The value of the effective exchange coefficient for area-averaged fluxes can depend significantly on the averaging scale. This dependence implies that the exchange coefficient in numerical models should depend on grid size. The main goal of this study is the assessment of the importance of such scale-dependence. When the large-scale...
This study examines the bulk aerodynamic method for estimating surface fluxes of heat and moisture using the surface radiative temperature. The surface radiative temperature is often the only available surface temperature from field measurements. Models typically predict heat fluxes from the surface radiative temperature computed from the surface energy balance....
This study relates surface fluxes to remotely sensed variables over well-defined variations of surface wetness and vegetation. The surface fluxes are estimated from repeated Twin Otter aircraft flights at 33 m above the surface after correcting for advection and local storage between the aircraft level and the surface. An extensive...
The exchange coefficients for area-averaged surface fluxes can become anomalously large when the large-scale flow is weak and significant fluxes of heat and moisture are driven by mesoscale motions within the averaging or subgrid area. To prevent this erratic behavior of the exchange coefficient, the “subgrid velocity scale” must be...
The authors reconsider the problem of estimating the sensible heat transfer at the earth's surface from direct measurements of turbulent fluxes in the atmospheric boundary layer. For simplicity, only horizontally homogeneous conditions are considered for a thin atmospheric layer containing no liquid water, adjacent to the earth's ground surface. Applying...
Toward the goal of predicting area-averaged evapotranspiration, the evaporative fraction is modelled in terms of surface radiation temperature, air temperature, solar zenith angle, Normalized Difference of the Vegetation Index and albedo. Previous relationships break down when applied simultaneously to a variety of surfaces. The zenith angle is required to account...
The aerodynamic temperature is required for prediction of the surface heat flux using Monin-Obukhov similarity. This "fictitious" temperature is not systematically equal to the actual air temperature near the surface and is not directly available from observations or in numerical models. The aerodynamic temperature is normally replaced with either the...
This study examines the spatial variability of ozone fluxes over flat heterogeneous terrain consisting of a patchwork of irrigated and nonirrigated surfaces. Fluxes of ozone and other quantities are computed from eight sequential flight legs of the Canadian Twin Otter research aircraft over the same track at 33 m above...
Repeated aircraft runs at about 33 m over heterogeneous terrain are analyzed to study the spatial variability of the mesoscale flow and turbulent fluxes. An irrigated area, about 12 km across, generates a relatively cool moist inland breeze. As this air flows out over the warmer, drier surrounding land surface,...
The goal of this study is to examine the horizontal scale dependence of vertical eddy flux in the tropical marine surface boundary layer and how this scale dependence of flux relates to the bulk aerodynamic relationship and the parameterization of subgrid-scale flux. The fluxes of heat, moisture, and momentum are...