Abstract
We derive a conceptual model of the flow over heterogeneous terrain consisting of patches with contrasting Bowen ratios. Upward moving eddies are assumed to carry heterogeneous properties, whereas downward moving eddies carry homogeneous properties. This results in a decorrelation of temperature and humidity as the contrast between the patches increases. We show that this model is able to reproduce the relationship developed by Lamaud and Irvine (Boundary-Layer Meteorol. 120:87–109, 2006). Some details differ from their expression but are in accordance with data obtained over African savannah. We extend the conceptual model to a combination of any scalars, not necessarily linked through the surface energy balance (as is the case for temperature and humidity). To this end we introduce a new parameter that describes the surface heterogeneity in surface fluxes. The results of the current model can be used to predict the discrepancy between similarity relationships for different scalars over heterogeneous terrain.
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Acknowledgments
This work has been supported financially in part by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany in the framework of the GLOWA-Volta project. Further financial support was provided in the framework of the project ‘Integrated observations and modelling of Greenhouse Gas budgets at the national level in the Netherlands’, part of the program ‘Climate changes Spatial Planning’. The authors would like to thank Raymond Kasei, Ronald Groen and Gabriel Akotia for assistance in the field in Ghana. Furthermore, we would like to thank Henk de Bruin for his inspiring comments. Finally, we thank two anonymous reviewers for their very constructive comments.
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Open Access This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
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Moene, A.F., Schüttemeyer, D. The Effect of Surface Heterogeneity on the Temperature–Humidity Correlation and the Relative Transport Efficiency. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 129, 99–113 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-008-9312-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-008-9312-z