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VEBEX: Vegetation and surface energy balance experiment for the tropics

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Abstract

Surface features such as soil moisture and vegetation have a profound impact on the surface energy balance and the atmospheric boundary layer. To quantify this effect for a tropical location, a detailed field experiment, VEBEX, was designed and successfully executed in a tropical site at Bangalore, India. VEBEX was a joint experiment between the North Carolina State University, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), and the University of Agricultural Science (UAS) at Bangalore, India. Continuous surface meteorological measurements were taken over an entire crop period (pre-sowing to post-harvest). During different stages of the plant growth, intensive observations of surface turbulence, and measurements of physiological and soil moisture measurements were also conducted. The results obtained provide an insight into the unusually strong variability for the tropics. Interpretation of the observations and an overview of the analysis procedure and future research initiatives are also presented.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Climate Office of North Carolina, and Department of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA

    Sethu Raman & Devdutta S. Niyogi

  2. Center for Atmospheric Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India

    A. Prabhu & S. Ameenullah

  3. University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, India

    S. T. Nagaraj, Udai Kumar & S. Jayanna

Authors
  1. Sethu Raman
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  2. Devdutta S. Niyogi
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  3. A. Prabhu
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  4. S. Ameenullah
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  5. S. T. Nagaraj
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  6. Udai Kumar
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  7. S. Jayanna
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Raman, S., Niyogi, D.S., Prabhu, A. et al. VEBEX: Vegetation and surface energy balance experiment for the tropics. Proc. Indian Acad. Sci. (Earth Planet Sci.) 107, 97–105 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02842263

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