Correcting airborne flux measurements for aircraft speed variation

Abstract

Airplane aerodynamic characteristics correlate aircraft speed with vertical wind velocity, making the time average inappropriate for estimating the ensemble average in airborne eddy-correlation flux computations. The space average, the proper form, is implemented as a time integral by a transformation of variables, which can be interpreted as a ground-speed correction to the time average. The mathematical forms are presented, and the importance of the speed correction is illustrated with airborne data. The computed correction is found to be highly variable, depending on both the turbulent flow encountered and the aircraft used. In general, the speed connection becomes more important as airplane size is reduced. For a small, single-engine Long-EZ airplane, used as an example, the straight time average erred, half the time, by 12%, 10%, 20%, and 15%, respectively, for computed fluxes of momentum, heat, moisture, and CO₂. For a much heavier Twin Otter airplane, also used as an example, the straight time average erred, half the time by only 1%. These errors increased with decreasing altitude for the Long-EZ and with increasing altitude for the Twin Otter.