyll data obtained from 52 cruises conducted by the Japan Meteorological Agency together with idealized numerical simulations. Both the observation and model results suggest that chlorophyll/phytoplankton concentrations are higher in cold than in warm eddies in near-surface water (z > -70 m). In the idealized simulation, the isopycnal movements associated with upwelling/downwelling transport phytoplankton and nutrients to different vertical depths during eddy formation (stage A). Phytoplankton and nutrients in cold eddies is transported toward shallower waters while those in warm eddies move toward deeper waters. In the period after the eddy has formed (stage B), sunlight and initially upwelled nutrients together promote the growth of phytoplankton in cold eddies. Phytoplankton in warm eddies decays due to insufficient sunlight in deeper waters. In stage B, upwelling and downwelling coexist in both warm and cold eddies, contributing nearly equally to vertical displacement. The upwelling/downwelling-induced nitrate flux accounts for a small percentage (˜3%) of the total nitrate flux in stage B. The vertical velocity caused by propagating eddies, therefore, is not the primary factor causing differences in phytoplankton concentrations between stage-B warm and cold eddies.

DEVELOPMENT OF TECHNIQUES FOR EDDY-CORRELATION MEASUREMENTS OF NON-METHANE VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUND FLUXED IN THE ATMOSPHERE

EPA Science Inventory

An analytical technique for the measurement of the exchange (flux) of trace gases between the earth's surface and the atmosphere will be developed. Measurements will rely on the eddy correlation method (ECM). Target compounds are biogenically and anthropogenically emitted v...

Concerning the measurement of atmospheric trace gas fluxes with open- and closed-path eddy covariance systems: The density terms and spectral attenuation [Chapter 7

Treesearch

W. J. Massman

2004-01-01

Atmospheric trace gas fluxes measured with an eddy covariance sensor that detects a constituent's density fluctuations within the in situ air need to include terms resulting from concurrent heat and moisture fluxes, the so called 'density' or 'WPL corrections' (Webb et al. 1980). The theory behind these additional terms is well established. But...

Validation of Vegetation Index Time Series from Suomi NPP Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite Using Tower Radiation Flux Measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miura, T.; Kato, A.; Wang, J.; Vargas, M.; Lindquist, M.

2015-12-01

Satellite vegetation index (VI) time series data serve as an important means to monitor and characterize seasonal changes of terrestrial vegetation and their interannual variability. It is, therefore, critical to ensure quality of such VI products and one method of validating VI product quality is cross-comparison with in situ flux tower measurements. In this study, we evaluated the quality of VI time series derived from Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) onboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) spacecraft by cross-comparison with in situ radiation flux measurements at select flux tower sites over North America and Europe. VIIRS is a new polar-orbiting satellite sensor series, slated to replace National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer in the afternoon overpass and to continue the highly-calibrated data streams initiated with Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer of National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Earth Observing System. The selected sites covered a wide range of biomes, including croplands, grasslands, evergreen needle forest, woody savanna, and open shrublands. The two VIIRS indices of the Top-of-Atmosphere (TOA) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the atmospherically-corrected, Top-of-Canopy (TOC) Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) (daily, 375 m spatial resolution) were compared against the TOC NDVI and a two-band version of EVI (EVI2) calculated from tower radiation flux measurements, respectively. VIIRS and Tower VI time series showed comparable seasonal profiles across biomes with statistically significant correlations (> 0.60; p-value < 0.01). "Start-of-season (SOS)" phenological metric values extracted from VIIRS and Tower VI time series were also highly compatible (R2 > 0.95), with mean differences of 2.3 days and 5.0 days for the NDVI and the EVI, respectively. These results indicate that VIIRS VI time series can capture seasonal evolution of vegetated land surface as good as in situ radiometric measurements. Future studies that address biophysical or physiological interpretations of Tower VI time series derived from radiation flux measurements are desirable.

BOREAS TF-2 SSA-OA Tower Flux, Meteorological, and Precipitation Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Neumann, Harold; Mickle, Robert; Staebler, Ralf; Hall, Forrest G. (Editor); Huemmrich, Karl (Editor)

2000-01-01

The BOReal Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study Tower Flux-2 (BOREAS TF-2) team collected energy, carbon dioxide, water vapor, and momentum flux data above the canopy and in profiles through the canopy, along with meteorological data at the BOREAS Southern Study Area-Old Aspen (SSA-OA) site. Above-canopy measurements began in early February and ran through mid-September of 1994. Measurements were collected over a longer period of 1994 than most BOREAS flux sites. Daily precipitation data from several gauges were also collected. The data are available in tabular ASCII files.

Evaluation and comparison of gross primary production estimates for the Northern Great Plains grasslands

USGS Publications Warehouse

Zhang, Li; Wylie, Bruce K.; Loveland, Thomas R.; Fosnight, Eugene A.; Tieszen, Larry L.; Ji, Lei; Gilmanov, Tagir

2007-01-01

Two spatially-explicit estimates of gross primary production (GPP) are available for the Northern Great Plains. An empirical piecewise regression (PWR) GPP model was developed from flux tower measurements to map carbon flux across the region. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) GPP model is a process-based model that uses flux tower data to calibrate its parameters. Verification and comparison of the regional PWR GPP and the global MODIS GPP are important for the modeling of grassland carbon flux. This study compared GPP estimates from PWR and MODIS models with five towers in the grasslands. Among them, PWR GPP and MODIS GPP showed a good agreement with tower-based GPP at three towers. The global MODIS GPP, however, did not agree well with tower-based GPP at two other towers, probably because of the insensitivity of MODIS model to regional ecosystem and climate change and extreme soil moisture conditions. Cross-validation indicated that the PWR model is relatively robust for predicting regional grassland GPP. However, the PWR model should include a wide variety of flux tower data as the training data sets to obtain more accurate results.In addition, GPP maps based on the PWR and MODIS models were compared for the entire region. In the northwest and south, PWR GPP was much higher than MODIS GPP. These areas were characterized by the higher water holding capacity with a lower proportion of C4 grasses in the northwest and a higher proportion of C4 grasses in the south. In the central and southeastern regions, PWR GPP was much lower than MODIS GPP under complicated conditions with generally mixed C3/C4 grasses. The analysis indicated that the global MODIS GPP model has some limitations on detecting moisture stress, which may have been caused by the facts that C3 and C4 grasses are not distinguished, water stress is driven by vapor pressure deficit (VPD) from coarse meteorological data, and MODIS land cover data are unable to differentiate the sub-pixel cropland components.

Changes in tundra vascular plant biomass over thirty years at Imnavait Creek, Alaska.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bret-Harte, M. S.; Euskirchen, E. S.; Edgar, C.; Huebner, D. C.; Okano, K.; Tucker, C.; Genet, H.; Ray, P. M.; Shaver, G. R.

2014-12-01

Understanding the magnitude of, and controls over, CO2 and water fluxes in arctic ecosystems is essential for accurate assessment and prediction of their responses to climate change. In 2013, we harvested vegetation and soils in the most common plant community types located in the source areas for fluxes measured by eddy covariance towers located in three representative Alaska tundra ecosystems along a toposequence (a ridge site composed of heath tundra and moist non-acidic tundra, a mid-slope site composed of moist acidic tussock tundra, and a valley bottom fen site composed of wet sedge tundra and moist acidic tundra) at Imnavait Creek, Alaska. While the purpose of this harvest was to relate biomass and production to estimates of overall net ecosystem CO2 exchange (NEE), gross primary productivity (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (ER) obtained by micrometeorological methods, it also afforded an opportunity to compare with biomass harvests done in the 1980s in moist acidic tundra at Imnavait Creek; there have been no other harvests than ours at Imnavait since then. Our data showed that plant biomass and production were greatest in the tussock tundra at the mid-slope tower, and least in the wet sedge community at the fen tower, while plant diversity was greatest in the communities at the ridge site. Aboveground biomass of vascular plants in our 2013 harvest in moist acidic tundra was nearly three times higher than that measured approximately thirty years earlier in three harvests of nearby areas at Imnavait Creek, due to an increase in the biomass of shrubs and graminoids. Comparison with other biomass harvests from the vicinity of Toolik Field Station indicate that vascular plant biomass in moist acidic tundra has increased over this time period, with the greatest increase evident by the mid-1990s, and a more gradual increase through to the present time, despite no obvious increase in air temperature as seen in data from nearby climate stations. These data will be used to improve our calculations of gross ecosystem production and ecosystem respiration, and to parameterize a terrestrial ecosystem model and simulate the response of ecosystem carbon balance to historical and future climate change in arctic tundra.

Influence of advection on measurements of the net ecosystem-atmosphere exchange of CO2 from a very tall tower

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yi, C.; Davis, K. J.; Bakwin, P. S.; Berger, B. W.; Marr, L. C.

2000-04-01

In most studies of the net ecosystem-atmosphere exchange of CO2 (NEE) using tower-based eddy covariance (EC) systems it has been assumed that advection is negligible. In this study we use a scalar conservation budget method to estimate the contribution of advection to NEE measurements from a very tall tower in northern Wisconsin. We examine data for June-August 1997. Measured NEE0, calculated as the sum of the EC flux plus the rate of change of storage below the EC measurement level, is expected to be constant with measurement height, and we take the differences between levels as a measure of advection. We find that the average difference in total advection ΔFCadtot between 30 and 122 m is as large as 6 μmol m-2s-1 during the morning transition from stable to convective conditions and the average difference ΔFCadtot between 122 and 396 m is as large as 4 μmol m-2s-1 during daytime. For the month of July, advection between 30 and 122 m is 27% of the diurnally integrated NEE0 at 122 m, and advection between 122 and 396 m accounts for 5% of the NEE0 observed at 396 m. The observed differences of advection often have significant correlation with the vertical integral of wind speed within the same layer. This indicates that the horizontal advection contribution to NEE could be significant. Direct observations of the vertical gradient in CO2 show that ΔFCadtot cannot be explained by vertical advection alone. It is hypothesized that differing flux footprints and pooling of CO2 in the heterogeneous landscape causes the advection contribution. The magnitudes of the total advection component FCadtot of NEE at the 30 m level are roughly estimated by a linear extrapolation. A peak in FCadtot at 30 m of ˜ 3 μmol m-2 s-1 during the morning transition is predicted for all three months. The July integrated FCadtot is estimated to be 10% of the diurnally integrated NEE0 at 30 m.

Does surface roughness dominate biophysical forcing of land use and land cover change in the eastern United States?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burakowski, E. A.; Tawfik, A. B.; Ouimette, A.; Lepine, L. C.; Ollinger, S. V.; Bonan, G. B.; Zarzycki, C. M.; Novick, K. A.

2016-12-01

Changes in land use, land cover, or both promote changes in surface temperature that can amplify or dampen long-term trends driven by natural and anthropogenic climate change by modifying the surface energy budget, primarily through differences in albedo, evapotranspiration, and aerodynamic roughness. Recent advances in variable resolution global models provide the tools necessary to investigate local and global impacts of land use and land cover change by embedding a high-resolution grid over areas of interest in a seamless and computationally efficient manner. Here, we used two eddy covariance tower clusters in the Eastern US (University of New Hampshire UNH and Duke Forest) to validate simulation of surface energy fluxes and properties by the uncoupled Community Land Model (PTCLM4.5) and coupled land-atmosphere Variable-Resolution Community Earth System Model (VR-CESM1.3). Surface energy fluxes and properties are generally well captured by the models for grassland sites, however forested sites tend to underestimate latent heat and overestimate sensible heat flux. Surface roughness emerged as the dominant biophysical forcing factor affecting surface temperature in the eastern United States, generally leading to warmer nighttime temperatures and cooler daytime temperatures. However, the sign and magnitude of the roughness effect on surface temperature was highly sensitive to the calculation of aerodynamic resistance to heat transfer.

Development and Preliminary Tests of an Open-Path Airborne Diode Laser Absorption Instrument for Carbon Dioxide

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Diskin, Glenn S.; DiGangi, Joshua P.; Yang, Melissa; Slate, Thomas A.; Rana, Mario

2015-01-01

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is well known for its importance as an atmospheric greenhouse gas, with many sources and sinks around the globe. Understanding the fluxes of carbon into and out of the atmosphere is a complex and daunting challenge. One tool applied by scientists to measure the vertical flux of CO2 near the surface uses the eddy covariance technique, most often from towers but also from aircraft flying specific patterns over the study area. In this technique, variations of constituents of interest are correlated with fluctuations in the local vertical wind velocity. Measurement requirements are stringent, particularly with regard to precision, sensitivity to small changes, and temporal sampling rate. In addition, many aircraft have limited payload capability, so instrument size, weight, and power consumption are also important considerations. We report on the development and preliminary application of an airborne sensor for the measurement of atmospheric CO2. The instrument, modeled on the successful DLH (Diode Laser Hygrometer) series of instruments, has been tested in the laboratory and on the NASA DC-8 aircraft. Performance parameters such as accuracy, precision, sensitivity, specificity, and temporal response are discussed in the context of typical atmospheric variability and suitability for flux measurement applications. On-aircraft, in-flight data have been obtained and are discussed as well. Performance of the instrument has been promising, and continued flight testing is planned during 2016.

Progress in Remote Sensing of Photosynthetic Activity over the Amazon Basin

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Resende de Sousa, Celio Helder; Hilker, Thomas; Waring, Richard; Mendes De Moura, Yhasmin; Lyapustin, Alexei

2017-01-01

Although quantifying the massive exchange of carbon that takes place over the Amazon Basin remains a challenge, progress is being made as the remote sensing community moves from using traditional, reflectance-based vegetation indices, such as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), to the more functional Photochemical Reflectance Index (PRI). This new index, together with satellite-derived estimates of canopy light interception and Sun-Induced Fluorescence (SIF), provide improved estimates of Gross Primary Production (GPP). This paper traces the development of these new approaches, compares the results of their analyses from multiple years of data acquired across the Amazon Basin and suggests further improvements in instrument design, data acquisition and processing. We demonstrated that our estimates of PRI are in generally good agreement with eddy-flux tower measurements of photosynthetic light use efficiency (epsilon) at four sites in the Amazon Basin: r(exp 2) values ranged from 0.37 to 0.51 for northern flux sites and to 0.78for southern flux sites. This is a significant advance over previous approaches seeking to establish a link between global-scale photosynthetic activity and remotely-sensed data. When combined with measurements of Sun-Induced Fluorescence (SIF), PRI provides realistic estimates of seasonal variation in photosynthesis over the Amazon that relate well to the wet and dry seasons. We anticipate that our findings will steer the development of improved approaches to estimate photosynthetic activity over the tropics.

Progress in Remote Sensing of Photosynthetic Activity over the Amazon Basin

PubMed Central

de Sousa, Celio Helder Resende; Hilker, Thomas; Waring, Richard; de Moura, Yhasmin Mendes; Lyapustin, Alexei

2017-01-01

Although quantifying the massive exchange of carbon that takes place over the Amazon Basin remains a challenge, progress is being made as the remote sensing community moves from using traditional, reflectance-based vegetation indices, such as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), to the more functional Photochemical Reflectance Index (PRI). This new index, together with satellite-derived estimates of canopy light interception and Sun-Induced Fluorescence (SIF), provide improved estimates of Gross Primary Production (GPP). This paper traces the development of these new approaches, compares the results of their analyses from multiple years of data acquired across the Amazon Basin and suggests further improvements in instrument design, data acquisition and processing. We demonstrated that our estimates of PRI are in generally good agreement with eddy-flux tower measurements of photosynthetic light use efficiency (ε) at four sites in the Amazon Basin: r2 values ranged from 0.37 to 0.51 for northern flux sites and to 0.78 for southern flux sites. This is a significant advance over previous approaches seeking to establish a link between global-scale photosynthetic activity and remotely-sensed data. When combined with measurements of Sun-Induced Fluorescence (SIF), PRI provides realistic estimates of seasonal variation in photosynthesis over the Amazon that relate well to the wet and dry seasons. We anticipate that our findings will steer the development of improved approaches to estimate photosynthetic activity over the tropics. PMID:29375895

Progress in Remote Sensing of Photosynthetic Activity over the Amazon Basin.

PubMed

de Sousa, Celio Helder Resende; Hilker, Thomas; Waring, Richard; de Moura, Yhasmin Mendes; Lyapustin, Alexei

2017-01-01

Although quantifying the massive exchange of carbon that takes place over the Amazon Basin remains a challenge, progress is being made as the remote sensing community moves from using traditional, reflectance-based vegetation indices, such as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), to the more functional Photochemical Reflectance Index (PRI). This new index, together with satellite-derived estimates of canopy light interception and Sun-Induced Fluorescence (SIF), provide improved estimates of Gross Primary Production (GPP). This paper traces the development of these new approaches, compares the results of their analyses from multiple years of data acquired across the Amazon Basin and suggests further improvements in instrument design, data acquisition and processing. We demonstrated that our estimates of PRI are in generally good agreement with eddy-flux tower measurements of photosynthetic light use efficiency (ε) at four sites in the Amazon Basin: r 2 values ranged from 0.37 to 0.51 for northern flux sites and to 0.78 for southern flux sites. This is a significant advance over previous approaches seeking to establish a link between global-scale photosynthetic activity and remotely-sensed data. When combined with measurements of Sun-Induced Fluorescence (SIF), PRI provides realistic estimates of seasonal variation in photosynthesis over the Amazon that relate well to the wet and dry seasons. We anticipate that our findings will steer the development of improved approaches to estimate photosynthetic activity over the tropics.

Evaluating the two-source energy balance model using local thermal and surface flux observations in a strongly advective irrigated agricultural area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kustas, William P.; Alfieri, Joseph G.; Anderson, Martha C.; Colaizzi, Paul D.; Prueger, John H.; Evett, Steven R.; Neale, Christopher M. U.; French, Andrew N.; Hipps, Lawrence E.; Chávez, José L.; Copeland, Karen S.; Howell, Terry A.

2012-12-01

Application and validation of many thermal remote sensing-based energy balance models involve the use of local meteorological inputs of incoming solar radiation, wind speed and air temperature as well as accurate land surface temperature (LST), vegetation cover and surface flux measurements. For operational applications at large scales, such local information is not routinely available. In addition, the uncertainty in LST estimates can be several degrees due to sensor calibration issues, atmospheric effects and spatial variations in surface emissivity. Time differencing techniques using multi-temporal thermal remote sensing observations have been developed to reduce errors associated with deriving the surface-air temperature gradient, particularly in complex landscapes. The Dual-Temperature-Difference (DTD) method addresses these issues by utilizing the Two-Source Energy Balance (TSEB) model of Norman et al. (1995) [1], and is a relatively simple scheme requiring meteorological input from standard synoptic weather station networks or mesoscale modeling. A comparison of the TSEB and DTD schemes is performed using LST and flux observations from eddy covariance (EC) flux towers and large weighing lysimeters (LYs) in irrigated cotton fields collected during BEAREX08, a large-scale field experiment conducted in the semi-arid climate of the Texas High Plains as described by Evett et al. (2012) [2]. Model output of the energy fluxes (i.e., net radiation, soil heat flux, sensible and latent heat flux) generated with DTD and TSEB using local and remote meteorological observations are compared with EC and LY observations. The DTD method is found to be significantly more robust in flux estimation compared to the TSEB using the remote meteorological observations. However, discrepancies between model and measured fluxes are also found to be significantly affected by the local inputs of LST and vegetation cover and the representativeness of the remote sensing observations with the local flux measurement footprint.

Advancing approaches for multi-year high-frequency monitoring of temporal and spatial variability in carbon cycle fluxes and drivers in freshwater lakes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Desai, A. R.; Reed, D. E.; Dugan, H. A.; Loken, L. C.; Schramm, P.; Golub, M.; Huerd, H.; Baldocchi, A. K.; Roberts, R.; Taebel, Z.; Hart, J.; Hanson, P. C.; Stanley, E. H.; Cartwright, E.

2017-12-01

Freshwater ecosystems are hotspots of regional to global carbon cycling. However, significant sample biases limit our ability to quantify and predict these fluxes. For lakes, scaled flux estimates suffer biased sampling toward 1) low-nutrient pristine lakes, 2) infrequent temporal sampling, 3) field campaigns limited to the growing season, and 4) replicates limited to near the center of the lake. While these biases partly reflect the realities of ecological sampling, there is a need to extend observations towards the large fraction of freshwater systems worldwide that are impaired by human activities and those facing significant interannual variability owing to climatic change. Also, for seasonally ice-covered lakes, much of the annual budget of carbon fluxes is thought to be explained by variation in the shoulder seasons of spring ice melt and fall turnover. Recent advances in automated, continuous multi-year temporal sampling coupled with rapid methods for spatial mapping of CO2 fluxes has strong potential to rectify these sampling biases. Here, we demonstrate these advances in an eutrophic seasonally-ice covered lake with an urban shoreline and agricultural watershed. Multiple years of half-hourly eddy covariance flux tower observations from two locations are coupled with frequent spatial samples of these fluxes and drivers by speedboat, floating chamber fluxes, automated buoy-based monitoring of lake nutrient and physical profiles, and ensemble of physical-ecosystem models. High primary productivity in the water column leads to an average net carbon sink during the growing season in much of the lake, but annual net carbon fluxes show the lake can act as an annual source or a sink of carbon depending the timing of spring and fall turnover. Trophic interactions and internal waves drive shorter-term variation while nutrients and biology drive seasonal variation. However, discrepancies remain among methods to quantify fluxes, requiring further investigation.

Modeling evapotranspiration based on plant hydraulic theory can predict spatial variability across an elevation gradient and link to biogeochemical fluxes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mackay, D. S.; Frank, J.; Reed, D.; Whitehouse, F.; Ewers, B. E.; Pendall, E.; Massman, W. J.; Sperry, J. S.

2012-04-01

In woody plant systems transpiration is often the dominant component of total evapotranspiration, and so it is key to understanding water and energy cycles. Moreover, transpiration is tightly coupled to carbon and nutrient fluxes, and so it is also vital to understanding spatial variability of biogeochemical fluxes. However, the spatial variability of transpiration and its links to biogeochemical fluxes, within- and among-ecosystems, has been a challenge to constrain because of complex feedbacks between physical and biological controls. Plant hydraulics provides an emerging theory with the rigor needed to develop testable hypotheses and build useful models for scaling these coupled fluxes from individual plants to regional scales. This theory predicts that vegetative controls over water, energy, carbon, and nutrient fluxes can be determined from the limitation of plant water transport through the soil-xylem-stomata pathway. Limits to plant water transport can be predicted from measurable plant structure and function (e.g., vulnerability to cavitation). We present a next-generation coupled transpiration-biogeochemistry model based on this emerging theory. The model, TREEScav, is capable of predicting transpiration, along with carbon and nutrient flows, constrained by plant structure and function. The model incorporates tightly coupled mechanisms of the demand and supply of water through the soil-xylem-stomata system, with the feedbacks to photosynthesis and utilizable carbohydrates. The model is evaluated by testing it against transpiration and carbon flux data along an elevation gradient of woody plants comprising sagebrush steppe, mid-elevation lodgepole pine forests, and subalpine spruce/fir forests in the Rocky Mountains. The model accurately predicts transpiration and carbon fluxes as measured from gas exchange, sap flux, and eddy covariance towers. The results of this work demonstrate that credible spatial predictions of transpiration and related biogeochemical fluxes will be possible at regional scales using relatively easily obtained vegetation structural and functional information.

Assessment of benthic flux of dissolved organic carbon in wetland and estuarine sediments using the eddy-correlation technique

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Swett, M. P.; Amirbahman, A.; Boss, E.

2009-12-01

Wetland and estuarine sediments release significant amounts of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) due to high levels of microbial activity, particularly sulfate reduction. Changes in climate and hydrologic conditions have a potential to alter DOC release from these systems as well. This is a concern, as high levels of DOC can lead to mobilization of toxic metals and organics in natural waters. In addition, source waters high in DOC produce undesirable disinfection byproducts in water treatment. Various in situ methods, such as peepers and sediment core centrifugation, exist to quantify vertical benthic fluxes of DOC and other dissolved species from the sediment-water interface (SWI). These techniques, however, are intrusive and involve disturbance of the sediment environment. Eddy-correlation allows for real-time, non-intrusive, in situ flux measurement of important analytes, such as O2 and DOC. An Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter (ADV) is used to obtain three-dimensional fluid velocity measurements. The eddy-correlation technique employs the mathematical separation of fluid velocity into mean velocity and fluctuating velocity components, with the latter representing turbulent eddy velocity. DOC concentrations are measured using a colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) fluorometer, and instantaneous vertical flux is determined from the correlated data. This study assesses DOC flux at three project sites: a beaver pond in the Lower Penobscot Watershed, Maine; a mudflat in Penobscot River, Maine; and a mudflat in Great Bay, New Hampshire. Eddy flux values are compared with results obtained using peepers and centrifugation, as well as vertical profiling.

Chamber and eddy covariance comparisons of alternate wetting and drying and continuous flood irrigation in mid-South rice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reba, M. L.; Fong, B.; Adviento-Borbe, A.; Runkle, B.

2016-12-01

The subtropical humid mid-south region produces nearly 75% of US rice. Rice cultivation contributes higher amounts of GHG emissions (CO2, CH4, and N2O) due to flooded field conditions. Accurate measurements of gas fluxes are important to regional and global climate models. A comparison between eddy covariance and static vented flux chamber measurement techniques is presented. These measurements were collected in two NE Arkansas commercial rice fields in 2015 and 2016 production seasons under two irrigation treatments: Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) and continuous flood (CF) irrigation. AWD can reduce GHG emissions and water use compared to CF by introducing aerobic conditions that reduce methanogen activity and drained conditions decrease water loss due to seepage or evapotranspiration. N2O was measured only with vented chambers, while CO2 and CH4 were measured with both techniques. In the vented flux chamber technique, headspace gas sampling occurred at least once a week every 20 minutes for one hour of chamber closure. Gas Chromatograph equipped with ECD and FID were used to analyze gas concentrations. Eddy covariance used high frequency measurements wind and concentration measurements to determine fluxes. Chamber measurements were found to be more sensitive during seedling and early vegetative growth while eddy covariance was more sensitive after canopy closure during mid-vegetative to reproductive growth. Unlike eddy covariance which measured net CO2 exchange, flux chamber method measured only CO2 ecosystem respiration because flux measurements occurred using an opaque chamber material.

Measurements of turbulence and vegetation structure across a forest clearing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Queck, R.; Bernhofer, C.; Bienert, A.; Maas, H.-G.

2012-04-01

Detailed knowledge of the energy and mass exchange between forests and atmosphere is essential for the assessment of carbon sequestration of forests and their capacity for absorption and emission of atmospheric trace gases. Compared to agricultural land uses the vegetation layer of forests is much larger, involves significant currents of air and acts as storage for energy and gases. Advective fluxes within and above a forest canopy occur as a result of the heterogeneity of the soil conditions and the vegetation composition. Turbulent and advective fluxes change with meteorological conditions (e.g. radiation, wind speed and direction) but also with the state of the canopy. The influence of the canopy structure on the fluxes is rarely investigated. To address this topic and to improve the parameterisation of unresolved exchange effects at inhomogeneities in numerical models the TurbEFA experiment was designed. TurbEFA is the acronym for the interdisciplinary project "Turbulent Exchange processes between Forested areas and the Atmosphere", it encompasses the work of five groups applying terrestrial laser scanning, meteorological field measurements, wind tunnel measurements, boundary layer modelling and large eddy simulation. Subject of investigation is the FluxNet site `Anchor Station Tharandt' which is located about 20 km southwest of the city of Dresden in Germany (N 50°57'49", E 13°34'01", 380 m a.s.l.). From May 2008 to May 2009 intensive measurements took place across the forest clearing "Wildacker" in the vicinity of the FluxNet site. Sonic anemometers at 32 measurement positions in total are used to record the turbulent flow at 4 towers (heights: 40m, 40m, 40m, 30m) and five ground level positions (2 m). The forest stands around the clearing (500 m x 60 m) were scanned applying a terrestrial laser scanner. Thereby scans from different ground positions and from the top of two towers (height: 40m) were accomplished. The scans were filtered and combined to a single 3D representation of the stands. The presentation describes the field measurements which are conducted in the frame of TurbEFA. They are part of a reference data set available at the project homepage. The aim of this presentation is to make the dataset public and to invite modellers to further data analysis.

The backward ray tracing with effective solar brightness used to simulate the concentrated flux map of a solar tower concentrator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, Minghuan; Sun, Feihu; Wang, Zhifeng

2017-06-01

The solar tower concentrator is mainly composed of the central receiver on the tower top and the heliostat field around the tower. The optical efficiencies of a solar tower concentrator are important to the whole thermal performance of the solar tower collector, and the aperture plane of a cavity receiver or the (inner or external) absorbing surface of any central receiver is a key interface of energy flux. So it is necessary to simulate and analyze the concentrated time-changing solar flux density distributions on the flat or curved receiving surface of the collector, with main optical errors considered. The transient concentrated solar flux on the receiving surface is the superimposition of the flux density distributions of all the normal working heliostats in the field. In this paper, we will mainly introduce a new backward ray tracing (BRT) method combined with the lumped effective solar cone, to simulate the flux density map on the receiving-surface. For BRT, bundles of rays are launched at the receiving-surface points of interest, strike directly on the valid cell centers among the uniformly sampled mirror cell centers in the mirror surface of the heliostats, and then direct to the effective solar cone around the incident sun beam direction after reflection. All the optical errors are convoluted into the effective solar cone. The brightness distribution of the effective solar cone is here supposed to be circular Gaussian type. The mirror curvature can be adequately formulated by certain number of local normal vectors at the mirror cell centers of a heliostat. The shading & blocking mirror region of a heliostat by neighbor heliostats and also the solar tower shading on the heliostat mirror are all computed on the flat-ground-plane platform, i.e., projecting the mirror contours and the envelope cylinder of the tower onto the horizontal ground plane along the sun-beam incident direction or along the reflection directions. If the shading projection of a sampled mirror point of the current heliostat is inside the shade cast of a neighbor heliostat or in the shade cast of the tower, this mirror point should be shaded from the incident sun beam. A code based on this new ray tracing method for the 1MW Badaling solar tower power plant in Beijing has been developed using MATLAB. There are 100 azimuth-elevation tracking heliostats in the solar field and the total tower is 118 meters high. The mirror surface of the heliostats is 10m wide and 10m long, it is composed of 8 rows × 8 columns of square mirror facets and each mirror facet has the size of 1.25m×1.25m. This code also was verified by two sets of sun-beam concentrating experiments of the heliostat field on the June 14, 2015. One set of optical experiments were conducted between some typical heliostats to verify the shading & blocking computation of the code, since shading & blocking computation is the most complicated, time-consuming and important optical computing section of the code. The other set of solar concentrating tests were carried out on the field center heliostat (No. 78) to verify the simulated the solar flux images on the white target region of the northern wall of the tower. The target center is 74.5 m high to the ground plane.

Bichromatic Scintillometer Measurements of Sensible and Latent Heat Fluxes over a Boreal Forested Valley

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Isabelle, P. E.; Nadeau, D.; Parent, A. C.; Rousseau, A. N.; Jutras, S.; Anctil, F.

2017-12-01

Boreal forest covers roughly 10% of the earth emerged surface, making it one of the world most common type of landscape. There is a large number of studies on the land-atmosphere exchanges of water and energy for this type of forested surfaces. However, few were located in complex terrain, and, to the best of our knowledge, none have looked at continuous regional scale fluxes. Scintillometry is a powerful tool that allows such measurements, but is usually used over flat homogeneous terrain due to its dependency on Monin-Obukhov Similarity Theory. However, some recent studies have applied this method over slopes, measuring fluxes comparable to those using the eddy covariance method. Still, more experiments are needed using scintillometry over sloped surfaces. This study presents bichromatic scintillometer measurements of sensible and latent heat fluxes over a boreal-forested valley. The field site is located in the Montmorency Forest, Québec, Canada (47°17'N; 71°10'W). The instrumented valley is surrounded by ridges at 900 m elevation, with the bottom stream at 785 m, and follows a 300-120° azimuth coinciding with the two main wind direction (up and down-valley, respectively). Vegetation mostly includes balsam firs 6-10 m tall, creating a rough but homogeneous surface. Scintillometer transmitters and receivers are installed on top of the ridges enclosing the valley, making the path 1.35 km long and its effective height 70-m tall. The setup includes a large aperture and a micro-wave scintillometer with crossing paths allowing the use of the bichromatic method. Measurement are taken continuously from August to October 2017. Scintillometer fluxes are compared with those measured by a 15-m eddy covariance tower located 100 m west of the measurement path, on the southern slope of the valley. Net radiation is also measured to assess energy budget closure over the valley. The setup allows us to test the limits of applicability of scintillometer measurements, especially with regards to surface layer height and Monin-Obukhov Similarity Theory. Ultimately, the knowledge collected in this study will further our understanding of land-atmosphere interactions in sloped and forested environments at a critical spatial scale seldom studied before.

An analysis and implications of alternative methods of deriving the density (WPL) terms for eddy covariance flux measurements

Treesearch

W. J. Massman; J. -P. Tuovinen

2006-01-01

We explore some of the underlying assumptions used to derive the density or WPL terms (Webb et al. (1980) Quart J RoyMeteorol Soc 106:85-100) required for estimating the surface exchange fluxes by eddy covariance. As part of this effort we recast the origin of the density terms as an assumption regarding the density fluctuations rather than as a (dry air) flux...

USE OF RELAXED EDDY ACCUMULATION TO MEASURE BIOSPHERE-ATMOSPHERE EXCHANGE OF ISOPRENE AND OTHER BIOLOGICAL TRACE GASES

EPA Science Inventory

The micrometeorological flux measurement technique known as relaxed eddy accumulation (REA) holds promise as a powerful new tool for ecologists. The more popular eddy covariance (eddy correlation) technique requires the use of sensors that can respond at fast rates (10 Hz), and t...

Formation of intrathermocline eddies at ocean fronts by wind-driven destruction of potential vorticity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thomas, Leif N.

2008-08-01

A mechanism for the generation of intrathermocline eddies (ITEs) at wind-forced fronts is examined using a high resolution numerical simulation. Favorable conditions for ITE formation result at fronts forced by "down-front" winds, i.e. winds blowing in the direction of the frontal jet. Down-front winds exert frictional forces that reduce the potential vorticity (PV) within the surface boundary in the frontal outcrop, providing a source for the low-PV water that is the materia prima of ITEs. Meandering of the front drives vertical motions that subduct the low-PV water into the pycnocline, pooling it into the coherent anticyclonic vortex of a submesoscale ITE. As the fluid is subducted along the outcropping frontal isopycnal, the low-PV water, which at the surface is associated with strongly baroclinic flow, re-expresses itself as water with nearly zero absolute vorticity. This generation of strong anticyclonic vorticity results from the tilting of the horizontal vorticity of the frontal jet, not from vortex squashing. During the formation of the ITE, high-PV water from the pycnocline is upwelled alongside the subducting low-PV surface water. The positive correlation between the ITE's velocity and PV fields results in an upward, along-isopycnal eddy PV flux that scales with the surface frictional PV flux driven by the wind. The relationship between the eddy and wind-induced frictional PV flux is nonlocal in time, as the eddy PV flux persists long after the wind forcing is shut off. The ITE's PV flux affects the large-scale flow by driving an eddy-induced transport or bolus velocity down the outcropping isopycnal layer with a magnitude that scales with the Ekman velocity.

A new tower-based hyperspectral system for the estimation of CO2 fluxes and biophysical parameters in a subalpine grassland ecosystem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vescovo, L.; Gianelle, D.; Marcolla, B.; Zaldei, A.; Sakowska, K.

2013-12-01

Linking optical remote sensing with carbon fluxes and biophysical parameters is critical to exploit spatial and temporal extensive information useful for validating model simulations at different scales. Proximal sensing is fundamental to quantify and understand the seasonal dynamics of ecosystems and to upscale the observations carried out at the ground level. In this study, we present the results from an ongoing research project at the FLUXNET eddy covariance site of Monte Bondone (Italy). The site is located at 1550 m a.s.l. on a mountain plateau in the Italian Alps (Viote del Monte Bondone). The area is managed as an extensively-managed meadow, cut once a year, and dominated by Nardus stricta and Festuca nigrescens. The climate of this area is sub-continental (warm and wet summer), with precipitation peaks in spring and autumn. A new hyperspectral system (WhiteRef Box, developed by Fondazione Edmund Mach in collaboration with the Institute of Biometeorology, CNR, Italy) based on the ASD FieldSpec spectrometer (spectral range 350-2500 nm, resolution ~3 nm at 700 nm) was designed to acquire continuous radiometric measurements. The system was installed on the eddy covariance tower at a height of 6 m, with a field of view of 25°. To obtain reflectance values, white panel radiance spectra and canopy radiance spectra were collected every 5 minutes between 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. (solar time) during the growing season of 2013. In addition, measurements of biophysical parameters such as above-ground biomass, fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fAPAR), Plant Area Index, Canopy Chlorophyll Content, Canopy Water Content and Green Herbage Ratio were performed at weekly intervals within the spectrometer footprint (~5 m2). In this work, we present some preliminary results regarding the potential of spectral vegetation indices - based on VNIR and SWIR spectral bands- for capturing seasonal trends of CO2 fluxes as well as vegetation biophysical parameters dynamics. Spectral vegetation indices sensitive to chlorophyll content (such as Meris Terrestrial ChIorophyll Index, Vogelmann Indices) showed a good linear correlation with fAPAR, daily Gross Primary Production and chlorophyll content (R2> 0.8 for all the three variables). The SWIR-based Vegetation Indices (e.g. Normalised Difference Infrared Index, Moisture Stress Index) confirmed their ability to estimate Canopy Water Content. Most of the analyzed indices showed to be linearly related with Green Herbage Ratio (explaining more than 80% of variance). The Near Infrared Difference Index (Vescovo et al., 2012) confirmed his potential in predicting canopy structural parameters such as Plant Area Index and biomass (R2> 0.90).

Ammonia flux above fertilized corn in central Illinois, USA, using relaxed eddy accumulation

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The objective of this research is to quantify NH3 flux above an intensively managed cornfield in the Midwestern United States to improve understanding of NH3 emissions and evaluations of new and existing emission models. A relaxed eddy accumulation (REA) system was deployed above a corn canopy in ce...

A simple method for estimating frequency response corrections for eddy covariance systems

Treesearch

W. J. Massman

2000-01-01

A simple analytical formula is developed for estimating the frequency attenuation of eddy covariance fluxes due to sensor response, path-length averaging, sensor separation, signal processing, and flux averaging periods. Although it is an approximation based on flat terrain cospectra, this analytical formula should have broader applicability than just flat-terrain...

Flux variance partitioning: a new approach to advance eddy covariance observations for greenhouse gas emissions

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Eddy covariance (EC) is a well-established, non-intrusive observational technique that has long been used to measure the net carbon balance of numerous ecosystems including crop lands for perennial crops such as orchards and vineyards, and pasturelands. While EC measures net carbon fluxes well, it ...

Use of change-point detection for friction-velocity threshold evaluation in eddy-covariance studies

Treesearch

A.G. Barr; A.D. Richardson; D.Y. Hollinger; D. Papale; M.A. Arain; T.A. Black; G. Bohrer; D. Dragoni; M.L. Fischer; L. Gu; B.E. Law; H.A. Margolis; J.H. McCaughey; J.W. Munger; W. Oechel; K. Schaeffer

2013-01-01

The eddy-covariance method often underestimates fluxes under stable, low-wind conditions at night when turbulence is not well developed. The most common approach to resolve the problem of nighttime flux underestimation is to identify and remove the deficit periods using friction-velocity (u∗) threshold filters (u∗

Coupling gross primary production and transpiration for a consistent estimate of canopy water use efficiency

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yebra, Marta; van Dijk, Albert

2015-04-01

Water use efficiency (WUE, the amount of transpiration or evapotranspiration per unit gross (GPP) or net CO2 uptake) is key in all areas of plant production and forest management applications. Therefore, mutually consistent estimates of GPP and transpiration are needed to analysed WUE without introducing any artefacts that might arise by combining independently derived GPP and ET estimates. GPP and transpiration are physiologically linked at ecosystem level by the canopy conductance (Gc). Estimates of Gc can be obtained by scaling stomatal conductance (Kelliher et al. 1995) or inferred from ecosystem level measurements of gas exchange (Baldocchi et al., 2008). To derive large-scale or indeed global estimates of Gc, satellite remote sensing based methods are needed. In a previous study, we used water vapour flux estimates derived from eddy covariance flux tower measurements at 16 Fluxnet sites world-wide to develop a method to estimate Gc using MODIS reflectance observations (Yebra et al. 2013). We combined those estimates with the Penman-Monteith combination equation to derive transpiration (T). The resulting T estimates compared favourably with flux tower estimates (R2=0.82, RMSE=29.8 W m-2). Moreover, the method allowed a single parameterisation for all land cover types, which avoids artefacts resulting from land cover classification. In subsequent research (Yebra et al, in preparation) we used the same satellite-derived Gc values within a process-based but simple canopy GPP model to constrain GPP predictions. The developed model uses a 'big-leaf' description of the plant canopy to estimate the mean GPP flux as the lesser of a conductance-limited and radiation-limited GPP rate. The conductance-limited rate was derived assuming that transport of CO2 from the bulk air to the intercellular leaf space is limited by molecular diffusion through the stomata. The radiation-limited rate was estimated assuming that it is proportional to the absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), calculated as the product of the fraction of absorbed PAR (fPAR) and PAR flux. The proposed algorithm performs well when evaluated against flux tower GPP (R2=0.79, RMSE= 1.93 µmol m2 s-1). Here we use GPP and T estimates previously derived at the same 16 Fluxnet sites to analyse WUE. Satellite-derived WUE explained variation in (long-term average) WUE among plant functional types but evergreen needleleaf had higher WUE than predicted. The benefit of our approach is that it uses mutually consistent estimates of GPP and T to derive canopy-level WUE without any land cover classification artefacts. References Baldocchi, D. (2008). Turner Review No. 15: 'Breathing' of the terrestrial biosphere: lessons learned from a global network of carbon dioxide flux measurement systems. Australian Journal of Botany, 56, 26 Kelliher, F.M., Leuning, R., Raupach, M.R., & Schulze, E.D. (1995). Maximum conductances for evaporation from global vegetation types. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 73, 1-16 Yebra, M., Van Dijk, A., Leuning, R., Huete, A., & Guerschman, J.P. (2013). Evaluation of optical remote sensing to estimate actual evapotranspiration and canopy conductance. Remote Sensing of Environment, 129, 250-261

Evaluating the effectiveness of wildlife detection and observation technologies at a solar power tower facility

USGS Publications Warehouse

Diehl, Robert H.; Valdez, Ernest W.; Preston, Todd M.; Wellik, Mike J.; Cryan, Paul

2016-01-01

Solar power towers produce electrical energy from sunlight at an industrial scale. Little is known about the effects of this technology on flying animals and few methods exist for automatically detecting or observing wildlife at solar towers and other tall anthropogenic structures. Smoking objects are sometimes observed co-occurring with reflected, concentrated light (“solar flux”) in the airspace around solar towers, but the identity and origins of such objects can be difficult to determine. In this observational pilot study at the world’s largest solar tower facility, we assessed the efficacy of using radar, surveillance video, and insect trapping to detect and observe animals flying near the towers. During site visits in May and September 2014, we monitored the airspace surrounding towers and observed insects, birds, and bats under a variety of environmental and operational conditions. We detected and broadly differentiated animals or objects moving through the airspace generally using radar and near solar towers using several video imaging methods. Video revealed what appeared to be mostly small insects burning in the solar flux. Also, we occasionally detected birds flying in the solar flux but could not accurately identify birds to species or the types of insects and small objects composing the vast majority of smoking targets. Insect trapping on the ground was somewhat effective at sampling smaller insects around the tower, and presence and abundance of insects in the traps generally trended with radar and video observations. Traps did not tend to sample the larger insects we sometimes observed flying in the solar flux or found dead on the ground beneath the towers. Some of the methods we tested (e.g., video surveillance) could be further assessed and potentially used to automatically detect and observe flying animals in the vicinity of solar towers to advance understanding about their effects on wildlife.

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Wildlife Detection and Observation Technologies at a Solar Power Tower Facility

PubMed Central

Diehl, Robert H.; Valdez, Ernest W.; Preston, Todd M.; Wellik, Michael J.; Cryan, Paul M.

2016-01-01

Solar power towers produce electrical energy from sunlight at an industrial scale. Little is known about the effects of this technology on flying animals and few methods exist for automatically detecting or observing wildlife at solar towers and other tall anthropogenic structures. Smoking objects are sometimes observed co-occurring with reflected, concentrated light (“solar flux”) in the airspace around solar towers, but the identity and origins of such objects can be difficult to determine. In this observational pilot study at the world’s largest solar tower facility, we assessed the efficacy of using radar, surveillance video, and insect trapping to detect and observe animals flying near the towers. During site visits in May and September 2014, we monitored the airspace surrounding towers and observed insects, birds, and bats under a variety of environmental and operational conditions. We detected and broadly differentiated animals or objects moving through the airspace generally using radar and near solar towers using several video imaging methods. Video revealed what appeared to be mostly small insects burning in the solar flux. Also, we occasionally detected birds flying in the solar flux but could not accurately identify birds to species or the types of insects and small objects composing the vast majority of smoking targets. Insect trapping on the ground was somewhat effective at sampling smaller insects around the tower, and presence and abundance of insects in the traps generally trended with radar and video observations. Traps did not tend to sample the larger insects we sometimes observed flying in the solar flux or found dead on the ground beneath the towers. Some of the methods we tested (e.g., video surveillance) could be further assessed and potentially used to automatically detect and observe flying animals in the vicinity of solar towers to advance understanding about their effects on wildlife. PMID:27462989

Bayesian optimization of the Community Land Model simulated biosphere-atmosphere exchange using CO 2 observations from a dense tower network and aircraft campaigns over Oregon

DOE PAGES

Schmidt, Andres; Law, Beverly E.; Göckede, Mathias; ...

2016-09-15

Here, the vast forests and natural areas of the Pacific Northwest comprise one of the most productive ecosystems in the northern hemisphere. The heterogeneous landscape of Oregon poses a particular challenge to ecosystem models. We present a framework using a scaling factor Bayesian inversion to improve the modeled atmosphere-biosphere exchange of carbon dioxide. Observations from 5 CO/CO 2 towers, eddy covariance towers, and airborne campaigns were used to constrain the Community Land Model CLM4.5 simulated terrestrial CO 2 exchange at a high spatial and temporal resolution (1/24°, 3-hourly). To balance aggregation errors and the degrees of freedom in the inversemore » modeling system, we applied an unsupervised clustering approach for the spatial structuring of our model domain. Data from flight campaigns were used to quantify the uncertainty introduced by the Lagrangian particle dispersion model that was applied for the inversions. The average annual statewide net ecosystem productivity (NEP) was increased by 32% to 29.7 TgC per year by assimilating the tropospheric mixing ratio data. The associated uncertainty was decreased by 28.4% to 29%, on average over the entire Oregon model domain with the lowest uncertainties of 11% in western Oregon. The largest differences between posterior and prior CO 2 fluxes were found for the Coast Range ecoregion of Oregon that also exhibits the highest availability of atmospheric observations and associated footprints. In this area, covered by highly productive Douglas-fir forest, the differences between the prior and posterior estimate of NEP averaged 3.84 TgC per year during the study period from 2012 through 2014.« less

Bayesian optimization of the Community Land Model simulated biosphere-atmosphere exchange using CO 2 observations from a dense tower network and aircraft campaigns over Oregon

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schmidt, Andres; Law, Beverly E.; Göckede, Mathias

Here, the vast forests and natural areas of the Pacific Northwest comprise one of the most productive ecosystems in the northern hemisphere. The heterogeneous landscape of Oregon poses a particular challenge to ecosystem models. We present a framework using a scaling factor Bayesian inversion to improve the modeled atmosphere-biosphere exchange of carbon dioxide. Observations from 5 CO/CO 2 towers, eddy covariance towers, and airborne campaigns were used to constrain the Community Land Model CLM4.5 simulated terrestrial CO 2 exchange at a high spatial and temporal resolution (1/24°, 3-hourly). To balance aggregation errors and the degrees of freedom in the inversemore » modeling system, we applied an unsupervised clustering approach for the spatial structuring of our model domain. Data from flight campaigns were used to quantify the uncertainty introduced by the Lagrangian particle dispersion model that was applied for the inversions. The average annual statewide net ecosystem productivity (NEP) was increased by 32% to 29.7 TgC per year by assimilating the tropospheric mixing ratio data. The associated uncertainty was decreased by 28.4% to 29%, on average over the entire Oregon model domain with the lowest uncertainties of 11% in western Oregon. The largest differences between posterior and prior CO 2 fluxes were found for the Coast Range ecoregion of Oregon that also exhibits the highest availability of atmospheric observations and associated footprints. In this area, covered by highly productive Douglas-fir forest, the differences between the prior and posterior estimate of NEP averaged 3.84 TgC per year during the study period from 2012 through 2014.« less

Eddy Covariance Measurements of the Sea-Spray Aerosol Flu

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brooks, I. M.; Norris, S. J.; Yelland, M. J.; Pascal, R. W.; Prytherch, J.

2015-12-01

Historically, almost all estimates of the sea-spray aerosol source flux have been inferred through various indirect methods. Direct estimates via eddy covariance have been attempted by only a handful of studies, most of which measured only the total number flux, or achieved rather coarse size segregation. Applying eddy covariance to the measurement of sea-spray fluxes is challenging: most instrumentation must be located in a laboratory space requiring long sample lines to an inlet collocated with a sonic anemometer; however, larger particles are easily lost to the walls of the sample line. Marine particle concentrations are generally low, requiring a high sample volume to achieve adequate statistics. The highly hygroscopic nature of sea salt means particles change size rapidly with fluctuations in relative humidity; this introduces an apparent bias in flux measurements if particles are sized at ambient humidity. The Compact Lightweight Aerosol Spectrometer Probe (CLASP) was developed specifically to make high rate measurements of aerosol size distributions for use in eddy covariance measurements, and the instrument and data processing and analysis techniques have been refined over the course of several projects. Here we will review some of the issues and limitations related to making eddy covariance measurements of the sea spray source flux over the open ocean, summarise some key results from the last decade, and present new results from a 3-year long ship-based measurement campaign as part of the WAGES project. Finally we will consider requirements for future progress.

Forest Ecosystem respiration estimated from eddy covariance and chamber measurements under high turbulence and substantial tree mortality from bark beetles

USGS Publications Warehouse

Speckman, Heather N.; Frank, John M.; Bradford, John B.; Miles, Brianna L.; Massman, William J.; Parton, William J.; Ryan, Michael G.

2015-01-01

Eddy covariance nighttime fluxes are uncertain due to potential measurement biases. Many studies report eddy covariance nighttime flux lower than flux from extrapolated chamber measurements, despite corrections for low turbulence. We compared eddy covariance and chamber estimates of ecosystem respiration at the GLEES Ameriflux site over seven growing seasons under high turbulence (summer night mean friction velocity (u*) = 0.7 m s−1), during which bark beetles killed or infested 85% of the aboveground respiring biomass. Chamber-based estimates of ecosystem respiration during the growth season, developed from foliage, wood and soil CO2 efflux measurements, declined 35% after 85% of the forest basal area had been killed or impaired by bark beetles (from 7.1 ±0.22 μmol m−2 s−1 in 2005 to 4.6 ±0.16 μmol m−2 s−1 in 2011). Soil efflux remained at ~3.3 μmol m−2 s−1 throughout the mortality, while the loss of live wood and foliage and their respiration drove the decline of the chamber estimate. Eddy covariance estimates of fluxes at night remained constant over the same period, ~3.0 μmol m−2 s−1 for both 2005 (intact forest) and 2011 (85% basal area killed or impaired). Eddy covariance fluxes were lower than chamber estimates of ecosystem respiration (60% lower in 2005, and 32% in 2011), but the mean night estimates from the two techniques were correlated within a year (r2 from 0.18-0.60). The difference between the two techniques was not the result of inadequate turbulence, because the results were robust to a u* filter of > 0.7 m s−1. The decline in the average seasonal difference between the two techniques was strongly correlated with overstory leaf area (r2=0.92). The discrepancy between methods of respiration estimation should be resolved to have confidence in ecosystem carbon flux estimates.

Analytical modeling and analysis of magnetic field and torque for novel axial flux eddy current couplers with PM excitation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Zhao; Wang, Dazhi; Zheng, Di; Yu, Linxin

2017-10-01

Rotational permanent magnet eddy current couplers are promising devices for torque and speed transmission without any mechanical contact. In this study, flux-concentration disk-type permanent magnet eddy current couplers with double conductor rotor are investigated. Given the drawback of the accurate three-dimensional finite element method, this paper proposes a mixed two-dimensional analytical modeling approach. Based on this approach, the closed-form expressions of magnetic field, eddy current, electromagnetic force and torque for such devices are obtained. Finally, a three-dimensional finite element method is employed to validate the analytical results. Besides, a prototype is manufactured and tested for the torque-speed characteristic.

Combining Observations in the Reflective Solar and Thermal Domains for Improved Mapping of Carbon, Water and Energy FLuxes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Houborg, Rasmus; Anderson, Martha; Kustas, Bill; Rodell, Matthew

2011-01-01

This study investigates the utility of integrating remotely sensed estimates of leaf chlorophyll (C(sub ab)) into a thermal-based Two-Source Energy Balance (TSEB) model that estimates land-surface CO2 and energy fluxes using an analytical, light-use-efficiency (LUE) based model of canopy resistance. Day to day variations in nominal LUE (LUE(sub n)) were assessed for a corn crop field in Maryland U.S.A. through model calibration with CO2 flux tower observations. The optimized daily LUE(sub n) values were then compared to estimates of C(sub ab) integrated from gridded maps of chlorophyll content weighted over the tower flux source area. Changes in Cab exhibited a curvilinear relationship with corresponding changes in daily calibrated LUE(sub n) values derived from the tower flux data, and hourly water, energy and carbon flux estimation accuracies from TSEB were significantly improved when using C(sub ab) for delineating spatio-temporal variations in LUE(sub n). The results demonstrate the synergy between thermal infrared and shortwave reflective wavebands in producing valuable remote sensing data for monitoring of carbon and water fluxes.

Can we reconstruct mean and eddy fluxes from Argo floats?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chapman, Christopher; Sallée, Jean-Baptiste

2017-12-01

The capacity of deep velocity estimates provided by the Argo float array to reconstruct both mean and eddying quantities, such as the heat flux, is addressed using an idealized eddy resolving numerical model, designed to be representative of the Southern Ocean. The model is seeded with 450 "virtual" Argo floats, which are then advected by the model fields for 10 years. The role of temporal sampling, array density and length of the float experiment are then systematically investigated by comparing the reconstructed velocity, eddy kinetic energy and heat-flux from the virtual Argo floats with the "true" values from the model output. We find that although errors in all three quantities decrease with increasing temporal sampling rate, number of floats and experiment duration, the error approaches an asymptotic limit. Thus, as these parameters exceed this limit, only marginal reductions in the error are observed. The parameters of the real Argo array, when scaled to match those of the virtual Argo array, generally fall near to, or within, the asymptotic region. Using the numerical model, a method for the calculation of cross-stream heat-fluxes is demonstrated. This methodology is then applied to 5 years of Argo derived velocities using the ANDRO dataset of Ollitrault & Rannou (2013) in order to estimate the eddy heat flux at 1000m depth across the Polar Front in the Southern Ocean. The heat-flux is concentrated in regions downstream of large bathymetric features, consistent with the results of previous studies. 2 ± 0.5 TW of heat transport across the Polar Front at this depth is found, with more than 90% of that total concentrated in less than 20% of the total longitudes spanned by the front. Finally, the implications of this work for monitoring the ocean climate are discussed.

Relating a Spectral Index from MODIS and Tower-based Measurements to Ecosystem Light Use Efficiency for a Fluxnet-Canada Coniferous Forest

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Middleton, Elizabeth M.; Cheng, Yen-Ben; Hilker, Thomas; Huemmrich, Karl F.; Black, T. Andrew; Krishnan, Praveena; Coops, Nicholas C.

2008-01-01

As part of the North American Carbon Program effort to quantify the terrestrial carbon budget of North America, we have been examining the possibility of retrieving ecosystem light use efficiency (LUE, the carbon sequestered per unit photosynthetically active radiation) directly from satellite observations. Our novel approach has been to compare LUE derived from tower fluxes with LUE estimated using spectral indices computed from MODIS satellite observations over forests in the Fluxnet-Canada Research Network, using the MODIS narrow ocean bands acquired over land. We matched carbon flux data collected around the time of the MODIS mid-day overpass for over one hundred relatively clear days in five years (2001-2006) from a mature Douglas fir forest in British Columbia. We also examined hyperspectral reflectance data collected diurnally from the tower in conjunction with the eddy correlation fluxes and meteorological measurements made throughout the 2006 growing season at this site. The tower-based flux data provided an opportunity to examine diurnal and seasonal LUE processes and their relationship to spectral indices at the scale of the forest stand. We evaluated LUE in conjunction with the Photochemical Reflectance Index (PRI), a normalized difference spectral index that uses 531 nm and a reference band to capture responses to high light induced stress afforded by the xanthophyll cycle. Canopy structure information, retrieved from airborne laser scanning radar (LiDAR) observations, was used to partition the forest canopy into sunlit and shaded fractions throughout the day, on numerous days during 2006. At each observation period throughout a day, the PRI was examined for the sunlit, shaded, and intermediate canopy segments defined by their instantaneous position relative to the solar principal plane (SPP). The sunlit sector was associated with the illumination "hotspot" (the reflectance backscatter maximum), the shaded sector with the "cold or dark spot" (the reflectance forward scatter minimum), while the intermediate, mixed sunlit/shade sector was located in the cross-plane to the SPP. The PRI indices clearly captured the differences in leaf groups, with sunlit foliage exhibiting the lowest values on sunny days throughout the 2006 season. When tower-based canopy-level LUE was recalculated to estimate foliage-based values (LUE(sub foilage) for the three foliage groups under their incident light environments, a strong linear relationship for PRI:LUE(sub foilage) was demonstrated (0.6 less than or equal to r(sup 2) less than or equal to 0.8, n=822, P<0.0001). The MODIS data represent relatively large areas when acquired at nadir (approx.1 sq km) or at variable off-nadir view angles (greater than or equal to 1 sq km) looking forward or aft. Nevertheless, a similar relationship between MODIS PRI and tower-based LUE was obtained from satellite observations (r(sup 2) = 0.76, n=105, P= 0.026) when the azimuth offsets from the SPP for off-nadir observations were considered. At this relatively high latitude of 50 degrees, the MODIS directional observations were offset from the SPP by approximately 50 degrees, but still represented backscatter or forward scatter sectors of the bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF). The backscatter observations sampled the sunlit forest and provided lower PRI values, in general, than the forward scatter observations from the shaded forest. Since the hotspot and darkspot were not typically directly observed, the dynamic range for MODIS PRI was less than that observed in the SPP at the canopy level; therefore, MODIS PRI values were more similar to those observed in sifu in the BRDF cross-plane. While not ideal in terms of spatial resolution or optimal viewing configuration, the MODIS observations nevertheless provide a means to monitor forest under stress using narrow spectral band indices and off-nadir observations. This research has stimulated several spin-off studies for remote sensinf LUE, and demonstrates the importance of the connection between ecosystem structure and physiological function.

Modelling surface energy fluxes over a Dehesa ecosystem using a two-source energy balance model.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Andreu, Ana; Kustas, William. P.; Anderson, Martha C.; Carrara, Arnaud; Patrocinio Gonzalez-Dugo, Maria

2013-04-01

The Dehesa is the most widespread agroforestry land-use system in Europe, covering more than 3 million hectares in the Iberian Peninsula and Greece (Grove and Rackham, 2001; Papanastasis, 2004). It is an agro-silvo-pastural ecosystem consisting of widely-spaced oak trees (mostly Quercus ilex L.), combined with crops, pasture and Mediterranean shrubs, and it is recognized as an example of sustainable land use and for his importance in the rural economy (Diaz et al., 1997; Plieninger and Wilbrand, 2001). The ecosystem is influenced by a Mediterranean climate, with recurrent and severe droughts. Over the last decades the Dehesa has faced multiple environmental threats, derived from intensive agricultural use and socio-economic changes, which have caused environmental degradation of the area, namely reduction in tree density and stocking rates, changes in soil properties and hydrological processes and an increase of soil erosion (Coelho et al. 2004; Schnabel and Ferreira, 2004; Montoya 1998; Pulido and Díaz, 2005). Understanding the hydrological, atmospheric and physiological processes that affect the functioning of the ecosystem will improve the management and conservation of the Dehesa. One of the key metrics in assessing ecosystem health, particularly in this water-limited environment, is the capability of monitoring evaporation (ET). To make large area assessments requires the use of remote sensing. Thermal-based energy balance techniques that distinguish soil/substrate and vegetation contributions to the radiative temperature and radiation/turbulent fluxes have proven to be reliable in such semi-arid sparse canopy-cover landscapes. In particular, the two-source energy balance (TSEB) model of Norman et al. (1995) and Kustas and Norman (1999) has shown to be robust for a wide range of partially-vegetated landscapes. The TSEB formulation is evaluated at a flux tower site located in center Spain (Majadas del Tietar, Caceres). Its application in this environment is challenging due to the complexity of the canopy structure, having sparse tree cover, with large areas of grass and bare soil substrate strongly influencing the radiative and turbulent exchanges, and their interactions. The TSEB model was evaluated for all seasons in 2008 and 2009. Model input, local meteorological and tower-based longwave radiation observations, come from the Fluxnet eddy covariance tower located at the study site (ES-LMa, 39°56' N; 5°46' W, 260 m a.s.l). A reduction to the nominal value typically assigned to the Priestley-Taylor coefficient for the oak trees (α = 1.3) was necessary in order to achieve good agreement with the measurements. This is consistent with a higher stomatal resistance observed for woody vegetation that is well adapted to semiarid climates. The half-hourly estimates were compared with the flux tower measurements over the different seasons and years. The average root-mean-square-difference (RMSD) between modeled and measured sensible and latent heat fluxes was 30 Wm-2 yielding a percentage error of approximately 15% for latent heat and 30% for sensible heat. Further investigations are planned for improving TSEB algorithms for the soil/substrate resistance formulations and radiation partitioning for this particular canopy structure condition. In addition, large scale application of the TSEB model over the Dehesa ecosystem using satellite observations will also be evaluated.

Tropical waves and the quasi-biennial oscillation in the lower stratosphere

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Miller, A. J.; Angell, J. K.; Korshover, J.

1976-01-01

By means of spectrum analysis of 11 years of lower stratospheric daily winds and temperatures at Balboa, Ascension and Canton-Singapore, evidence is presented supporting the existence of two principal wave modes with periods of about 11-17 days (Kelvin waves) and about 4-5 days (mixed Rossby-gravity waves). The structure of the two wave modes, as well as the vertical eddy momentum flux by the waves, is shown to be related to the quasi-biennial cycle, although for the mixed Rossby-gravity waves this is obvious only at Ascension. In addition, the Coriolis term, suggested as a source of vertical easterly momentum flux for the mixed Rossby-gravity waves, is investigated and found to be of the same magnitude as the vertical eddy flux term. Finally, we have examined the mean meridional motion and the meridional eddy momentum flux for its possible association with the quasi- biennial variation.

Ingredients of the Eddy Soup: A Geometric Decomposition of Eddy-Mean Flow Interactions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Waterman, S.; Lilly, J. M.

2014-12-01

Understanding eddy-mean flow interactions is a long-standing problem in geophysical fluid dynamics with modern relevance to the task of representing eddy effects in coarse resolution models while preserving their dependence on the underlying dynamics of the flow field. Exploiting the recognition that the velocity covariance matrix/eddy stress tensor that describes eddy fluxes, also encodes information about eddy size, shape and orientation through its geometric representation in the form of the so-called variance ellipse, suggests a potentially fruitful way forward. Here we present a new framework that describes eddy-mean flow interactions in terms of a geometric description of the eddy motion, and illustrate it with an application to an unstable jet. Specifically we show that the eddy vorticity flux divergence F, a key dynamical quantity describing the average effect of fluctuations on the time-mean flow, may be decomposed into two components with distinct geometric interpretations: 1. variations in variance ellipse orientation; and 2. variations in the anisotropic part of the eddy kinetic energy, a function of the variance ellipse size and shape. Application of the divergence theorem shows that F integrated over a region is explained entirely by variations in these two quantities around the region's periphery. This framework has the potential to offer new insights into eddy-mean flow interactions in a number of ways. It identifies the ingredients of the eddy motion that have a mean flow forcing effect, it links eddy effects to spatial patterns of variance ellipse geometry that can suggest the mechanisms underpinning these effects, and finally it illustrates the importance of resolving eddy shape and orientation, and not just eddy size/energy, to accurately represent eddy feedback effects. These concepts will be both discussed and illustrated.

On the applicability of surrogate-based Markov chain Monte Carlo-Bayesian inversion to the Community Land Model: Case studies at flux tower sites: SURROGATE-BASED MCMC FOR CLM

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Huang, Maoyi; Ray, Jaideep; Hou, Zhangshuan

2016-07-04

The Community Land Model (CLM) has been widely used in climate and Earth system modeling. Accurate estimation of model parameters is needed for reliable model simulations and predictions under current and future conditions, respectively. In our previous work, a subset of hydrological parameters has been identified to have significant impact on surface energy fluxes at selected flux tower sites based on parameter screening and sensitivity analysis, which indicate that the parameters could potentially be estimated from surface flux observations at the towers. To date, such estimates do not exist. In this paper, we assess the feasibility of applying a Bayesianmore » model calibration technique to estimate CLM parameters at selected flux tower sites under various site conditions. The parameters are estimated as a joint probability density function (PDF) that provides estimates of uncertainty of the parameters being inverted, conditional on climatologically-average latent heat fluxes derived from observations. We find that the simulated mean latent heat fluxes from CLM using the calibrated parameters are generally improved at all sites when compared to those obtained with CLM simulations using default parameter sets. Further, our calibration method also results in credibility bounds around the simulated mean fluxes which bracket the measured data. The modes (or maximum a posteriori values) and 95% credibility intervals of the site-specific posterior PDFs are tabulated as suggested parameter values for each site. Analysis of relationships between the posterior PDFs and site conditions suggests that the parameter values are likely correlated with the plant functional type, which needs to be confirmed in future studies by extending the approach to more sites.« less

On the applicability of surrogate-based MCMC-Bayesian inversion to the Community Land Model: Case studies at Flux tower sites

DOE PAGES

Huang, Maoyi; Ray, Jaideep; Hou, Zhangshuan; ...

2016-06-01

The Community Land Model (CLM) has been widely used in climate and Earth system modeling. Accurate estimation of model parameters is needed for reliable model simulations and predictions under current and future conditions, respectively. In our previous work, a subset of hydrological parameters has been identified to have significant impact on surface energy fluxes at selected flux tower sites based on parameter screening and sensitivity analysis, which indicate that the parameters could potentially be estimated from surface flux observations at the towers. To date, such estimates do not exist. In this paper, we assess the feasibility of applying a Bayesianmore » model calibration technique to estimate CLM parameters at selected flux tower sites under various site conditions. The parameters are estimated as a joint probability density function (PDF) that provides estimates of uncertainty of the parameters being inverted, conditional on climatologically average latent heat fluxes derived from observations. We find that the simulated mean latent heat fluxes from CLM using the calibrated parameters are generally improved at all sites when compared to those obtained with CLM simulations using default parameter sets. Further, our calibration method also results in credibility bounds around the simulated mean fluxes which bracket the measured data. The modes (or maximum a posteriori values) and 95% credibility intervals of the site-specific posterior PDFs are tabulated as suggested parameter values for each site. As a result, analysis of relationships between the posterior PDFs and site conditions suggests that the parameter values are likely correlated with the plant functional type, which needs to be confirmed in future studies by extending the approach to more sites.« less

On the applicability of surrogate-based MCMC-Bayesian inversion to the Community Land Model: Case studies at Flux tower sites

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Huang, Maoyi; Ray, Jaideep; Hou, Zhangshuan

The Community Land Model (CLM) has been widely used in climate and Earth system modeling. Accurate estimation of model parameters is needed for reliable model simulations and predictions under current and future conditions, respectively. In our previous work, a subset of hydrological parameters has been identified to have significant impact on surface energy fluxes at selected flux tower sites based on parameter screening and sensitivity analysis, which indicate that the parameters could potentially be estimated from surface flux observations at the towers. To date, such estimates do not exist. In this paper, we assess the feasibility of applying a Bayesianmore » model calibration technique to estimate CLM parameters at selected flux tower sites under various site conditions. The parameters are estimated as a joint probability density function (PDF) that provides estimates of uncertainty of the parameters being inverted, conditional on climatologically average latent heat fluxes derived from observations. We find that the simulated mean latent heat fluxes from CLM using the calibrated parameters are generally improved at all sites when compared to those obtained with CLM simulations using default parameter sets. Further, our calibration method also results in credibility bounds around the simulated mean fluxes which bracket the measured data. The modes (or maximum a posteriori values) and 95% credibility intervals of the site-specific posterior PDFs are tabulated as suggested parameter values for each site. As a result, analysis of relationships between the posterior PDFs and site conditions suggests that the parameter values are likely correlated with the plant functional type, which needs to be confirmed in future studies by extending the approach to more sites.« less

On the applicability of surrogate-based Markov chain Monte Carlo-Bayesian inversion to the Community Land Model: Case studies at flux tower sites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Maoyi; Ray, Jaideep; Hou, Zhangshuan; Ren, Huiying; Liu, Ying; Swiler, Laura

2016-07-01

The Community Land Model (CLM) has been widely used in climate and Earth system modeling. Accurate estimation of model parameters is needed for reliable model simulations and predictions under current and future conditions, respectively. In our previous work, a subset of hydrological parameters has been identified to have significant impact on surface energy fluxes at selected flux tower sites based on parameter screening and sensitivity analysis, which indicate that the parameters could potentially be estimated from surface flux observations at the towers. To date, such estimates do not exist. In this paper, we assess the feasibility of applying a Bayesian model calibration technique to estimate CLM parameters at selected flux tower sites under various site conditions. The parameters are estimated as a joint probability density function (PDF) that provides estimates of uncertainty of the parameters being inverted, conditional on climatologically average latent heat fluxes derived from observations. We find that the simulated mean latent heat fluxes from CLM using the calibrated parameters are generally improved at all sites when compared to those obtained with CLM simulations using default parameter sets. Further, our calibration method also results in credibility bounds around the simulated mean fluxes which bracket the measured data. The modes (or maximum a posteriori values) and 95% credibility intervals of the site-specific posterior PDFs are tabulated as suggested parameter values for each site. Analysis of relationships between the posterior PDFs and site conditions suggests that the parameter values are likely correlated with the plant functional type, which needs to be confirmed in future studies by extending the approach to more sites.

Comparing bottom-up and top-down approaches at the landscape scale, including agricultural activities and water systems, at the Roskilde Fjord, Denmark

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lequy, Emeline; Ibrom, Andreas; Ambus, Per; Massad, Raia-Silvia; Markager, Stiig; Asmala, Eero; Garnier, Josette; Gabrielle, Benoit; Loubet, Benjamin

2015-04-01

The greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O) mainly originates in direct emissions from agricultural soils due to microbial reactions stimulated by the use of nitrogen fertilisers. Indirect N2O emissions from water systems due to nitrogen leaching and deposition from crop fields range between 26 and 37% of direct agricultural emissions, indicating their potential importance and uncertainty (Reay et al. 2012). The study presented here couples a top-down approach with eddy covariance (EC) and a bottom-up approach using different models and measurements. A QCL sensor at 96-m height on a tall tower measures the emissions of N2O from 1100 ha of crop fields and from the south part of the Roskilde fjord, in a 5-km radius area around the tall tower at Roskilde, Denmark. The bottom-up approach includes ecosystem modelling with CERES-EGC for the crops and PaSIM for the grasslands, and the N2O fluxes from the Roskilde fjord are derived from N2O sea water concentration measurements. EC measurements are now available from July to December 2014, and indicate a magnitude of the emissions from the crop fields around 0.2 mg N2O-N m-2 day-1 (range -9 to 5) which is consistent with the CERES-EGC simulations and calculations using IPCC emission factors. N2O fluxes from the Roskilde fjord in May and July indicated quite constant N2O concentrations around 0.1 µg N L-1 despite variations of nitrate and ammonium in the fjord. The calculated fluxes from these concentrations and the tall tower measurements consistently ranged between -7 and 6 mg N2O-N m-2 day-1. The study site also contains a waste water treatment plant, whose direct emissions will be measured in early 2015 using a dynamic plume tracer dispersion method (Mønster et al. 2014). A refined source attribution methodology together with more measurements and simulations of the N2O fluxes from the different land uses in this study site will provide a clearer view of the dynamics and budgets of N2O at the regional scale. The complementarity between these bottom-up and top-down approaches and their usefulness to disentangle direct and indirect N2O fluxes will also be discussed. Acknowledgements: This work was funded by the EU-FP7 InGOS project. References: Mønster JG, Samuelsson J, Kjeldsen P, Rella CW, Scheutz C. Quantifying methane emission from fugitive sources by combining tracer release and downwind measurements - A sensitivity analysis based on multiple field surveys. Waste Management. 2014 Aug;34(8):1416-28. Reay DS, Davidson EA, Smith KA, Smith P, Melillo JM, Dentener F, et al. Global agriculture and nitrous oxide emissions. Nature Clim Change. 2012 Jun;2(6):410-6.

Sources of greenhouse gases and carbon monoxide in central London (UK)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Helfter, Carole; Tremper, Anja; Zazzeri, Giulia; Barlow, Janet F.; Nemitz, Eiko

2015-04-01

Biosphere-atmosphere exchange of carbon dioxide (CO2) has been on the scientific agenda for several decades and new technology now also allows for high-precision, continuous monitoring of fluxes of methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). Compared to the natural environment, flux measurements in the urban environment, which is home to over 50% of the population globally, are still rare despite high densities of anthropogenic sources of pollutants. We report on over three years of measurements atop a 192 m tower in central London (UK), Europe's largest city, which started in October 2011. Fluxes of methane, carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide are measured by eddy-covariance (EC) at the British Telecom tower (51° 31' 17.4' N 0° 8' 20.04' W). In addition to the long-term measurements, EC fluxes of nitrous oxide (N2O) were measured in February 2014. All four trace gases exhibit diurnal trends consistent with anthropogenic activities with minimum emissions at night and early afternoon maxima. Segregating emissions by wind direction reveals heterogeneous source distributions with temporal patterns and source strengths that differ between compounds. The lowest emissions for CO, CO2 and CH4 were recorded for NW winds. The highest emissions of methane were in the SE sector, in the NE for CO2 and in the W for CO. Fluxes of all 3 gases exhibited marked seasonal trends characterised by a decrease in emissions in summer (63% reduction for CO, 36% for CO2 and 22% for CH4). Monthly fluxes of CO and CO2 were linearly correlated to air temperature (R2 = 0.7 and 0.59 respectively); a weaker dependence upon temperature was also observed for CH4 (R2 = 0.31). Diurnal and seasonal emissions of CO and CO2 are mainly controlled by local fossil fuel combustion and vehicle cold starts are thought to account for 20-30% of additional emissions of CO during the winter. Fugitive emissions of CH4 from the natural gas distribution network are thought to be substantial, which is consistent with the weaker seasonality of CH4 fluxes compared with CO and CO2. Annual estimates of CO2 emissions (41 kt km-2) obtained by EC were consistent with data upscaled from the London Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (LAEI; 46 kt km-2). Good agreement between measurements and inventory data was also found for CO (measured 156 t km-2; LAEI 145 t km-2) and for N2O (measured 0.36 t km-2; LAEI 0.42 t km-2), although based on a much shorter measurement period. By contrast, a two-fold difference was found between inventory and measured CH4 fluxes (measured 75 t km-2; LAEI 34 t km-2), which could indicate an underestimation by the inventory of CH4 emissions from anthropogenic sources or the existence of unaccounted biogenic sources. Measurements of isotopic CH4 taken 2 km SE of the tower near the banks of the river Thames reveal multiple episodes of 13C-depleted morning peaks consistent with biogenic sources. We speculate that the Thames can act as an additional significant source of biogenic methane especially at low tide and after heavy rainfall, which could explain the large emissions observed in the S-SE sector.

The Numerical Simulation of a Tracer-Release Field Project to Study Motion within the Nocturnal Boundary Layer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Werth, D. W.; Leclerc, M. Y.; Buckley, R.; Parker, M.; Kurzeja, R.; Duarte, H. F.; Zhang, G.; Durden, D.

2009-12-01

The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL), Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), the University of Georgia (UGA), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) conducted a regional tracer experiment to study the nocturnal behavior of CO2 in the vicinity of an instrumented tall tower during two nights on May 11th and 12th, 2009. The experiment consisted of a release of five perfluorocarbon tracer (PFTs) compounds in twelve unique locations in Aiken County, South Carolina. Intensive meteorological measurements including in-situ turbulence were made in conjunction with the release and sampling of the PFTs. A 300m tower was also used to collect data from higher levels, allowing us to determine the extent to which the tracer was mixed vertically. Lagrangian plume simulations performed during the experiment demonstrated transport over distances of >8 km, and correlated well with in situ sampling. The area was characterized by heavy vegetation cover, and carbon dioxide concentrations were also monitored in an effort to determine how respiration and advection affect CO2 levels in the stable layer. Tracer release locations were carefully selected via a fine-scale mesoscale modeling study of similar nights. The purpose of these experiments was to provide data that will be used to increase the understanding of the terrestrial carbon budget, especially with respect to nocturnal boundary layer (NBL) phenomena such as low level jets and breaking gravity waves. Using these data, a simulation of the motion of the tracer within the boundary layer was developed using the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS) mesoscale model coupled to a tracer model. The RAMS model was also coupled to the Simple Biosphere (SiB) vegetation model, which allowed for the simulation of the release of carbon dioxide into the NBL. The simulation results are used to validate the NBL hypothesis of CO2 monitoring, by which the release of CO2 can be correlated with the accumulation of CO2 in the boundary layer beneath a stable ‘lid’, which impedes vertical mixing. This is done with both the tracer, in which the release rate is known and no advection occurs, and for CO2, in which the release rate is not known and for which advection of CO2 must be accounted. The high resolution of the simulation allows us to resolve the small-scale motions within the NBL, which are important to nocturnal transport. Flux data from the tall tower were studied to learn more about the eddy transport, and also to detect the occurrence of transport ‘events’ in which the CO2 and H2O values experience a sudden increase. A wavelet analysis is also applied, and reveals the existence of eddy activity dominated by eddies of diameter 90-240m.

An Intrathermocline Eddy and a tropical cyclone in the Bay of Bengal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gordon, Arnold L.; Shroyer, Emily; Murty, V. S. N.

2017-04-01

The Bay of Bengal, subjected to monsoonal forcing and tropical cyclones, displays a complex field of ocean eddies. On 5 December 2013 a sub-surface vortex or Intrathermocline Eddy (ITE) composed of water characteristic of the Andaman Sea was observed within the thermocline of the western Bay of Bengal. We propose that the ITE was the product of Tropical Cyclone Lehar interaction on 27 November 2013 with a westward propagating surface eddy from the eastern Bay of Bengal. While Lehar’s interaction with the ocean initially removes heat from the upper layers of the eddy, air-sea flux is limited as the deeper portions of the eddy was subducted into the stratified thermocline, inhibiting further interaction with the atmosphere. The ITE core from 30 to 150 m is thus isolated from local air-sea fluxes by strong stratification at the mixed layer base, and its periphery is stable to shear instability, suggestive of longevity and the ability to carry water far distances with minimal modification.

An Intrathermocline Eddy and a tropical cyclone in the Bay of Bengal.

PubMed

Gordon, Arnold L; Shroyer, Emily; Murty, V S N

2017-04-12

The Bay of Bengal, subjected to monsoonal forcing and tropical cyclones, displays a complex field of ocean eddies. On 5 December 2013 a sub-surface vortex or Intrathermocline Eddy (ITE) composed of water characteristic of the Andaman Sea was observed within the thermocline of the western Bay of Bengal. We propose that the ITE was the product of Tropical Cyclone Lehar interaction on 27 November 2013 with a westward propagating surface eddy from the eastern Bay of Bengal. While Lehar's interaction with the ocean initially removes heat from the upper layers of the eddy, air-sea flux is limited as the deeper portions of the eddy was subducted into the stratified thermocline, inhibiting further interaction with the atmosphere. The ITE core from 30 to 150 m is thus isolated from local air-sea fluxes by strong stratification at the mixed layer base, and its periphery is stable to shear instability, suggestive of longevity and the ability to carry water far distances with minimal modification.

An Intrathermocline Eddy and a tropical cyclone in the Bay of Bengal

PubMed Central

Gordon, Arnold L.; Shroyer, Emily; Murty, V. S. N.

2017-01-01

The Bay of Bengal, subjected to monsoonal forcing and tropical cyclones, displays a complex field of ocean eddies. On 5 December 2013 a sub-surface vortex or Intrathermocline Eddy (ITE) composed of water characteristic of the Andaman Sea was observed within the thermocline of the western Bay of Bengal. We propose that the ITE was the product of Tropical Cyclone Lehar interaction on 27 November 2013 with a westward propagating surface eddy from the eastern Bay of Bengal. While Lehar’s interaction with the ocean initially removes heat from the upper layers of the eddy, air-sea flux is limited as the deeper portions of the eddy was subducted into the stratified thermocline, inhibiting further interaction with the atmosphere. The ITE core from 30 to 150 m is thus isolated from local air-sea fluxes by strong stratification at the mixed layer base, and its periphery is stable to shear instability, suggestive of longevity and the ability to carry water far distances with minimal modification. PMID:28401909

Greenness indices from digital cameras predict the timing and seasonal dynamics of canopy-scale photosynthesis

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The proliferation of tower-mounted cameras co-located with eddy covariance instrumentation provides a novel opportunity to better understand the relationship between canopy phenology and the seasonality of canopy photosynthesis. In this paper, we describe the abilities and limitations of webcams to ...

Analysis of surface energy budget data over varying land-cover conditions.

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The surface energy budget plays an important role in boundary-layer meteorology and quantifying these budgets over varying land surface types is important in studying land-atmosphere interactions. In late April 2007, eddy covariance towers were erected at four sites in the Little Washita Watershed i...

Continuous multi-plot measurements of CO2, CH4, N2O and H2O in a managed boreal forest - The importance of accounting for all greenhouse gases

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vestin, P.; Mölder, M.; Sundqvist, E.; Båth, A.; Lehner, I.; Weslien, P.; Klemedtsson, L.; Lindroth, A.

2015-12-01

In order to assess the effects of different management practices on the exchange of greenhouse gases (GHG), it is desirable to perform repeated and parallel measurements on both experimental and control plots. Here we demonstrate how a system system combining eddy covariance and gradient techniques can be used to perform this assessment in a managed forest ecosystem.The net effects of clear-cutting and stump harvesting on GHG fluxes were studied at the ICOS site Norunda, Sweden. Micrometeorological measurements (i.e., flux-gradient measurements in 3 m tall towers) allowed for quantification of CO2, CH4 and H2O fluxes (from May 2010) as well as N2O and H2O fluxes (from June 2011) at two stump harvested plots and two control plots. There was one wetter and one drier plot of each treatment. Air was continuously sampled at two heights in the towers and gas concentrations were analyzed for CH4, CO2, H2O (LGR DLT-100, Los Gatos Research) and N2O, H2O (QCL Mini Monitor, Aerodyne Research). Friction velocities and sensible heat fluxes were measured by sonic anemometers (Gill Windmaster, Gill Instruments Ltd). Automatic chamber measurements (CO2, CH4, H2O) were carried out in the adjacent forest stand and at the clear-cut during 2010.Average CO2 emissions for the first year ranged between 14.4-20.2 ton CO2 ha-1 yr-1. The clear-cut became waterlogged after harvest and a comparison of flux-gradient data and chamber data (from the adjacent forest stand) indicated a switch from a weak CH4 sink to a significant source at all plots. The CH4 emissions ranged between 0.8-4.5 ton CO2-eq. ha-1 yr-1. N2O emissions ranged between 0.4-2.6 ton CO2-eq. ha-1 yr-1. Enhanced N2O emission on the drier stump harvested plot was the only clear treatment effect on GHG fluxes that was observed. Mean CH4 and N2O emissions for the first year of measurements amounted up to 29% and 20% of the mean annual CO2 emissions, respectively. This highlights the importance of including all GHGs when assessing the climate impacts of different forest management options. Our results show that continuous multi-plot measurements of the main GHGs are possible also at sites where GHG fluxes are low, at a reasonable cost and with reduced plot inter-comparison uncertainties.

Simulation of a 5MW wind turbine in an atmospheric boundary layer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meister, Konrad; Lutz, Thorsten; Krämer, Ewald

2014-12-01

This article presents detached eddy simulation (DES) results of a 5MW wind turbine in an unsteady atmospheric boundary layer. The evaluation performed in this article focuses on turbine blade loads as well as on the influence of atmospheric turbulence and tower on blade loads. Therefore, the turbulence transport of the atmospheric boundary layer to the turbine position is analyzed. To determine the influence of atmospheric turbulence on wind turbines the blade load spectrum is evaluated and compared to wind turbine simulation results with uniform inflow. Moreover, the influences of different frequency regimes and the tower on the blade loads are discussed. Finally, the normal force coefficient spectrum is analyzed at three different radial positions and the influence of tower and atmospheric turbulence is shown.

Continuous atmospheric monitoring of the injected CO2 behavior over geological storage sites using flux stations: latest technologies and resources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burba, George; Madsen, Rodney; Feese, Kristin

2014-05-01

Flux stations have been widely used to monitor emission rates of CO2 from various ecosystems for climate research for over 30 years [1]. The stations provide accurate and continuous measurements of CO2 emissions with high temporal resolution. Time scales range from 20 times per second for gas concentrations, to 15-minute, hourly, daily, and multi-year periods. The emissions are measured from the upwind area ranging from thousands of square meters to multiple square kilometers, depending on the measurement height. The stations can nearly instantaneously detect rapid changes in emissions due to weather events, as well as changes caused by variations in human-triggered events (pressure leaks, control releases, etc.). Stations can also detect any slow changes related to seasonal dynamics and human-triggered low-frequency processes (leakage diffusion, etc.). In the past, station configuration, data collection and processing were highly-customized, site-specific and greatly dependent on "school-of-thought" practiced by a particular research group. In the last 3-5 years, due to significant efforts of global and regional CO2 monitoring networks (e.g., FluxNet, Ameriflux, Carbo-Europe, ICOS, etc.) and technological developments, the flux station methodology became fairly standardized and processing protocols became quite uniform [1]. A majority of current stations compute CO2 emission rates using the eddy covariance method, one of the most direct and defensible micrometeorological techniques [1]. Presently, over 600 such flux stations are in operation in over 120 countries, using permanent and mobile towers or moving platforms (e.g., automobiles, helicopters, and airplanes). Atmospheric monitoring of emission rates using such stations is now recognized as an effective method in regulatory and industrial applications, including carbon storage [2-8]. Emerging projects utilize flux stations to continuously monitor large areas before and after the injections, to locate and quantify leakages from the subsurface, to improve storage efficiency, and for other storage characterizations [5-8]. In this presentation, the latest regulatory and methodological updates are provided regarding atmospheric monitoring of the injected CO2 behavior using flux stations. These include 2013 improvements in methodology, as well as the latest literature, including regulatory documents for using the method and step-by-step instructions on implementing it in the field. Updates also include 2013 development of a fully automated remote unattended flux station capable of processing data on-the-go to continuously output final CO2 emission rates in a similar manner as a standard weather station outputs weather parameters. References: [1] Burba G. Eddy Covariance Method for Scientific, Industrial, Agricultural and Regulatory Applications. LI-COR Biosciences; 2013. [2] International Energy Agency. Quantification techniques for CO2 leakage. IEA-GHG; 2012. [3] US Department of Energy. Best Practices for Monitoring, Verification, and Accounting of CO2 Stored in Deep Geologic Formations. US DOE; 2012. [4] Liu G. (Ed.). Greenhouse Gases: Capturing, Utilization and Reduction. Intech; 2012. [5] Finley R. et al. An Assessment of Geological Carbon Sequestration Options in the Illinois Basin - Phase III. DOE-MGSC; DE-FC26-05NT42588; 2012. [6] LI-COR Biosciences. Surface Monitoring for Geologic Carbon Sequestration. LI-COR, 980-11916, 2011. [7] Eggleston H., et al. (Eds). IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, IPCC NGGI P, WMO/UNEP; 2006-2011. [8] Burba G., Madsen R., Feese K. Eddy Covariance Method for CO2 Emission Measurements in CCUS Applications: Principles, Instrumentation and Software. Energy Procedia, 40C: 329-336; 2013.

Characterization of potential EC flux underestimation of "sticky" trace gas species

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Neftel, Albrecht; Hensen, Arjan; Ibrom, Andreas; Ammann, Christof; Voglmeier, Karl; Brümmer, Christian

2017-04-01

Eddy covariance (EC) flux measurements of "sticky" trace gas species are affected of damping of high frequency variations of the gas concentration. Several approaches have been developed to correct for this effect (see e.g. Ibrom et al., 2007, Ammann et al., 2006). These approaches have in common that the spectral properties of the scalar are compared with the sonic temperature deduced from the Sonic anemometer data that is only marginally damped. A main difference between the two method is that one uses power spectra, while the other is based on co-spectra of the gas concentration with the vertical wind speed. NH3 fluxes used in the analysis stem from two field experiments: a) Posieux intercomparison October 2015: NH3 emissions of a grazed pasture measured with Eddy Covariance using an Aerodyne quantum cascade laser and with a horizontal gradient measurement using MiniDOAS systems (Sintermann et al., 2016) in conjunction with a dispersion model. b) Dronten experiment June 2016 in the Netherlands: NH3 emissions from two manured circles within 40m diameters have been determined with four different approaches (Eddy Covariance, Integrated Horizontal Flux approach, horizontal gradients and plume measurements). Despite correction with standard methods, turbulent NH3 flux measurements with the eddy covariance method seem still be underestimated when, e.g., compared to flux estimated using gradient methods. We discuss possible correction algorithms and how such underestimations can be recognized in the usual case, where no alternative flux estimation methods are available. References: Ammann, C., Brunner, A., Spirig, C., and Neftel, A. 2006: Technical note: Water vapour concentration and flux measurements with PTR-MS, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 6, 4643-4651 Ibrom, A., Dellwik, E., Jensen, N.O., Flyvbjerg, H. and Pilegaard, K., 2007. Strong low-pass filtering effects on water vapour flux measurements with closed-path eddy correlation systems. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 147: 140 -156. Sintermann, J., Dietrich, K., Hani, C., Bell, M., Jocher, M., and Neftel, A. 2016 A miniDOAS instrument optimised for ammonia field measurements, Atmos Meas Tech, 9, 2721-2734

Boreal peatland pools C release: implication for the contemporary C exchange

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pelletier, L.; Strachan, I. B.; Garneau, M.; Roulet, N. T.

2013-12-01

Peatland ecosystems are considered to be net-sinks for carbon, with long-term accumulation rates ranging between 3 and 71 g C m-2 yr-1. However, the net carbon exchange rates vary significantly across the surface of these ecosystems, both in terms of magnitude and direction of the fluxes. Boreal peatlands are characterized by microforms ranging from dry hummocks, to lawns, to wet hollows and pools, which have distinct physical and chemical properties. While the hummocks and lawns absorb C due to the positive balance between gross primary production (CO2 uptake) and respiration (CO2 and CH4 release), pools represent net sources of carbon to the atmosphere. Annual pool C fluxes have been poorly documented and their contribution to the ecosystem level C budget is often ignored, even if they cover a significant portion of the peatland surface. Furthermore, the net ecosystem CO2 exchange (NEE) of these peatlands remains largely unknown. In this study, we examine the dynamics of the atmospheric exchange of CO2 and CH4 from peatland pools. Dissolved CO2 and CH4 were measured sporadically in five pools using the headspace technique and continuously with an NDIR sensor (CO2 for one pool only) over a 16-month period. Fluxes were calculated using the thin boundary layer model. We measured spring release and growing season (May to October) NEE-CO2 and CH4 fluxes in the same peatland using an eddy covariance tower to see how the presence of pools impacts the contemporary C exchange at the ecosystem level.

Chlorophyll dynamic accounts for spatial and temporal variabilities in terrestrial carbon uptake and evapotranspiration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Croft, H.; Luo, X.; Chen, J. M.

2017-12-01

Terrestrial carbon and water fluxes are driven by a range of abiotic and biotic factors. State-of-art terrestrial biosphere models (TBMs) use numerical representations of these factors in conjunction with concise descriptions of biogeochemical processes to estimate terrestrial fluxes (i.e. gross primary productivity (GPP) and evapotranspiration(ET)). Leaf maximum carboxylation rate (Vcmax25) is a key biotic factor prescribed in TBM to determine CO2 assimilation rates and leaf stomatal conductivity for water transport, but the paucity of its measurements has long plagued the simulation of fluxes. This study uses leaf chlorophyll content (LCC) derived from remotely sensed data to account for spatial and temporal variations in Vcmax25 within a TBM framework. Results from the TBM with and without LCC were validated against measurements from 124 eddy-covariance towers (554 site-years) of FLUXNET. TBM using LCC reduced the biases of estimated GPP in 61% of the site-years and 59% for ET, with especially large improvements for biomes with strong seasonal cycles (e.g. deciduous forest, croplands and grasslands). In addition to the Vcmax25 adjustment imposed by LCC seasonal patterns, the spatial variability of LCC acts as an equally important part in reducing the errors of estimated fluxes by capturing the spatial variations of Vcmax25, especially during the summer. This study presents the first case of integrating satellite-derived LCC into a TBM at the global scale. Our results demonstrate the critical role of LCC in describing the variabilities in the terrestrial carbon uptake and ET and the necessity of including LCC in future TBMs.

Vertical fogwater flux measurements above an elevated forest canopy at the Lägeren research site, Switzerland

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burkard, Reto; Bützberger, Patrick; Eugster, Werner

During the winter of 2001/2002 wet and occult deposition measurements were performed at the Lägeren research site ( 690 m a.s.l.) in Switzerland. Two types of fog were observed: radiation fog (RF) and fog associated with atmospheric instabilities (FAI). The deposition measurements were performed above the forest canopy on a 45 m high tower. Occult deposition was measured by means of the eddy covariance method. Due to the large differences of microphysical properties of the two fog types, the liquid water fluxes were much higher (6.9 mg m -2 s-1) during RF than during FAI (0.57 mg m -2 s-1) . Fogwater concentrations were considerably enhanced during RF compared with FAI. The comparison of fog and rain revealed that fogwater nutrient concentrations were 3-66 times larger than concentrations in precipitation. The considerably larger water fluxes and nutrient concentrations of RF resulted in much higher nutrient deposition compared with FAI. In winter when RF was quite frequent, occult deposition was the dominant pathway for nitrate and ammonium deposition. Daily fluxes of total inorganic nitrogen were 1.89 mg m -2 d-1 by occult and 1.01 mg m -2 d-1 by wet deposition. The estimated contribution of occult deposition to total annual nitrogen input was 16.4% or 4.3 kg N ha -1 yr-1, and wet deposition contributed 26.5% ( 6.9 kg N ha -1 yr-1) . As a consequence, critical loads of annual N-input were exceeded, resulting in a significant over-fertilization at the Lägeren site.

Eddy covariance measurements of carbon dioxide and water fluxes in Mid-South US cotton

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

An eddy covariance (EC) system was used to quantify carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) fluxes as net ecosystem exchange (NEE) and crop evapotranspiration (ET), respectively, in a production-sized cotton field in Northeastern Arkansas in 2016 and 2017 growing seasons. Average ET was 0.13±0.01 in d-...

Statistical uncertainty of eddy flux-based estimates of gross ecosystem carbon exchange at Howland Forest, Maine

Treesearch

S.C. Hagen; B.H. Braswell; E. Linder; S. Frolking; A.D. Richardson; David Hollinger. D.Y; Hollinger. D.Y

2006-01-01

We present an uncertainty analysis of gross ecosystem carbon exchange (GEE) estimates derived from 7 years of continuous eddy covariance measurements of forest atmosphere CO2 fluxes at Howland Forest, Maine, USA. These data, which have high temporal resolution, can be used to validate process modeling analyses, remote sensing assessments, and field surveys. However,...

Analysis of inadvertent microprocessor lag time on eddy covariance results

Treesearch

Karl Zeller; Gary Zimmerman; Ted Hehn; Evgeny Donev; Diane Denny; Jeff Welker

2001-01-01

Researchers using the eddy covariance approach to measuring trace gas fluxes are often hoping to measure carbon dioxide and energy fluxes for ecosystem intercomparisons. This paper demonstrates a systematic microprocessor- caused lag of 20.1 to 20.2 s in a commercial sonic anemometer-analog-to-digital datapacker system operated at 10 Hz. The result of the inadvertent...

A High Frequency Response Relaxed Eddy Accumulation Flux Measurement System for Sampling Short-Lived Biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds

EPA Science Inventory

A second-generation relaxed eddy accumulation system was built and tested with the capability to measure vertical biogenic volatile organic compound (VOC) fluxes at levels as low as 10 µg C m⁻² hr⁻¹. The system features a continuous, integrated gas-phase ozo...

Comparison of Sensible Heat Flux from Eddy Covariance and Scintillometer over different land surface conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zeweldi, D. A.; Gebremichael, M.; Summis, T.; Wang, J.; Miller, D.

2008-12-01

The large source of uncertainty in satellite-based evapotranspiration algorithm results from the estimation of sensible heat flux H. Traditionally eddy covariance sensors, and recently large-aperture scintillometers, have been used as ground truth to evaluate satellite-based H estimates. The two methods rely on different physical measurement principles, and represent different foot print sizes. In New Mexico, we conducted a field campaign during summer 2008 to compare H estimates obtained from the eddy covariance and scintillometer methods. During this field campaign, we installed sonic anemometers; one propeller eddy covariance (OPEC) equipped with net radiometer and soil heat flux sensors; large aperture scintillometer (LAS); and weather station consisting of wind speed, direction and radiation sensors over three different experimental areas consisting of different roughness conditions (desert, irrigated area and lake). Our results show the similarities and differences in H estimates obtained from these various methods over the different land surface conditions. Further, our results show that the H estimates obtained from the LAS agree with those obtained from the eddy covariance method when high frequency thermocouple temperature, instead of the typical weather station temperature measurements, is used in the LAS analysis.

The troposphere-to-stratosphere transition in kinetic energy spectra and nonlinear spectral fluxes as seen in ECMWF analyses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burgess, A. B. H.; Erler, A. R.; Shepherd, T. G.

2012-04-01

We present spectra, nonlinear interaction terms, and fluxes computed for horizontal wind fields from high-resolution meteorological analyses made available by ECMWF for the International Polar Year. Total kinetic energy spectra clearly show two spectral regimes: a steep spectrum at large scales and a shallow spectrum in the mesoscale. The spectral shallowing appears at ~200 hPa, and is due to decreasing rotational power with height, which results in the shallower divergent spectrum dominating in the mesoscale. The spectra we find are steeper than those observed in aircraft data and GCM simulations. Though the analyses resolve total spherical harmonic wavenumbers up to n = 721, effects of dissipation on the fluxes and spectra are visible starting at about n = 200. We find a weak forward energy cascade and a downscale enstrophy cascade in the mesoscale. Eddy-eddy nonlinear kinetic energy transfers reach maximum amplitudes at the tropopause, and decrease with height thereafter; zonal mean-eddy transfers dominate in the stratosphere. In addition, zonal anisotropy reaches a minimum at the tropopause. Combined with strong eddy-eddy interactions, this suggests flow in the tropopause region is very active and bears the greatest resemblance to isotropic turbulence. We find constant enstrophy flux over a broad range of wavenumbers around the tropopause and in the upper stratosphere. A relatively constant spectral enstrophy flux at the tropopause suggests a turbulent inertial range, and that the enstrophy flux is resolved. A main result of our work is its implications for explaining the shallow mesoscale spectrum observed in aircraft wind measurements, GCM studies, and now meteorological analyses. The strong divergent component in the shallow mesoscale spectrum indicates unbalanced flow, and nonlinear transfers decreasing quickly with height are characteristic of waves, not turbulence. Together with the downscale flux of energ y through the shallow spectral range, these findings add further evidence that the shallow mesoscale spectrum is not generated by balanced two-dimensional turbulence.

Estimation of Regional Carbon Balance from Atmospheric Observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Denning, S.; Uliasz, M.; Skidmore, J.

2002-12-01

Variations in the concentration of CO2 and other trace gases in time and space contain information about sources and sinks at regional scales. Several methods have been developed to quantitatively extract this information from atmospheric measurements. Mass-balance techniques depend on the ability to repeatedly sample the same mass of air, which involves careful attention to airmass trajectories. Inverse and adjoint techniques rely on decomposition of the source field into quasi-independent "basis functions" that are propagated through transport models and then used to synthesize optimal linear combinations that best match observations. A recently proposed method for regional flux estimation from continuous measurements at tall towers relies on time-mean vertical gradients, and requires careful trajectory analysis to map the estimates onto regional ecosystems. Each of these techniques is likely to be applied to measurements made during the North American Carbon Program. We have also explored the use of Bayesian synthesis inversion at regional scales, using a Lagrangian particle dispersion model driven by mesoscale transport fields. Influence functions were calculated for each hypothetical observation in a realistic diurnally-varying flow. These influence functions were then treated as basis functions for the purpose of separate inversions for daytime photosynthesis and 24-hour mean ecosystem respiration. Our results highlight the importance of estimating CO2 fluxes through the lateral boundaries of the model. Respiration fluxes were well constrained by one or two hypothetical towers, regardless of inflow fluxes. Time-varying assimilation fluxes were less well constrained, and much more dependent on knowledge of inflow fluxes. The small net difference between respiration and photosynthesis was the most difficult to determine, being extremely sensitive to knowledge of inflow fluxes. Finally, we explored the feasibility of directly incorporating mid-day concentration values measured at surface-layer flux towers in global inversions for regional surface fluxes. We found that such data would substantially improve the observational constraint on current carbon cycle models, especially if applied selectively to a well-designed subset of the current network of flux towers.

AmeriFlux US-Ho1 Howland Forest (main tower)

DOE Data Explorer

Hollinger, David [USDA Forest Service; Hollinger, David [USDA Forest Service

2016-01-01

This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-Ho1 Howland Forest (main tower). Site Description - Closed conifer forest, minimal disturbance. References: Fernandez et al. (1993), Canadian Journal of Soil Science 73 317-328. Hollinger et al. (1999), Global Change Biology 5: 891-902. Savage KE, Davidson EA (2001), Global Biogeochemical Cycles 15 337-350. Scott et al. (2004), Environmental Management, Vol. 33, Supplement 1, pp. S9-S22. Hollinger et al. (2004), Global Change Biology 10: 1689-1706.

AmeriFlux US-Ho2 Howland Forest (west tower)

DOE Data Explorer

Hollinger, David [USDA Forest Service; Hollinger, David [USDA Forest Service

2016-01-01

This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-Ho2 Howland Forest (west tower). Site Description - Closed conifer forest, minimal disturbance. References: Fernandez et al. (1993), Canadian Journal of Soil Science 73 317-328. Hollinger et al. (1999), Global Change Biology 5: 891-902. Savage KE, Davidson EA (2001), Global Biogeochemical Cycles 15 337-350. Scott et al. (2004), Environmental Management, Vol. 33, Supplement 1, pp. S9-S22. Hollinger et al. (2004), Global Change Biology 10: 1689-1706.

AmeriFlux US-SP4 Slashpine-Rayonier-mid-rot- 12yrs

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Martin, Tim

This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-SP4 Slashpine-Rayonier-mid-rot- 12yrs. Site Description - Only active for one year, the Rayonier tract site was shutdown due to a stand replacing wild fire in 1998. The tower was relocated to the Donaldson tract. The characteristics between the two mid-rotation pine plantations are nearly indistinguishable, enabling the integration of measurements made at both towers. The site information provided below follows the convention that the two sites are nearly identical.

The New Face of FLUXNET: Redesigning the Web Site and Data Organization to Enhance the User Experience

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shanafield, Harold; Shamblin, Stephanie; Devarakonda, Ranjeet; McMurry, Ben; Walker Beaty, Tammy; Wilson, Bruce; Cook, Robert B.

2011-02-01

The FLUXNET global network of regional flux tower networks serves to coordinate the regional and global analysis of eddy covariance based CO2, water vapor and energy flux measurements taken at more than 500 sites in continuous long-term operation. The FLUXNET database presently contains information about the location, characteristics, and data availability of each of these sites. To facilitate the coordination and distribution of this information, we redesigned the underlying database and associated web site. We chose the PostgreSQL database as a platform based on its performance, stability and GIS extensions. PostreSQL allows us to enhance our search and presentation capabilities, which will in turn provide increased functionality for users seeking to understand the FLUXNET data. The redesigned database will also significantly decrease the burden of managing such highly varied data. The website is being developed using the Drupal content management system, which provides many community-developed modules and a robust framework for custom feature development. In parallel, we are working with the regional networks to ensure that the information in the FLUXNET database is identical to that in the regional networks. Going forward, we also plan to develop an automated way to synchronize information with the regional networks.

The SMAP Level 4 Carbon PRODUCT for Monitoring Terrestrial Ecosystem-Atmosphere CO2 Exchange

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jones, L. A.; Kimball, J. S.; Madani, N.; Reichle, R. H.; Glassy, J.; Ardizzone, J/

2016-01-01

The NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission Level 4 Carbon (L4_C) product provides model estimates of Net Ecosystem CO2 exchange (NEE) incorporating SMAP soil moisture information as a primary driver. The L4_C product provides NEE, computed as total respiration less gross photosynthesis, at a daily time step and approximate 14-day latency posted to a 9-km global grid summarized by plant functional type. The L4_C product includes component carbon fluxes, surface soil organic carbon stocks, underlying environmental constraints, and detailed uncertainty metrics. The L4_C model is driven by the SMAP Level 4 Soil Moisture (L4_SM) data assimilation product, with additional inputs from the Goddard Earth Observing System, Version 5 (GEOS-5) weather analysis and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite data. The L4_C data record extends from March 2015 to present with ongoing production. Initial comparisons against global CO2 eddy flux tower measurements, satellite Solar Induced Canopy Florescence (SIF) and other independent observation benchmarks show favorable L4_C performance and accuracy, capturing the dynamic biosphere response to recent weather anomalies and demonstrating the value of SMAP observations for monitoring of global terrestrial water and carbon cycle linkages.

Bayesian integration of flux tower data into a process-based simulator for quantifying uncertainty in simulated output

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Raj, Rahul; van der Tol, Christiaan; Hamm, Nicholas Alexander Samuel; Stein, Alfred

2018-01-01

Parameters of a process-based forest growth simulator are difficult or impossible to obtain from field observations. Reliable estimates can be obtained using calibration against observations of output and state variables. In this study, we present a Bayesian framework to calibrate the widely used process-based simulator Biome-BGC against estimates of gross primary production (GPP) data. We used GPP partitioned from flux tower measurements of a net ecosystem exchange over a 55-year-old Douglas fir stand as an example. The uncertainties of both the Biome-BGC parameters and the simulated GPP values were estimated. The calibrated parameters leaf and fine root turnover (LFRT), ratio of fine root carbon to leaf carbon (FRC : LC), ratio of carbon to nitrogen in leaf (C : Nleaf), canopy water interception coefficient (Wint), fraction of leaf nitrogen in RuBisCO (FLNR), and effective soil rooting depth (SD) characterize the photosynthesis and carbon and nitrogen allocation in the forest. The calibration improved the root mean square error and enhanced Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency between simulated and flux tower daily GPP compared to the uncalibrated Biome-BGC. Nevertheless, the seasonal cycle for flux tower GPP was not reproduced exactly and some overestimation in spring and underestimation in summer remained after calibration. We hypothesized that the phenology exhibited a seasonal cycle that was not accurately reproduced by the simulator. We investigated this by calibrating the Biome-BGC to each month's flux tower GPP separately. As expected, the simulated GPP improved, but the calibrated parameter values suggested that the seasonal cycle of state variables in the simulator could be improved. It was concluded that the Bayesian framework for calibration can reveal features of the modelled physical processes and identify aspects of the process simulator that are too rigid.

Connecting the failure of K-theory inside and above vegetation canopies and ejection-sweep cycles by a large eddy simulation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Banerjee, Tirtha; De Roo, Frederik; Mauder, Matthias

Parameterizations of biosphere-atmosphere interaction processes in climate models and other hydrological applications require characterization of turbulent transport of momentum and scalars between vegetation canopies and the atmosphere, which is often modeled using a turbulent analogy to molecular diffusion processes. However, simple flux-gradient approaches (K-theory) fail for canopy turbulence. One cause is turbulent transport by large coherent eddies at the canopy scale, which can be linked to sweep-ejection events, and bear signatures of non-local organized eddy motions. K-theory, that parameterizes the turbulent flux or stress proportional to the local concentration or velocity gradient, fails to account for these non-local organized motions. The connection to sweep-ejection cycles and the local turbulent flux can be traced back to the turbulence triple momentmore » $$\\overline{C'W'W'}$$. In this work, we use large-eddy simulation to investigate the diagnostic connection between the failure of K-theory and sweep-ejection motions. Analyzed schemes are quadrant analysis (QA) and a complete and incomplete cumulant expansion (CEM and ICEM) method. The latter approaches introduce a turbulence timescale in the modeling. Furthermore, we find that the momentum flux needs a different formulation for the turbulence timescale than the sensible heat flux. In conclusion, accounting for buoyancy in stratified conditions is also deemed to be important in addition to accounting for non-local events to predict the correct momentum or scalar fluxes.« less

Connecting the failure of K-theory inside and above vegetation canopies and ejection-sweep cycles by a large eddy simulation

DOE PAGES

Banerjee, Tirtha; De Roo, Frederik; Mauder, Matthias

2017-10-19

Parameterizations of biosphere-atmosphere interaction processes in climate models and other hydrological applications require characterization of turbulent transport of momentum and scalars between vegetation canopies and the atmosphere, which is often modeled using a turbulent analogy to molecular diffusion processes. However, simple flux-gradient approaches (K-theory) fail for canopy turbulence. One cause is turbulent transport by large coherent eddies at the canopy scale, which can be linked to sweep-ejection events, and bear signatures of non-local organized eddy motions. K-theory, that parameterizes the turbulent flux or stress proportional to the local concentration or velocity gradient, fails to account for these non-local organized motions. The connection to sweep-ejection cycles and the local turbulent flux can be traced back to the turbulence triple momentmore » $$\\overline{C'W'W'}$$. In this work, we use large-eddy simulation to investigate the diagnostic connection between the failure of K-theory and sweep-ejection motions. Analyzed schemes are quadrant analysis (QA) and a complete and incomplete cumulant expansion (CEM and ICEM) method. The latter approaches introduce a turbulence timescale in the modeling. Furthermore, we find that the momentum flux needs a different formulation for the turbulence timescale than the sensible heat flux. In conclusion, accounting for buoyancy in stratified conditions is also deemed to be important in addition to accounting for non-local events to predict the correct momentum or scalar fluxes.« less

A heat budget for the Stratus mooring in the southeast Pacific

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Holte, J.; Straneo, F.; Weller, R. A.; Farrar, J. T.

2012-12-01

The surface layer of the southeast Pacific Ocean (SEP) requires an input of fresh, cold water to balance evaporation and heat gain from incoming solar radiation. Numerous processes contribute to closing the SEP's upper-ocean heat budget, including gyre circulation, Ekman transport and pumping, vertical mixing, and horizontal eddy heat flux divergence. However, there is little consensus on which processes are most important, as many modeling and observational studies have reported conflicting results. To examine how the SEP maintains relatively cool surface temperatures despite such strong surface forcing, we calculate a heat budget for the upper 250 m of the Stratus mooring. The Stratus mooring, deployed at 85(^o)W 20(^o)S since 2000, is in the center of the stratus cloud region. The surface buoy measures meteorological conditions and air-sea fluxes; the mooring line is heavily instrumented, measuring temperature, salinity, and velocity at approximately 15 to 20 depth levels. Our heat budget covers 2004 - 2010. The net air-sea heat flux over this period is 32 W m(^{-2}), approximately 2/3 of the flux over earlier periods. We use Argo profiles, relatively abundant in the region since 2004, to calculate horizontal temperature gradients. These gradients, coupled with the mooring velocity record, are used to estimate the advective heat flux. We find that the cool advective heat flux largely compensates the air-sea heat flux at the mooring; in our calculation this term includes the mean gyre circulation, horizontal Ekman transport, and some contribution from eddies. The passage of numerous eddies is evident in the mooring velocity record, but with the available data we cannot separate the eddy heat flux divergence from the mean heat advection. Vertical mixing and Ekman pumping across the base of the layer are both small.

Corrosion Detection in Airframes Using a New Flux-Focusing Eddy Current Probe

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fulton, James P.; Wincheski, Buzz; Nath, Shridhar; Namkung, Min

1994-01-01

A new flux-focusing eddy current probe was recently developed at NASA Langley Research Center. The new probe is similar in design to a reflection type eddy current probe, but is unique in that it does not require the use of an impedance bridge for balancing. The device monitors the RMS output voltage of a pickup coil and, as a result, is easier to operate and interpret than traditional eddy current instruments. The unique design feature of the probe is a ferromagnetic cylinder, typically 1020 steel, which separates a concentrically positioned drive and pickup coil. The increased permeability of the steel causes the magnetic flux produced by the drive coil to be focused in a ring around the pickup coil. At high frequencies the eddy currents induced in both the sample and the cylinder allow little or no flux to link with the pickup coil. This results in a self-nulling condition which has been shown to be useful for the unambiguous detection of cracks in conducting materials. As the frequency is lowered the flux produced by the drive coil begins to link with the pickup coil causing an output which, among other things, is proportional to the thickness of the test specimen. This enables highly accurate measurements of the thickness of conducting materials and helps to facilitate the monitoring of thickness variations in a conducting structure such as an aircraft fuselage. Under ideal laboratory conditions the probe can sense thickness changes on the order of 1% as illustrated. However, this is highly dependent upon the thickness, and the geometric complexity of the sample being tested and for practical problems the sensitivity is usually much less. In this presentation we highlight some of the advantages and limitations in using the probe to inspect aircraft panels for corrosion and other types of material nonuniformities. In particular, we present preliminary results which illustrate the probes capabilities for detecting first and second layer corrosion in aircraft panels which may contain air gaps between the layers. Since the probe utilized eddy currents its corrosion detection capabilities are similar to convectional eddy current techniques, but the new probe is much easier to use.

Global estimates of evapotranspiration and gross primary production based on MODIS and global meteorology data

USGS Publications Warehouse

Yuan, W.; Liu, S.; Yu, G.; Bonnefond, J.-M.; Chen, J.; Davis, K.; Desai, A.R.; Goldstein, Allen H.; Gianelle, D.; Rossi, F.; Suyker, A.E.; Verma, S.B.

2010-01-01

The simulation of gross primary production (GPP) at various spatial and temporal scales remains a major challenge for quantifying the global carbon cycle. We developed a light use efficiency model, called EC-LUE, driven by only four variables: normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), air temperature, and the Bowen ratio of sensible to latent heat flux. The EC-LUE model may have the most potential to adequately address the spatial and temporal dynamics of GPP because its parameters (i.e., the potential light use efficiency and optimal plant growth temperature) are invariant across the various land cover types. However, the application of the previous EC-LUE model was hampered by poor prediction of Bowen ratio at the large spatial scale. In this study, we substituted the Bowen ratio with the ratio of evapotranspiration (ET) to net radiation, and revised the RS-PM (Remote Sensing-Penman Monteith) model for quantifying ET. Fifty-four eddy covariance towers, including various ecosystem types, were selected to calibrate and validate the revised RS-PM and EC-LUE models. The revised RS-PM model explained 82% and 68% of the observed variations of ET for all the calibration and validation sites, respectively. Using estimated ET as input, the EC-LUE model performed well in calibration and validation sites, explaining 75% and 61% of the observed GPP variation for calibration and validation sites respectively.Global patterns of ET and GPP at a spatial resolution of 0.5° latitude by 0.6° longitude during the years 2000–2003 were determined using the global MERRA dataset (Modern Era Retrospective-Analysis for Research and Applications) and MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer). The global estimates of ET and GPP agreed well with the other global models from the literature, with the highest ET and GPP over tropical forests and the lowest values in dry and high latitude areas. However, comparisons with observed GPP at eddy flux towers showed significant underestimation of ET and GPP due to lower net radiation of MERRA dataset. Applying a procedure to correct the systematic errors of global meteorological data would improve global estimates of GPP and ET. The revised RS-PM and EC-LUE models will provide the alternative approaches making it possible to map ET and GPP over large areas because (1) the model parameters are invariant across various land cover types and (2) all driving forces of the models may be derived from remote sensing data or existing climate observation networks.

The role of large-scale eddies in the climate equilibrium. Part 2: Variable static stability

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zhou, Shuntai; Stone, Peter H.

1993-01-01

Lorenz's two-level model on a sphere is used to investigate how the results of Part 1 are modified when the interaction of the vertical eddy heat flux and static stability is included. In general, the climate state does not depend very much on whether or not this interaction is included, because the poleward eddy heat transport dominates the eddy forcing of mean temperature and wind fields. However, the climatic sensitivity is significantly affected. Compared to two-level model results with fixed static stability, the poleward eddy heat flux is less sensitive to the meridional temperature gradient and the gradient is more sensitive to the forcing. For example, the logarithmic derivative of the eddy flux with respect to the gradient has a slope that is reduced from approximately 15 on a beta-plane with fixed static stability and approximately 6 on a sphere with fixed static stability, to approximately 3 to 4 in the present model. This last result is more in line with analyses from observations. The present model also has a stronger baroclinic adjustment than that in Part 1, more like that in two-level beta-plane models with fixed static stability, that is, the midlatitude isentropic slope is very insensitive to the forcing, the diabatic heating, and the friction, unless the forcing is very weak.

Impact of Atmospheric Albedo on Amazon Evapotranspiration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lopes, A. V.; Thompson, S. E.; Dracup, J. A.

2013-12-01

The vulnerability of the Amazon region to climate and anthropogenic driven disturbances has been the subject of extensive research efforts, given its importance in the global and regional climate and ecologic systems. The evaluation of such vulnerabilities requires the proper understanding of physical mechanisms controlling water and energy balances and how the disturbances change them. Among those mechanisms, the effects of atmospheric albedo on evapotranspiration have not been fully explored yet and are explored in this study. Evapotranspiration in the Amazon is sustained at high levels across all seasons and represents a large fraction of water and energy surface budgets. In this study, statistical analysis of data from four flux towers installed at Amazon primary forest sites was employed to quantify the impact of atmospheric albedo, mostly resulted from cloudiness, on evapotranspiration and to compare it to the effect of water limitation. Firstly, the difference in eddy-flux derived evapotranspiration at the flux towers under rainy and non-rainy antecedent conditions was tested for significance. Secondly, the same statistical comparison was performed under cloudy and clear sky conditions at hourly and daily time scales, using the reduction in incoming solar radiation as an indicator of cloudiness. Finally, the sensitivity of seasonal evapotranspiration totals to atmospheric albedo resulted from rainfall patterns is evaluated. That was done by sampling daily evapotranspiration estimates from empirical probability distribution functions conditioned to rainfall occurrence and then varying the number of dry days in each season. It was found that light limitation is much more important than water limitation in the Amazon, resulting in up to 43% reduction in daily evapotranspiration. Also, this effect varies by location and by season, the largest impact being in wet season, from December do January. Moreover, seasonal evapotranspiration totals were found to be highly sensitive to the duration of dry spells, set by rainfall patterns, especially during wet seasons and further South from the Equator. These results points to the importance of proper understanding of convective systems and their effects on atmospheric albedo in assessing the vulnerability of Amazon basins to extended dry periods.

Modeling and measuring the nocturnal drainage flow in a high-elevation, subalpine forest with complex terrain

USGS Publications Warehouse

Yi, C.; Monson, Russell K.; Zhai, Z.; Anderson, D.E.; Lamb, B.; Allwine, G.; Turnipseed, A.A.; Burns, Sean P.

2005-01-01

The nocturnal drainage flow of air causes significant uncertainty in ecosystem CO2, H2O, and energy budgets determined with the eddy covariance measurement approach. In this study, we examined the magnitude, nature, and dynamics of the nocturnal drainage flow in a subalpine forest ecosystem with complex terrain. We used an experimental approach involving four towers, each with vertical profiling of wind speed to measure the magnitude of drainage flows and dynamics in their occurrence. We developed an analytical drainage flow model, constrained with measurements of canopy structure and SF6 diffusion, to help us interpret the tower profile results. Model predictions were in good agreement with observed profiles of wind speed, leaf area density, and wind drag coefficient. Using theory, we showed that this one-dimensional model is reduced to the widely used exponential wind profile model under conditions where vertical leaf area density and drag coefficient are uniformly distributed. We used the model for stability analysis, which predicted the presence of a very stable layer near the height of maximum leaf area density. This stable layer acts as a flow impediment, minimizing vertical dispersion between the subcanopy air space and the atmosphere above the canopy. The prediction is consistent with the results of SF6 diffusion observations that showed minimal vertical dispersion of nighttime, subcanopy drainage flows. The stable within-canopy air layer coincided with the height of maximum wake-to-shear production ratio. We concluded that nighttime drainage flows are restricted to a relatively shallow layer of air beneath the canopy, with little vertical mixing across a relatively long horizontal fetch. Insight into the horizontal and vertical structure of the drainage flow is crucial for understanding the magnitude and dynamics of the mean advective CO2 flux that becomes significant during stable nighttime conditions and are typically missed during measurement of the turbulent CO2 flux. The model and interpretation provided in this study should lead to research strategies for the measurement of these advective fluxes and their inclusion in the overall mass balance for CO2 at this site with complex terrain. Copyright 2005 by the American Geophysical Union.

Modeling and measuring the nocturnal drainage flow in a high-elevation, subalpine forest with complex terrain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yi, Chuixiang; Monson, Russell K.; Zhai, Zhiqiang; Anderson, Dean E.; Lamb, Brian; Allwine, Gene; Turnipseed, Andrew A.; Burns, Sean P.

2005-11-01

The nocturnal drainage flow of air causes significant uncertainty in ecosystem CO2, H2O, and energy budgets determined with the eddy covariance measurement approach. In this study, we examined the magnitude, nature, and dynamics of the nocturnal drainage flow in a subalpine forest ecosystem with complex terrain. We used an experimental approach involving four towers, each with vertical profiling of wind speed to measure the magnitude of drainage flows and dynamics in their occurrence. We developed an analytical drainage flow model, constrained with measurements of canopy structure and SF6 diffusion, to help us interpret the tower profile results. Model predictions were in good agreement with observed profiles of wind speed, leaf area density, and wind drag coefficient. Using theory, we showed that this one-dimensional model is reduced to the widely used exponential wind profile model under conditions where vertical leaf area density and drag coefficient are uniformly distributed. We used the model for stability analysis, which predicted the presence of a very stable layer near the height of maximum leaf area density. This stable layer acts as a flow impediment, minimizing vertical dispersion between the subcanopy air space and the atmosphere above the canopy. The prediction is consistent with the results of SF6 diffusion observations that showed minimal vertical dispersion of nighttime, subcanopy drainage flows. The stable within-canopy air layer coincided with the height of maximum wake-to-shear production ratio. We concluded that nighttime drainage flows are restricted to a relatively shallow layer of air beneath the canopy, with little vertical mixing across a relatively long horizontal fetch. Insight into the horizontal and vertical structure of the drainage flow is crucial for understanding the magnitude and dynamics of the mean advective CO2 flux that becomes significant during stable nighttime conditions and are typically missed during measurement of the turbulent CO2 flux. The model and interpretation provided in this study should lead to research strategies for the measurement of these advective fluxes and their inclusion in the overall mass balance for CO2 at this site with complex terrain.

A Passive Microwave L-Band Boreal Forest Freeze/Thaw and Vegetation Phenology Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roy, A.; Sonnentag, O.; Pappas, C.; Mavrovic, A.; Royer, A.; Berg, A. A.; Rowlandson, T. L.; Lemay, J.; Helgason, W.; Barr, A.; Black, T. A.; Derksen, C.; Toose, P.

2016-12-01

The boreal forest is the second largest land biome in the world and thus plays a major role in the global and regional climate systems. The extent, timing and duration of seasonal freeze/thaw (F/T) state influences vegetation developmental stages (phenology) and, consequently, constitute an important control on how boreal forest ecosystems exchange carbon, water and energy with the atmosphere. The effective retrieval of seasonal F/T state from L-Band radiometry was demonstrated using satellite mission. However, disentangling the seasonally differing contributions from forest overstory and understory vegetation, and the soil surface to the satellite signal remains challenging. Here we present initial results from a radiometer field campaign to improve our understanding of the L-Band derived boreal forest F/T signal and vegetation phenology. Two L-Band surface-based radiometers (SBR) are installed on a micrometeorological tower at the Southern Old Black Spruce site in central Saskatchewan over the 2016-2017 F/T season. One radiometer unit is installed on the flux tower so it views forest including all overstory and understory vegetation and the moss-covered ground surface. A second radiometer unit is installed within the boreal forest overstory, viewing the understory and the ground surface. The objectives of our study are (i) to disentangle the L-Band F/T signal contribution of boreal forest overstory from the understory and ground surface, (ii) to link the L-Band F/T signal to related boreal forest structural and functional characteristics, and (iii) to investigate the use of the L-Band signal to characterize boreal forest carbon, water and energy fluxes. The SBR observations above and within the forest canopy are used to retrieve the transmissivity (γ) and the scattering albedo (ω), two parameters that describe the emission of the forest canopy though the F/T season. These two forest parameters are compared with boreal forest structural and functional characteristics including eddy-covariance measurements of carbon dioxide, water and energy exchanges, sap flux density measurements of tree-level water dynamics, L-Band tree permittivity and temperature. The study will lead to improved monitoring of soil F/T and vegetation phenology at the boreal forest-scale from satellite L-Band observations.

Calculating CO2 and H2O eddy covariance fluxes from an enclosed gas analyzer using an instantaneous mixing ratio 2159

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Eddy covariance flux research has relied on open- or closed-path gas analyzers for producing estimates of net ecosystem exchange of carbon dioxide (CO2) and water vapor (H2O). The two instruments have had different challenges that have led to development of an enclosed design that is intended to max...

Effects of different eddy covariance correction schemes on energy balance closure and comparisons with the modified Bowen ratio system

Treesearch

Adam Wolf; Nick Saliendra; Kanat Akshalov; Douglas A. Johnson; Emilio Laca

2008-01-01

Eddy covariance (EC) and modified Bowen ratio (MBR) systems have been shown to yield subtly different estimates of sensible heat (H), latent heat (LE), and CO2 fluxes (Fc). Our study analyzed the discrepancies between these two systems by first considering the role of the data processing algorithm used to estimate fluxes using EC and later...

Computational Analysis of Static and Dynamic Behaviour of Magnetic Suspensions and Magnetic Bearings

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Britcher, Colin P. (Editor); Groom, Nelson J.

1996-01-01

Static modelling of magnetic bearings is often carried out using magnetic circuit theory. This theory cannot easily include nonlinear effects such as magnetic saturation or the fringing of flux in air-gaps. Modern computational tools are able to accurately model complex magnetic bearing geometries, provided some care is exercised. In magnetic suspension applications, the magnetic fields are highly three-dimensional and require computational tools for the solution of most problems of interest. The dynamics of a magnetic bearing or magnetic suspension system can be strongly affected by eddy currents. Eddy currents are present whenever a time-varying magnetic flux penetrates a conducting medium. The direction of flow of the eddy current is such as to reduce the rate-of-change of flux. Analytic solutions for eddy currents are available for some simplified geometries, but complex geometries must be solved by computation. It is only in recent years that such computations have been considered truly practical. At NASA Langley Research Center, state-of-the-art finite-element computer codes, 'OPERA', 'TOSCA' and 'ELEKTRA' have recently been installed and applied to the magnetostatic and eddy current problems. This paper reviews results of theoretical analyses which suggest general forms of mathematical models for eddy currents, together with computational results. A simplified circuit-based eddy current model proposed appears to predict the observed trends in the case of large eddy current circuits in conducting non-magnetic material. A much more difficult case is seen to be that of eddy currents in magnetic material, or in non-magnetic material at higher frequencies, due to the lower skin depths. Even here, the dissipative behavior has been shown to yield at least somewhat to linear modelling. Magnetostatic and eddy current computations have been carried out relating to the Annular Suspension and Pointing System, a prototype for a space payload pointing and vibration isolation system, where the magnetic actuator geometry resembles a conventional magnetic bearing. Magnetostatic computations provide estimates of flux density within airgaps and the iron core material, fringing at the pole faces and the net force generated. Eddy current computations provide coil inductance, power dissipation and the phase lag in the magnetic field, all as functions of excitation frequency. Here, the dynamics of the magnetic bearings, notably the rise time of forces with changing currents, are found to be very strongly affected by eddy currents, even at quite low frequencies. Results are also compared to experimental measurements of the performance of a large-gap magnetic suspension system, the Large Angle Magnetic Suspension Test Fixture (LAMSTF). Eddy current effects are again shown to significantly affect the dynamics of the system. Some consideration is given to the ease and accuracy of computation, specifically relating to OPERA/TOSCA/ELEKTRA.

Annular modes and apparent eddy feedbacks in the Southern Hemisphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Byrne, Nicholas J.; Shepherd, Theodore G.; Woollings, Tim; Plumb, R. Alan

2016-04-01

Lagged correlation analysis is often used to infer intraseasonal dynamical effects but is known to be affected by nonstationarity. We highlight a pronounced quasi 2 year peak in the anomalous zonal wind and eddy momentum flux convergence power spectra in the Southern Hemisphere, which is prima facie evidence for nonstationarity. We then investigate the consequences of this nonstationarity for the Southern Annular Mode and for eddy momentum flux convergence. We argue that positive lagged correlations previously attributed to the existence of an eddy feedback are more plausibly attributed to nonstationary interannual variability external to any potential feedback process in the midlatitude troposphere. The findings have implications for the diagnosis of feedbacks in both models and reanalysis data as well as for understanding the mechanisms underlying variations in the zonal wind.

Annular modes and apparent eddy feedbacks in the Southern Hemisphere.

PubMed

Byrne, Nicholas J; Shepherd, Theodore G; Woollings, Tim; Plumb, R Alan

2016-04-28

Lagged correlation analysis is often used to infer intraseasonal dynamical effects but is known to be affected by nonstationarity. We highlight a pronounced quasi 2 year peak in the anomalous zonal wind and eddy momentum flux convergence power spectra in the Southern Hemisphere, which is prima facie evidence for nonstationarity. We then investigate the consequences of this nonstationarity for the Southern Annular Mode and for eddy momentum flux convergence. We argue that positive lagged correlations previously attributed to the existence of an eddy feedback are more plausibly attributed to nonstationary interannual variability external to any potential feedback process in the midlatitude troposphere. The findings have implications for the diagnosis of feedbacks in both models and reanalysis data as well as for understanding the mechanisms underlying variations in the zonal wind.

Dynamics of carbon, water and energy cycles in a heterogeneous landscape and a changing climate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schmidt, A.; Law, B. E.; Still, C. J.; Hilker, T.

2016-12-01

The combined effects of changes in land-use and land cover (LULC) and climate on carbon and water cycling need to be assessed at regional scales. LULC changes over time have many drivers such as expanding urban areas, exploration of new agricultural areas due to overused natural resources of current agricultural areas (e.g. degraded soil), economical reasons, or policy changes that encourage the use of alternative energy resources. Our study assesses the effects of conversion of semi-arid sagebrush and agricultural crops to bioenergy production on carbon, water and energy cycling, and resulting heating or cooling effects. Our project focusses on Oregon, where agricultural crops, significant forest area, and urban expansion are coupled with a strong spatial climate gradient that allows us to examine influences on carbon sequestration by the terrestrial biosphere. Our inverse modeling results showed that the prior fluxes modelled with CLM4.5 underestimated NEE in the highly productive western Douglas fir forests by more than 50%. Based on the results of our Bayesian inversion, we optimized ecosystem fluxes and changed CLM model parameters accordingly. By integrating remote sensing LULC data, eddy covariance data from flux sites, tall tower CO2 observations, biomass estimates from field samples, and CLM4.5, we predict current and future statewide carbon sequestration with unprecedented accuracy. Using inventories and tower flux data, we determined the effect of conversion of hay and grass seed cropland (323,200 ha) to hybrid poplar and found the state NEP increased from 4 TgCO2 per year to 13 TgCO2 per year for that area. The last coal power plant in the state (Boardman) is in the process of switching from coal combustion to biofuel burning to meet the state's goal for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Our results show that the 7816 tons of biomass per day to keep the 518 MW power plant running at base load would amount to 35,000 hectares of hybrid poplar per year under current climate conditions. The improved CLM4.5 model will be used to evaluate the impacts of this land use change on the net ecosystem carbon balance under future climate conditions.

Using the Cross-Correlation Function to Evaluate the Quality of Eddy-Covariance Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qi, Yongfeng; Shang, Xiaodong; Chen, Guiying; Gao, Zhiqiu; Bi, Xueyan

2015-11-01

A cross-correlation test is proposed for evaluating the quality of 30-min eddy-covariance data. Cross-correlation as a function of time lag is computed for vertical velocity paired with temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide concentration. High quality data have a dominant peak at zero time lag and approach zero within a time lag of 20 s. Poor quality data have erratic cross-correlation functions, which indicates that the eddy flux may no longer represent the energy and mass exchange between the atmospheric surface layer and the canopy, and such data should be rejected in post-data analyses. Eddy-covariance data over grassland in July 2004 are used to evaluate the proposed test. The results show that 17, 29, and 36 % of the available data should be rejected because of poor quality measurements of sensible heat, latent heat, and CO2 fluxes, respectively. The rejected data mainly occurred on calm nights and day/night transitions when the atmospheric surface layer became stable or neutrally stratified. We found no friction velocity (u_*) threshold below which all data should be rejected, a test that many other studies have implemented for rejecting questionable data. We instead found that some data with low u_* were reliable, whereas other data with higher u_* were not. The poor quality measurements collected under less than ideal conditions were replaced by using the mean diurnal variation gap-filling method. The correction for poor quality data shifted the daily average CO2 flux by +0.34 g C m^{-2} day^{-1}. After applying the quality-control test, the eddy CO2 fluxes did not display a clear dependence on u_*. The results suggest that the cross-correlation test is a potentially valuable step in evaluating the quality of eddy-covariance data.

A Semi-parametric Multivariate Gap-filling Model for Eddy Covariance Latent Heat Flux

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, M.; Chen, Y.

2010-12-01

Quantitative descriptions of latent heat fluxes are important to study the water and energy exchanges between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere. The eddy covariance approaches have been recognized as the most reliable technique for measuring surface fluxes over time scales ranging from hours to years. However, unfavorable micrometeorological conditions, instrument failures, and applicable measurement limitations may cause inevitable flux gaps in time series data. Development and application of suitable gap-filling techniques are crucial to estimate long term fluxes. In this study, a semi-parametric multivariate gap-filling model was developed to fill latent heat flux gaps for eddy covariance measurements. Our approach combines the advantages of a multivariate statistical analysis (principal component analysis, PCA) and a nonlinear interpolation technique (K-nearest-neighbors, KNN). The PCA method was first used to resolve the multicollinearity relationships among various hydrometeorological factors, such as radiation, soil moisture deficit, LAI, and wind speed. The KNN method was then applied as a nonlinear interpolation tool to estimate the flux gaps as the weighted sum latent heat fluxes with the K-nearest distances in the PCs’ domain. Two years, 2008 and 2009, of eddy covariance and hydrometeorological data from a subtropical mixed evergreen forest (the Lien-Hua-Chih Site) were collected to calibrate and validate the proposed approach with artificial gaps after standard QC/QA procedures. The optimal K values and weighting factors were determined by the maximum likelihood test. The results of gap-filled latent heat fluxes conclude that developed model successful preserving energy balances of daily, monthly, and yearly time scales. Annual amounts of evapotranspiration from this study forest were 747 mm and 708 mm for 2008 and 2009, respectively. Nocturnal evapotranspiration was estimated with filled gaps and results are comparable with other studies. Seasonal and daily variability of latent heat fluxes were also discussed.

Application of an eddy correlation system for the estimation of oxygen benthic fluxes in coastal permeable sediments impacted by submarine groundwater discharge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Donis, D.; Janssen, F.; Böttcher, M.; McGinnis, D.; Holtappels, M.; Wenzhöfer, F.

2012-04-01

Measurements of solute exchange across the sediment-water interface are crucial for marine environment monitoring. This interface has fundamental filter functions for the mass exchange between the seafloor and the water column. Being a non-invasive technique, the eddy correlation method, is probably the most accurate measurement for benthic fluxes. It does not interfere with local hydrodynamics and integrates over large areas, showing considerable advantages compared to traditional methods, i.e., microprofiles and benthic chambers. One of the most important exchange processes across the sediment-water interface is flux of oxygen, which is a predominant control factor for the biogeochemical activity in the sediment, carbon processing and the composition of benthic communities. The eddy correlation method performs simultaneous recordings of vertical velocities and oxygen concentrations at a specific distance to the seafloor and is becoming a standard method for resolving dissolved oxygen fluxes in aquatic systems. However, data treatment and interpretation, especially in shallow environments, is still challenging. One major concern in eddy correlation studies of coastal environments is how to consider surface wave motions that can dominate the turbulence range and that may bias flux calculations. A critical part of the data treatment thus is the removal of wave biases from the vertical velocity component, by separating the wave frequency oscillations (due to a tilted or miss-aligned sensor) from those containing meaningful flux contributions. Here we present in situ benthic oxygen exchange rates as determined by an eddy correlation system (ECS) and simultaneously deployed stirred benthic chambers. The study was carried out in a coastal ecosystem of the southern Baltic Sea that was impacted by low salinity groundwater discharge (Hel peninsula, Poland). Oxygen fluxes determined with ECS compared well with results from benthic chambers. Flux data and seepage rates are discussed in the context of groundwater and their importance for benthic biogeochemical processes in shallow sandy sediments. This work was supported by 7th framework EU ITN-project SENSEnet and BONUS+ project AMBER.

Carbon Dioxide and Water Vapor Concentrations, Co-spectra and Fluxes from Latest Standardized Automated CO2/H2O Flux Systems versus Established Analyzer Models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burba, G. G.; Kathilankal, J. C.; Begashaw, I.; Franzen, D.; Welles, J.; McDermitt, D. K.

2017-12-01

Spatial and temporal flux data coverage have improved significantly in recent years, due to standardization, automation and management of data collection, and better handling of the generated data. With more stations and networks, larger data streams from each station, and smaller operating budgets, modern tools are required to effectively and efficiently handle the entire process.These tools should produce standardized verifiable datasets, and provide a way to cross-share the standardized data with external collaborators to leverage available funding, and promote data analyses and publications. In 2015, new open-path and enclosed flux measurement systems1 were developed, based on established gas analyzer models2,3, with the goal of improving stability in the presence of contamination, refining temperature control and compensation, and providing more accurate gas concentration measurements. In 2017, the new open-path system was further refined to simplify hardware configuration, and to reduce power consumption and cost. Additionally, all new systems incorporate complete automated on-site flux calculations using EddyPro® Software4 run by a weatherized remotely-accessible microcomputer to provide standardized traceable data sets for fluxes and supporting variables. This presentation will describe details and results from the field tests of the new flux systems, in comparison to older models and reference instruments. References:1 Burba G., W. Miller, I. Begashaw, G. Fratini, F. Griessbaum, J. Kathilankal, L. Xu, D. Franz, E. Joseph, E. Larmanou, S. Miller, D. Papale, S. Sabbatini, T. Sachs, R. Sakai, D. McDermitt, 2017. Comparison of CO2 Concentrations, Co-spectra and Flux Measurements between Latest Standardized Automated CO2/H2O Flux Systems and Older Gas Analysers. 10th ICDC Conference, Switzerland: 21-25/08 2 Metzger, S., G. Burba, S. Burns, P. Blanken, J. Li, H. Luo, R. Zulueta, 2016. Optimization of an enclosed gas analyzer sampling system for measuring eddy covariance fluxes of H2O and CO2. AMT, 9: 1341-1359 3 Burba, G., 2013. Eddy Covariance Method for Scientific, Industrial, Agricultural and Regulatory Applications. LI-COR Biosciences: 331 pp. 4 Fratini, G., Mauder, M., 2014. Towards a consistent eddy-covariance processing: an intercomparison of EddyPro and TK3. AMT, 7: 2273-2281

Urban Evapotranspiration and Carbon Dioxide Flux in Miami - Dade, Florida

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bernier, T.; Hopper, W.

2010-12-01

Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide (CO2) concentrations are leading indicators of secular climate change. With increasing awareness of the consequences of climate change, methods for monitoring this change are becoming more important daily. Of particular interest is the carbon dioxide exchange between natural and urban landscapes and the correlation of atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Monitoring Evapotranspiration (ET) is important for assessments of water availability for growing populations. ET is surprisingly understudied in the hydrologic cycle considering ET removes as much as 80 to over 100% of precipitation back into the atmosphere as water vapor. Lack of understanding in spatial and temporal ET estimates can limit the credibility of hydrologic water budgets designed to promote sustainable water use and resolve water-use conflicts. Eddy covariance (EC) methods are commonly used to estimate ET and CO2 fluxes. The EC platform consist of a (CSAT) 3-D Sonic Anemometer and a Li-Cor Open Path CO2/ H2O Analyzer. Measurements collected at 10 Hz create a very large data sets. A EC flux tower located in the Snapper Creek Well Field as part of a study to estimate ET for the Miami Dade County Water and Sewer project. Data has been collected from December 17, 2009 to August 30, 2010. QA/QC is performed with the EdiRe data processing software according to Ameri-flux protocols. ET estimates along with other data--latent-heat flux, sensible-heat flux, rainfall, air temperature, wind speed and direction, solar irradiance, net radiation, soil-heat flux and relative humidity--can be used to aid in the development of water management policies and regulations. Currently, many financial institutions have adopted an understanding about baseline environmental monitoring. The “Equator Principle” is an example of a voluntary standard for managing social and environmental risk in project financing and has changed the way in which projects are financed.

The Use of a Mesoscale Climate Model to Validate the Nocturnal Carbon Flux over a Forested Site

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Werth, D.; Parker, M.; Kurzeja, R.; Leclerc, M.; Watson, T.

2007-12-01

The Savannah River National Laboratory is initiating a comprehensive carbon dioxide monitoring and modeling program in collaboration with the University of Georgia and the Brookhaven National Laboratory. One of the primary goals is to study the dynamics of carbon dioxide in the stable nocturnal boundary layer (NBL) over a forested area of the Savannah River Site in southwest South Carolina. In the nocturnal boundary layer (NBL), eddy flux correlation is less effective in determining the release of CO2 due to respiration. Theoretically, however, the flux can be inferred by measuring the build up of CO2 in the stable layer throughout the night. This method of monitoring the flux will be validated and studied in more detail with both observations and the results of a high-resolution regional climate model. The experiment will involve two phases. First, an artificial tracer will be released into the forest boundary layer and observed through an array of sensors and at a flux tower. The event will be simulated with the RAMS climate model run at very high resolution. Ideally, the tracer will remain trapped within the stable layer and accumulate at rates which will allow us to infer the release rate, and this should compare well to the actual release rate. If an unknown mechanism allows the tracer to escape, the model simulation would be used to reveal it. In the second phase, carbon fluxes will be measured overnight through accumulation in the overlying layer. The RAMS model will be coupled with the SiB carbon model to simulate the nocturnal cycle of carbon dynamics, and this will be compared to the data collected during the night. As with the tracer study, the NBL method of flux measurement will be validated against the model. The RAMS-SiB coupled model has been run over the SRS at high-resolution to simulate the NBL, and results from simulations of both phases of the project will be presented.

Convective - TTU

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kosovic, Branko

This dataset includes large-eddy simulation (LES) output from a convective atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) simulation of observations at the SWIFT tower near Lubbock, Texas on July 4, 2012. The dataset was used to assess the LES models for simulation of canonical convective ABL. The dataset can be used for comparison with other LES and computational fluid dynamics model outputs.

LANL - Convective - TTU

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kosovic, Branko

This dataset includes large-eddy simulation (LES) output from a convective atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) simulation of observations at the SWIFT tower near Lubbock, Texas on July 4, 2012. The dataset was used to assess the LES models for simulation of canonical convective ABL. The dataset can be used for comparison with other LES and computational fluid dynamics model outputs.

LANL - Neutral - TTU

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kosovic, Branko

This dataset includes large-eddy simulation (LES) output from a neutrally stratified atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) simulation of observations at the SWIFT tower near Lubbock, Texas on Aug. 17, 2012. The dataset was used to assess LES models for simulation of canonical neutral ABL. The dataset can be used for comparison with other LES and computational fluid dynamics model outputs.

Detecting management and fertilization effects on the carbon balance of winter oilseed rape with manual closed chamber measurements: Can we outrange gap-filling uncertainty and spatiotemporal variability?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huth, Vytas; Moffat, Antje Maria; Calmet, Anna; Andres, Monique; Laufer, Judit; Pehle, Natalia; Rach, Bernd; Gundlach, Laura; Augustin, Jürgen

2017-04-01

Winter oilseed rape is the dominant biofuel crop in the young moraine landscape in North-Eastern Germany. However, studies on the effect of rapeseed cropping on net ecosystem exchange of CO2 (NEE) and the soil carbon (SC) balance are scarce. SC balance estimates are usually derived from long-term soil sampling field trials where rapeseed is part of different crop rotations. The estimated annual differences linked to rapeseed cropping are rather small (varying between losses of 40 g C m-2 and gains of up to 100 g C m-2). Testing management effects on the NEE and SC balance of cropping systems is best done by comparing plots with different treatments at the same site under the same climate. The soil sampling approach is in the need of field trials that run over decades, which has the disadvantage that management strategies of practical farming may have already changed when the results are derived. Continuous eddy covariance measurements of NEE would require large fields in flat terrain for each of the treatments, which is especially complicated in the heterogeneous landscapes of glacigenic origin of North-Eastern Germany. The common approach of using the chamber technique to derive NEE, however, is subject to the local soil and plant stand heterogeneities due to its tiny footprint. This technique might also disturb the ecosystem, the measurements are usually discontinuous requiring elaborate gap-filling techniques, and it has mostly been used on organic soils where large respiratory C losses occur. Therefore, our aim was to answer, if a combined approach of the eddy covariance and the chamber technique can detect the relatively small NEE and SC differences of rapeseed cropping on mineral soils within a shorter period of time than conventional soil sampling field trials can. We tested the new experimental design taking the advantages of both techniques into account: The eddy covariance tower measuring the NEE dynamics during the year; the chamber measurements to detect the flux differences between specific management practices - with additional chamber measurements installed close to the eddy tower as a reference linking the two techniques. In our experiment, we studied the effect of four different treatments of fertilization (mineral versus organic) and tillage (no-till versus mulch-till versus ploughing) on the NEE of rapeseed cropping for the climatic seasons 2013 to 2015. We compared the NEE of the treatments to the "background" NEE measured by the eddy covariance technique in the nearby reference field for the years 2013 and 2014. With this data, we estimated the uncertainty resulting from gap filling discontinuous chamber measurements and relate it to the observed effects of the four different treatments on the NEE. Here, we present first results on the applicability of the manual-chamber technique to derive the relatively small effects of rapeseed cropping on NEE and SC within a short period of three years of study.

A Comparison of Martian Transient Wave Energetics in High and Low Optical Depth Environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Battalio, J. M.; Szunyogh, I.; Lemmon, M. T.

2016-12-01

The local energetics of individual transient eddies from the Mars Analysis Correction Data Assimilation (MACDA) is compared between a year with a global-scale dust storm (MY 25) and two years of relatively low optical depth conditions. Eddies in each year are considered from a period of strong wave activity in the northern hemisphere before the winter solstice (Ls=170-240°). The local growth of eddies is typically triggered by geopotential flux convergence. While all waves exhibit some baroclinic growth, baroclinic energy conversion is weaker in the waves that occur during the global-scale dust storm. The weaker baroclinic energy conversion in these waves, however, is compensated by a more intense barotropic transfer of the kinetic energy from the mean flow to the waves: the contribution from barotropic energy conversion allows eddies during the global-scale dust storm to attain roughly the same maximum eddy kinetic energy as eddies during the low optical depth years. Individual eddies in the waves decay through a combination of barotropic conversion of the kinetic energy from the waves to the mean flow, geopotential flux divergence, and dissipation in both the high- and the low-optical-depth years.

Maintaining High Quality Data and Consistency Across a Diverse Flux Network: The Ameriflux QA/QC Technical Team

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chan, S.; Billesbach, D. P.; Hanson, C. V.; Biraud, S.

2014-12-01

The AmeriFlux quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) technical team conducts short term (<2 weeks) intercomparisons using a portable eddy covariance system (PECS) to maintain high quality data observations and data consistency across the AmeriFlux network (http://ameriflux.lbl.gov/). Site intercomparisons identify discrepancies between the in situ and portable measurements and calculated fluxes. Findings are jointly discussed by the site staff and the QA/QC team to improve in the situ observations. Despite the relatively short duration of an individual site intercomparison, the accumulated record of all site visits (numbering over 100 since 2002) is a unique dataset. The ability to deploy redundant sensors provides a rare opportunity to identify, quantify, and understand uncertainties in eddy covariance and ancillary measurements. We present a few specific case studies from QA/QC site visits to highlight and share new and relevant findings related to eddy covariance instrumentation and operation.

A diagnostic study of the forcing of the Ferrel cell by eddies, with latent heat effects included

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Salustri, G.; Stone, P. H.

1983-01-01

A diagnostic study of the forcing of the Ferrel cell by eddy fluxes in the Northern Hemisphere is carried out. The quasi-geostrophic omega equation, and Oort and Rasmusson's (1971) data set, are used. The effects of condensation associated with the large scale motions are introduced to the omega equation by using the quasi-geostrophic moisture conservation equation. Thus, the dry static stability is replaced by a moist static stability, and the forcing of the Ferrel cell by eddy latent heat fluxes as well as sensible heat and momentum fluxes is included. Both effects tend to enhance the forcing of the Ferrel cell. The numerical analysis indicates that the effects are small in January, but in July the maximum vertical velocities are enhanced by about 30 percent.

AmeriFlux US-SCs Southern California Climate Gradient - Coastal Sage

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Goulden, Mike

This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-SCs Southern California Climate Gradient - Coastal Sage. Site Description - Half hourly data are available at https://www.ess.uci.edu/~california/. This site is one of six Southern California Climate Gradient flux towers operated along an elevation gradient (sites are US-SCg, US-SCs, US-SCf, US-SCw, US-SCc, US-SCd). This site is a coastal sage shrubland. Coastal sage is a small stature, closed canopy vegetation dominated by drought deciduous shrubs. The site has historically burned every 10-20 years, with the wild fire in October 2007. The tower data sets includes this recovery process.

AmeriFlux US-PFa Park Falls/WLEF

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Desai, Ankur

This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-PFa Park Falls/WLEF. Site Description - The flux footprint encompasses a highly heterogeneous landscape of upland forests and wetlands (forested and nonforested). The forests are mainly deciduous but also include substantial coniferous coverage. The upland/lowland variability occurs on spatial scales of a few hundred meters. This heterogeneous landscape is further complicated by a nonuniform, small scale mosaic of thinning and clearcutting of the forest. At larger scales (1 km or greater) the forest cover mosaic is quite homogeneous for many kilometers. The site was chosen not formore » study of a simple stand, but for upscaling experiments. The daytime fetch of flux measurements from the 396m level is on the order of 5-10 km, yielding a flux footprint roughly 100x the area of a typical stand-level flux tower. AC power (tower is a TV transmitter).« less

AmeriFlux BR-Sa1 Santarem-Km67-Primary Forest

DOE Data Explorer

Saleska, Scott [University of Arizona

2016-01-01

This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site BR-Sa1 Santarem-Km67-Primary Forest. Site Description - The LBA Tapajos KM67 Mature Forest site is located in the Tapajos National Forest, a 450,000 ha closed-canopy upland forest in Amazonian Brazil. Bounded by the Tapajos River in the west and highway BR-163 to the east, the tower is located on a flat plateau (or planalto) that extends up to 150 km to the north, south, and east. Within the confines of the National Forest, anthropogenic disturbances are limited to a few small hunting trails. The surrounding stand is classified as primary or "old-growth"" predominantly by its uneven age distribution, emergent trees, numerous epiphytes and abundant large logs. In 2007 falling trees hit the tower guy wires rendering all instrumentation in-operational. After a complete restoration tower measurements resumed in August of 2008.

Modification of ocean-estuary salt fluxes by density-driven advection of a headland eddy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fram, J. P.; Stacey, M. T.

2005-05-01

Scalar exchange between San Francisco Bay and the coastal ocean is examined using shipboard observations made across the Golden Gate Channel. Ocean-estuary exchange is often described as a combination of two independent types of mechanisms: density-driven exchange such as gravitational circulation and tidal asymmetries such as tidal trapping. In this study we found that exchange is also governed by an interaction between these mechanisms. Tidally trapped eddies created in shallow shoals are mixed into the main channel earlier in the tidal cycle during the rainy season because the eddies are pushed seaward by gravitational circulation. This interaction increases the tidally averaged dispersive salt flux into the bay. The study consists of experiments during each of three 'seasons': winter/spring runoff (March 2002), summer upwelling (July 2003), and fall relaxation (October 2002). Within each experiment, transects across the channel were repeated approximately every 12 minutes for 25 hours during both spring tide and the following neap tide. Velocity was measured from a boat-mounted ADCP. Scalar concentrations were measured from a tow-yoed SeaSciences Acrobat. Salinity exchange over each spring-neap cycle is quantified with harmonic analysis. Harmonic results are decomposed into flux mechanisms using temporal and spatial correlations. The temporal correlation of cross-sectional averaged salinity and velocity (tidal pumping flux) is the largest part of the dispersive flux of salinity into the bay. From the tidal pumping portion of the dispersive flux, it is shown that there is less exchange than was found in earlier studies. Furthermore, tidal pumping flux scales strongly with flow due to density-driven movement of tidally trapped eddies and density-driven increases in ebb-flood frictional phasing. Complex bathymetry makes salinity exchange scale differently with flow than would be expected from simple tidal pumping and gravitational circulation models.

Eddy covariance flux corrections and uncertainties in long-term studies of carbon and energy exchanges

Treesearch

W. J. Massman; X. Lee

2002-01-01

This study derives from and extends the discussions of a US DOE sponsored workshop held on 30 and 31 May, 2000 in Boulder, CO concerning issues and uncertainties related to long-term eddy covariance measurements of carbon and energy exchanges. The workshop was organized in response to concerns raised at the 1999 annual AmeriFlux meeting about the lack of uniformity...

Combining eddy-covariance and chamber measurements to determine the methane budget from a small, heterogeneous urban floodplain wetland park

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Morin, T. H.; Bohrer, G.; Stefanik, K. C.

Methane (CH 4) emissions and carbon uptake in temperate freshwater wetlands act in opposing directions in the context of global radiative forcing. Large uncertainties exist for the rates of CH 4 emissions making it difficult to determine the extent that CH 4 emissions counteract the carbon sequestration of wetlands. Urban temperate wetlands are typically small and feature highly heterogeneous land cover, posing an additional challenge to determining their CH 4 budget. The data analysis approach we introduce here combines two different CH 4 flux measurement techniques to overcome scale and heterogeneity problems and determine the overall CH 4 budget ofmore » a small, heterogeneous, urban wetland landscape. Temporally intermittent point measurements from non-steady-state chambers provided information about patch-level heterogeneity of fluxes, while continuous, high temporal resolution flux measurements using the eddy-covariance (EC) technique provided information about the temporal dynamics of the fluxes. Patch-level scaling parameterization was developed from the chamber data to scale eddy covariance data to a ‘fixed-frame’, which corrects for variability in the spatial coverage of the eddy covariance observation footprint at any single point in time. Finally, by combining two measurement techniques at different scales, we addressed shortcomings of both techniques with respect to heterogeneous wetland sites.« less

Combining eddy-covariance and chamber measurements to determine the methane budget from a small, heterogeneous urban floodplain wetland park

DOE PAGES

Morin, T. H.; Bohrer, G.; Stefanik, K. C.; ...

2017-02-17

Methane (CH 4) emissions and carbon uptake in temperate freshwater wetlands act in opposing directions in the context of global radiative forcing. Large uncertainties exist for the rates of CH 4 emissions making it difficult to determine the extent that CH 4 emissions counteract the carbon sequestration of wetlands. Urban temperate wetlands are typically small and feature highly heterogeneous land cover, posing an additional challenge to determining their CH 4 budget. The data analysis approach we introduce here combines two different CH 4 flux measurement techniques to overcome scale and heterogeneity problems and determine the overall CH 4 budget ofmore » a small, heterogeneous, urban wetland landscape. Temporally intermittent point measurements from non-steady-state chambers provided information about patch-level heterogeneity of fluxes, while continuous, high temporal resolution flux measurements using the eddy-covariance (EC) technique provided information about the temporal dynamics of the fluxes. Patch-level scaling parameterization was developed from the chamber data to scale eddy covariance data to a ‘fixed-frame’, which corrects for variability in the spatial coverage of the eddy covariance observation footprint at any single point in time. Finally, by combining two measurement techniques at different scales, we addressed shortcomings of both techniques with respect to heterogeneous wetland sites.« less

A New Approach to Extract Forest Water Use Efficiency from Eddy Covariance Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scanlon, T. M.; Sulman, B. N.

2016-12-01

Determination of forest water use efficiency (WUE) from eddy covariance data typically involves the following steps: (a) estimating gross primary productivity (GPP) from direct measurements of net ecosystem exchange (NEE) by extrapolating nighttime ecosystem respiration (ER) to daytime conditions, and (b) assuming direct evaporation (E) is minimal several days after rainfall, meaning that direct measurements of evapotranspiration (ET) are identical to transpiration (T). Both of these steps could lead to errors in the estimation of forest WUE. Here, we present a theoretical approach for estimating WUE through the analysis of standard eddy covariance data, which circumvents these steps. Only five statistics are needed from the high-frequency time series to extract WUE: CO2 flux, water vapor flux, standard deviation in CO2 concentration, standard deviation in water vapor concentration, and the correlation coefficient between CO2 and water vapor concentration for each half-hour period. The approach is based on the assumption that stomatal fluxes (i.e. photosynthesis and transpiration) lead to perfectly negative correlations and non-stomatal fluxes (i.e. ecosystem respiration and direct evaporation) lead to perfectly positive correlations within the CO2 and water vapor high frequency time series measured above forest canopies. A mathematical framework is presented, followed by a proof of concept using eddy covariance data and leaf-level measurements of WUE.

Multi-Scale Modeling and the Eddy-Diffusivity/Mass-Flux (EDMF) Parameterization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Teixeira, J.

2015-12-01

Turbulence and convection play a fundamental role in many key weather and climate science topics. Unfortunately, current atmospheric models cannot explicitly resolve most turbulent and convective flow. Because of this fact, turbulence and convection in the atmosphere has to be parameterized - i.e. equations describing the dynamical evolution of the statistical properties of turbulence and convection motions have to be devised. Recently a variety of different models have been developed that attempt at simulating the atmosphere using variable resolution. A key problem however is that parameterizations are in general not explicitly aware of the resolution - the scale awareness problem. In this context, we will present and discuss a specific approach, the Eddy-Diffusivity/Mass-Flux (EDMF) parameterization, that not only is in itself a multi-scale parameterization but it is also particularly well suited to deal with the scale-awareness problems that plague current variable-resolution models. It does so by representing small-scale turbulence using a classic Eddy-Diffusivity (ED) method, and the larger-scale (boundary layer and tropospheric-scale) eddies as a variety of plumes using the Mass-Flux (MF) concept.

Large-Eddy Simulation Sensitivities to Variations of Configuration and Forcing Parameters in Canonical Boundary-Layer Flows for Wind Energy Applications

DOE PAGES

Mirocha, Jeffrey D.; Churchfield, Matthew J.; Munoz-Esparza, Domingo; ...

2017-08-28

Here, the sensitivities of idealized Large-Eddy Simulations (LES) to variations of model configuration and forcing parameters on quantities of interest to wind power applications are examined. Simulated wind speed, turbulent fluxes, spectra and cospectra are assessed in relation to variations of two physical factors, geostrophic wind speed and surface roughness length, and several model configuration choices, including mesh size and grid aspect ratio, turbulence model, and numerical discretization schemes, in three different code bases. Two case studies representing nearly steady neutral and convective atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) flow conditions over nearly flat and homogeneous terrain were used to force andmore » assess idealized LES, using periodic lateral boundary conditions. Comparison with fast-response velocity measurements at five heights within the lowest 50 m indicates that most model configurations performed similarly overall, with differences between observed and predicted wind speed generally smaller than measurement variability. Simulations of convective conditions produced turbulence quantities and spectra that matched the observations well, while those of neutral simulations produced good predictions of stress, but smaller than observed magnitudes of turbulence kinetic energy, likely due to tower wakes influencing the measurements. While sensitivities to model configuration choices and variability in forcing can be considerable, idealized LES are shown to reliably reproduce quantities of interest to wind energy applications within the lower ABL during quasi-ideal, nearly steady neutral and convective conditions over nearly flat and homogeneous terrain.« less

Large-Eddy Simulation Sensitivities to Variations of Configuration and Forcing Parameters in Canonical Boundary-Layer Flows for Wind Energy Applications

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mirocha, Jeffrey D.; Churchfield, Matthew J.; Munoz-Esparza, Domingo

Here, the sensitivities of idealized Large-Eddy Simulations (LES) to variations of model configuration and forcing parameters on quantities of interest to wind power applications are examined. Simulated wind speed, turbulent fluxes, spectra and cospectra are assessed in relation to variations of two physical factors, geostrophic wind speed and surface roughness length, and several model configuration choices, including mesh size and grid aspect ratio, turbulence model, and numerical discretization schemes, in three different code bases. Two case studies representing nearly steady neutral and convective atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) flow conditions over nearly flat and homogeneous terrain were used to force andmore » assess idealized LES, using periodic lateral boundary conditions. Comparison with fast-response velocity measurements at five heights within the lowest 50 m indicates that most model configurations performed similarly overall, with differences between observed and predicted wind speed generally smaller than measurement variability. Simulations of convective conditions produced turbulence quantities and spectra that matched the observations well, while those of neutral simulations produced good predictions of stress, but smaller than observed magnitudes of turbulence kinetic energy, likely due to tower wakes influencing the measurements. While sensitivities to model configuration choices and variability in forcing can be considerable, idealized LES are shown to reliably reproduce quantities of interest to wind energy applications within the lower ABL during quasi-ideal, nearly steady neutral and convective conditions over nearly flat and homogeneous terrain.« less

Cobalt, manganese, and iron near the Hawaiian Islands: A potential concentrating mechanism for cobalt within a cyclonic eddy and implications for the hybrid-type trace metals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Noble, Abigail E.; Saito, Mak A.; Maiti, Kanchan; Benitez-Nelson, Claudia R.

2008-05-01

The vertical distributions of cobalt, iron, and manganese in the water column were studied during the E-Flux Program (E-Flux II and III), which focused on the biogeochemistry of cold-core cyclonic eddies that form in the lee of the Hawaiian Islands. During E-Flux II (January 2005) and E-Flux III (March 2005), 17 stations were sampled for cobalt ( n=147), all of which demonstrated nutrient-like depletion in surface waters. During E-Flux III, two depth profiles collected from within a mesoscale cold-core eddy, Cyclone Opal, revealed small distinct maxima in cobalt at ˜100 m depth and a larger inventory of cobalt within the eddy. We hypothesize that this was due to a cobalt concentrating effect within the eddy, where upwelled cobalt was subsequently associated with sinking particulate organic carbon (POC) via biological activity and was released at a depth coincident with nearly complete POC remineralization [Benitez-Nelson, C., Bidigare, R.R., Dickey, T.D., Landry, M.R., Leonard, C.L., Brown, S.L., Nencioli, F., Rii, Y.M., Maiti, K., Becker, J.W., Bibby, T.S., Black, W., Cai, W.J., Carlson, C.A., Chen, F., Kuwahara, V.S., Mahaffey, C., McAndrew, P.M., Quay, P.D., Rappe, M.S., Selph, K.E., Simmons, M.P., Yang, E.J., 2007. Mesoscale eddies drive increased silica export in the subtropical Pacific Ocean. Science 316, 1017-1020]. There is also evidence for the formation of a correlation between cobalt and soluble reactive phosphorus during E-Flux III relative to the E-Flux II cruise that we suggest is due to increased productivity, implying a minimum threshold of primary production below which cobalt-phosphate coupling does not occur. Dissolved iron was measured in E-Flux II and found in somewhat elevated concentrations (˜0.5 nM) in surface waters relative to the iron depleted waters of the surrounding Pacific [Fitzwater, S.E., Coale, K.H., Gordon, M.R., Johnson, K.S., Ondrusek, M.E., 1996. Iron deficiency and phytoplankton growth in the equatorial Pacific. Deep-Sea Research II 43 (4-6), 995-1015], possibly due to island effects associated with the iron-rich volcanic soil from the Hawaiian Islands and/or anthropogenic inputs. Distinct depth maxima in total dissolved cobalt were observed at 400-600 m depth, suggestive of the release of metals from the shelf area of comparable depth that surrounds these islands.

Observation of methane fluxes using eddy covariance technique and relaxed eddy accumulation techniques simultaneously over rice paddies in Taiwan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tang, M.; Tsai, J.; Tsuang, B.; Feng, P.; Kuo, P.

2012-12-01

In the past decades, more and more attention was given to the increase of atmospheric methane concentration from the scientific community. Methane is one of greenhouse gases with a global warming potential 21 times greater than carbon dioxide on a 100-year horizon. Rice paddy fields were considered as a major source for methane and so far there are few studies where the eddy covariance (EC) technique has been used to measure methane fluxes from rice paddy fields, especially in Asia. Therefore, in this study we used EC technique and relaxed eddy accumulation (REA) method simultaneously to observe the methane fluxes over rice paddy, fertilized with pig manure, in Taiwan from 22th February to 5th June in 2012. A suit of Micrometeorologial variables and water table depth were measured in conjunction with the fluxes. The results showed that the rice paddy field was source of methane during most of the study period and the observed methane fluxes ranged between - 0.5 and 13 μg m-2 s-1. and the maximum values usually occurred in the afternoon. A significant methane emission was observed in the first one and a half month after transplanting. Comparison of daily methane fluxes measured by EC and REA showed generally good agreement between both methods with a coefficient of determination of 0.81, although the magnitude of methane fluxes measured by REA were slightly lower than those by EC. During the continuous flooded period, the methane fluxes can be depicted well by a function of soil temperature with an exponential form. Sudden pulses of methane fluxes were observed when drained for the removal of obstruction which hindered the methane diffuse from the soil to the atmosphere. During fallow period between growth periods, the paddy fields was a sink of methane where the methane uptake was about 0.5μg m-2 s-1 around noon.

Multi-year net ecosystem carbon balance at a horticulture-extracted restored peatland

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nugent, Kelly; Strachan, Ian; Strack, Maria

2017-04-01

Restoration of previously extracted peatlands is essential to minimize the impact of drainage and peat removal. Best practices restoration methods have been developed that include ditch blocking, site leveling and reintroducing bog vegetation using the moss layer transfer technique. A long term goal of restoration is the return to a peat accumulating ecosystem. Bois-des-Bel is a cool-temperate bog, located in eastern Quebec, Canada, that was vacuum harvested until 1980 and restored in 1999. While several studies have used discrete (chamber) methods to determine the net carbon exchange from rewetted or restored peatlands, ours appears to be the first to have multiple complete years of net ecosystem carbon exchange from a restored northern peatland. An eddy covariance flux tower instrumented with a sonic anemometer and open-path CO2/H2O and CH4 analyzers was operated continuously over three years to produce a robust estimate of net carbon sequestration. Our initial results indicate that this restored peatland was a consistent moderate annual net sink for CO2, a moderate source of CH4 and had low losses of dissolved organic carbon compared to undisturbed northern latitude peatlands. Closed chambers combined with a fast response CO2/H2O/CH4 analyzer were used to investigate ecohydrological controls on net ecosystem exchange of CO2 (NEE) and CH4 flux from the restored fields and remnant ditches at the site. CH4 release was found to be an order of magnitude higher in the ditches compared to the fields, with non-vegetated ditch showing a greater range in flux compared to areas invaded by Typha latifolia. Bubble magnitude and count were highest in the non-vegetated ditch, followed by Typha plots and were undetectable in the restored fields. The latter may be partially attributed to the high cover of Eriophorum vaginatum in the restored fields, plants that have aerenchymous tissue, as well as a much deeper water table level. While the non-vegetated ditch areas were a steady small source of CO2, NEE in the Typha plots showed significantly greater CO2 uptake capacity relative to any other restored plant community. High productivity combined with reduced CH4 flux suggests that Typha may be playing a key role in reducing the overall impact of the remnant ditches on the net ecosystem carbon balance. A preliminary footprint analysis suggests that ecosystem-level CH4 flux is being primarily driven by release from hotspots while the majority of the tower source area is a very small source of methane.

Radially Focused Eddy Current Sensor for Detection of Longitudinal Flaws in Metallic Tubes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wincheski, Russell A. (Inventor); Simpson, John W. (Inventor); Fulton, James P. (Inventor); Nath, Shridhar C. (Inventor); Todhunter, Ronald G. (Inventor); Namkung, Min (Inventor)

1999-01-01

A radially focused eddy current sensor detects longitudinal flaws in a metal tube. A drive coil induces eddy currents within the wall of the metal tube. A pick-up cod is spaced apart from the drive coil along the length of the metal tube. The pick@up coil is positioned with one end thereof lying adjacent the wall of the metal tube such that the pick-up coil's longitudinal axis is perpendicular to the wall of the metal tube. To isolate the pick-up coil from the magnetic flux of the drive coil and the flux from the induced eddy currents. except the eddy currents diverted by a longitudinal flaw. an electrically conducting material high in magnetic permeability surrounds all of the pick-up coil except its one end that is adjacent the walls of the metal tube. The electrically conducting material can extend into and through the drive coil in a coaxial relationship therewith.

Hydrological impacts on methane and carbon dioxide fluxes of hyperseasonal Cerrado forests of the Northern Pantanal, Mato Grosso, Brazil.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vourlitis, G. L.; Dalmagro, H. J.; Arruda, P. H. Z. D.; Lathuilliere, M. J.; Borges Pinto, O.; Couto, E. G.; Nogueira, J. D. S.; Johnson, M. S.

2016-12-01

Wetlands have a great potential for carbon (C) storage because frequent waterlogging can inhibit microbial respiration. However, waterlogging can also promote methane (CH4) production, which reduces ecosystem C sequestration. Unfortunately, the C storage dynamics of seasonally flooded (hyperseasonal) tropical forests are poorly understood even though the large C stocks, warm temperature, and prolonged flooding have the potential to cause high rates of CO2 storage and CH4 emission. Thus, the aim of this study was to provide a continuous ecosystem-level quantification of CO2 and CH4 fluxes and carbon balance for a hyperseasonal forest in the Brazilian Pantanal using eddy covariance. Trace gas fluxes were measured using an eddy covariance system installed on a 28 m tall tower. The study area was chosen because it represents approximately 12% of the total area of the Pantanal, which consists of seasonal floodplains with an annual flood pulse that results from an intense rainy season (October to April) that is followed by an intense dry season (May to September). The measurements were performed over two flood cycles and an intervening drought period between the years 2014 and 2015. In 2015 the study area was flooded for 190 days, which was 22 days longer than in 2014. Mean (± SD) rates of CH4 flux during the 2014 and 2015 flooded period were 0.091 ± 0.04 µmol m-2 s-1 and 0.118 ± 0.04 µmol m-2 s-1, respectively, and almost zero (0.001 ± 0.0001 µmol m-2 s-1) during 2015 dry season. In contrast, mean CO2 flux rates during the flooded period were -1.58 and -1.50 µmol m-2 s-1 for 2014 and 2015, respectively, showing the net ecosystem CO2 uptake, while during the dry season, the forest was a net source of CO2 to the atmosphere of on average 0.73 µmol m-2 s-1. Total wet season carbon balance (CO2 + CH4) was virtually identical in 2014 and 2015 (ca. -255 gC m-2) even though the 2015 flood period was longer; however, the ecosystem lost 139 gC m-2 during the dry period of 2015. These data indicate that hyperseasonal forests of the Pantanal, and presumably other seasonally flooded tropical forests, are potentially large sources of CH4, but overall large C sinks.