Quantitative knowledge of the surface energy balance is essential for the prediction of weather and climate. However, a multitude of studies from around the world indicate that the turbulent heat ...fluxes are generally underestimated using eddy-covariance measurements, and hence, the energy balance is not closed. This energy-balance-closure problem, which has been heavily covered in the literature for more than 25 years, is the topic of the present review, in which we provide an overview of the potential reason for the lack of closure. We demonstrate the effects of the diurnal cycle on the energy balance closure, and address questions with regard to the partitioning of the energy balance residual between the sensible and the latent fluxes, and whether the magnitude of the flux underestimation can be predicted based on other variables typically measured at micrometeorological stations. Remaining open questions are discussed and potential avenues for future research on this topic are laid out. Integrated studies, combining multi-tower experiments and scale-crossing, spatially-resolving lidar and airborne measurements with high-resolution large-eddy simulations, are considered to be of critical importance for enhancing our understanding of the underlying transport processes in the atmospheric boundary layer.
► A comprehensive quality assessment strategy for long-term eddy-covariance measurement is developed. ► Fundamentally based tests and algorithms are applied. ► This strategy comprises tests on ...high-frequency data, tests on fluxes and quantification of uncertainty. ► Its robustness and effectiveness is demonstrated for five test data sets. ► The resulting data quality assessment parameters are compared with alternative approaches.
Eddy-covariance measurements are performed at several hundred sites all over the world on a long-term basis. The gathered data are used to characterise ecosystem exchanges of trace gases, water and energy and to validate or constrain process-based models. There is an increasing demand on standardised and comprehensive quality flagging and uncertainty quantification of these fluxes. In this paper, we review established quality assessment procedures and present a comprehensive newly composed strategy emphasising tests on high-frequency raw data, expanding existing tests on statistics, fluxes and corrections, plus quantification of errors. Moreover, representativity of fluxes is checked by footprint analysis. This strategy is applied within the recently launched TERENO network of ecosystem observatories, and its robustness is demonstrated for data acquired with different measurement set-ups. Four test data sets from TERENO and one data set from CarboEurope-IP were subjected to this quality assessment. The presented strategy is compared with established quality assessment schemes, and it is demonstrated that unrealistic fluxes are now efficiently excluded while retaining the largest possible amount of high quality data. Additionally, the algorithms applied provide comprehensive, reproducible, qualitative and quantitative uncertainty estimates for users of eddy-covariance flux data.
It was discovered several decades ago that eddy covariance measurements systematically underestimate sensible and latent heat fluxes, creating an imbalance in the surface energy budget. Since then, ...many studies have addressed this problem and proposed a variety of solutions to the problem, including improvements to instruments and correction methods applied during data postprocessing. However, none of these measures have led to the complete closure of the energy balance gap. The leading hypothesis is that not only surface-attached turbulent eddies but also sub-mesoscale atmospheric circulations contribute to the transport of energy in the atmospheric boundary layer, and the contribution from organized motions has been grossly neglected. The problem arises because the transport of energy through these secondary circulations cannot be captured by the standard eddy covariance method given the relatively short averaging periods of time (~30 minutes) used to compute statistics. There are various approaches to adjust the measured heat fluxes by attributing the missing energy to the sensible and latent heat flux in different proportions. However, few correction methods are based on the processes causing the energy balance gap. Several studies have shown that the magnitude of the energy balance gap depends on the atmospheric stability and the heterogeneity scale of the landscape around the measurement site. Based on this, the energy balance gap within the surface layer has already been modelled as a function of a nonlocal atmospheric stability parameter by performing a large-eddy simulation study with idealized homogeneous surfaces. We have further developed this approach by including thermal surface heterogeneity in addition to atmospheric stability in the parameterization. Specifically, we incorporated a thermal heterogeneity parameter that was shown to relate to the magnitude of the energy balance gap. For this purpose, we use a Large-Eddy Simulation dataset of 28 simulations with seven different atmospheric conditions and three heterogeneous surfaces with different heterogeneity scales as well as one homogeneous surface. The newly developed model captures very well the variability in the magnitude of the energy balance gap under different conditions. The model covers a wide range of both atmospheric stabilities and landscape heterogeneity scales and is well suited for application to eddy covariance measurements since all necessary information can be modelled or obtained from a few additional measurements.
Data from the Idealized Planar-Array experiment for Quantifying Spatial heterogeneity are used to perform a control volume analysis (400
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) on the total derivative of the temperature ...tendency equation. Analysis of the heat-flux imbalance, which is defined as the ratio of the sum of advective, dispersive, and turbulence-flux terms to the turbulence-flux term, are presented. Results are divided amongst free-convective and forced-convective days, as well as high-wind-speed and quiescent nocturnal periods. Findings show that the median flux imbalance is greater on forced-convective days (a 168% turbulence-flux overestimation, or relative importance of the advection to dispersive flux to the turbulence flux) when compared to free-convective periods (79% turbulence-flux overestimation). During nocturnal periods, a median turbulence-flux underestimation of 146% exists for quiescent nights and a 43% underestimation of the flux for high-wind-speed nights. These results support the existing literature, suggesting that mean air-temperature heterogeneities lead to strong bulk advection and dispersive fluxes. A discussion of the impact of the flux imbalance on the surface energy balance and numerical-weather-prediction modelling is presented.
It has been hypothesized that the energy balance closure problem of single-tower eddy-covariance measurements is linked to large-scale turbulent transport. In order to shed light on this problem, we ...investigate the functional dependence of the normalized residual for the potential temperature and humidity conservation equations, i.e. the imbalance ratio for the fluxes of latent and sensible heat. We set up a suite of simulations consisting of cases with different stability and surface Bowen ratio. We employ a nesting approach in the lower part of the atmospheric boundary-layer to achieve higher spatial resolution near the surface. Our simulations reproduce earlier simulation results for the mixed layer and also mimic the saw-blade pattern of real flux measurements. Focusing on homogeneous terrain, we derive a parameterization for the spatially averaged flux imbalance ratios of latent and sensible heat in the surface layer. We also investigate how the remaining imbalance for a given point measurement is related to the local turbulence, by deriving a statistical model based on turbulence characteristics that are related to large-scale turbulence. The average imbalance ratio scales well with friction velocity, especially for sensible heat. For the latent heat flux, our results show that the Bowen ratio also influences the underestimation. Furthermore, in the surface layer the residual has a linear dependence on the absolute height divided by the boundary-layer height. Our parameterization allows us to deduce an expression for the residual in the energy budget for a particular measurement half hour, based on the measurement height and stability.
Large-eddy simulations (LES) are an important tool for investigating the longstanding energy-balance-closure problem, as they provide continuous, spatially-distributed information about turbulent ...flow at a high temporal resolution. Former LES studies reproduced an energy-balance gap similar to the observations in the field typically amounting to 10–30% for heights on the order of 100 m in convective boundary layers even above homogeneous surfaces. The underestimation is caused by dispersive fluxes associated with large-scale turbulent organized structures that are not captured by single-tower measurements. However, the gap typically vanishes near the surface, i.e. at typical eddy-covariance measurement heights below 20 m, contrary to the findings from field measurements. In this study, we aim to find a LES set-up that can represent the correct magnitude of the energy-balance gap close to the surface. Therefore, we use a nested two-way coupled LES, with a fine grid that allows us to resolve fluxes and atmospheric structures at typical eddy-covariance measurement heights of 20 m. Under different stability regimes we compare three different options for lower boundary conditions featuring grassland and forest surfaces, i.e. (1) prescribed surface fluxes, (2) a land-surface model, and (3) a land-surface model in combination with a resolved canopy. We show that the use of prescribed surface fluxes and a land-surface model yields similar dispersive heat fluxes that are very small near the vegetation top for both grassland and forest surfaces. However, with the resolved forest canopy, dispersive heat fluxes are clearly larger, which we explain by a clear impact of the resolved canopy on the relationship between variance and flux–variance similarity functions.
► Mean energy balance closure at 173 FLUXNET sites is 0.84. ► Mean forest and non-forest closure does not differ. ► Significant differences in closure were found among plant functional types. ► ...Landscape-level vegetation variability should not be excluded from the interpretation.
The energy balance at most surface-atmosphere flux research sites remains unclosed. The mechanisms underlying the discrepancy between measured energy inputs and outputs across the global FLUXNET tower network are still under debate. Recent reviews have identified exchange processes and turbulent motions at large spatial and temporal scales in heterogeneous landscapes as the primary cause of the lack of energy balance closure at some intensively-researched sites, while unmeasured storage terms cannot be ruled out as a dominant contributor to the lack of energy balance closure at many other sites. We analyzed energy balance closure across 173 ecosystems in the FLUXNET database and explored the relationship between energy balance closure and landscape heterogeneity using MODIS products and GLOBEstat elevation data. Energy balance closure per research site (CEB,s) averaged 0.84±0.20, with best average closures in evergreen broadleaf forests and savannas (0.91–0.94) and worst average closures in crops, deciduous broadleaf forests, mixed forests and wetlands (0.70–0.78). Half-hourly or hourly energy balance closure on a percent basis increased with friction velocity (u*) and was highest on average under near-neutral atmospheric conditions. CEB,s was significantly related to mean precipitation, gross primary productivity and landscape-level enhanced vegetation index (EVI) from MODIS, and the variability in elevation, MODIS plant functional type, and MODIS EVI. A linear model including landscape-level variability in both EVI and elevation, mean precipitation, and an interaction term between EVI variability and precipitation had the lowest Akaike's information criterion value. CEB,s in landscapes with uniform plant functional type approached 0.9 and CEB,s in landscapes with uniform EVI approached 1. These results suggest that landscape-level heterogeneity in vegetation and topography cannot be ignored as a contributor to incomplete energy balance closure at the flux network level, although net radiation measurements, biological energy assimilation, unmeasured storage terms, and the importance of good practice including site selection when making flux measurements should not be discounted. Our results suggest that future research should focus on the quantitative mechanistic relationships between energy balance closure and landscape-scale heterogeneity, and the consequences of mesoscale circulations for surface-atmosphere exchange measurements.
Rising temperatures and changes in snow cover, as can be expected under a warmer global climate, may have large impacts on mountain grassland productivity limited by cold and long winters. Here, we ...combined two existing models, the multi-layer atmosphere-SOiL-VEGetation model (SOLVEG) and the BASic GRAssland model (BASGRA), which accounts for snow, freeze–thaw events, grass growth, and soil carbon balance. The model was applied to simulate the responses of managed grasslands to anomalously warm winter conditions. The grass growth module considered key ecological processes under a cold environment, such as leaf formation, elongation and death, tillering, carbon allocation, and cold acclimation, in terms of photosynthetic activity. Input parameters were derived for two pre-Alpine grassland sites in Germany, for which the model was run using 3 years of data that included a winter with an exceptionally small amount of snow. The model reproduced the temporal variability of observed daily mean heat fluxes, soil temperatures, and snow depth throughout the study period. High physiological activity levels during the extremely warm winter led to a simulated CO2 uptake of 100 gC m−2, which was mainly allocated into the belowground biomass and only to a minor extent used for additional plant growth during early spring. If these temporary dynamics are representative of long-term changes, this process, which is so far largely unaccounted for in scenario analysis using global terrestrial biosphere models, may lead to carbon accumulation in the soil and/or carbon loss from the soil as a response to global warming.
•Natural, temperate bog-pine ecosystem is a CO2 sink but a small source of CH4.•Overall, the ecosystem is a small net annual greenhouse gas sink.•At high water levels, methane fluxes correlate best ...with air temperature.
Methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) exchange were investigated over 15 months above a natural bog-pine site in the pre-alpine region of southern Germany. The measurements indicate annual methane emissions of +5.3±0.34gCm−2a−1 and an annual CO2 uptake of −62±20gCm−2a−1, resulting in a global warming potential balance of −50±74g CO2 eq.m−2a−1. Air temperature was identified as the environmental parameter showing the highest correlation with methane production, except for periods with low water table (<−0.12m). Furthermore, we compared three different methane flux gap-filling methods: the mean daily variation approach (MDV), a look up table (LUT) with various control parameters and an exponential regression function between methane flux and air temperature (NLR). It turns out that the LUT provides the best result for the gap-filling of half-hourly CH4 fluxes for the present data. By increasing the number of parameters in the LUT, the CH4 flux prediction could be considerably improved. Except for dry periods, day to day variations could be reproduced very well by the NLR method, but results for sub-daily fluctuations were poor. The choice of gap-filling method affects the annual methane budget estimate by at most ±0.5gCm−2a−1, or about 10% of the annual flux.
This study presents one of the first eddy covariance based annual methane- and CO2-exchange estimates over a natural bog-pine ecosystem outside the boreal zone.
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