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The TurbEFA Field Experiment—Measuring the Influence of a Forest Clearing on the Turbulent Wind Field

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Abstract

Forest ecosystems play an important role in the interaction between the land surface and the atmosphere. Measurements and modelling efforts have revealed significant uncertainties in state-of-the-art flux assessments due to spatial inhomogeneities in the airflow and land surface. Here, a field experiment is used to describe the turbulent flow across a typical Central European forest clearing. A three-dimensional model of the inhomogeneous forest stand was developed using an innovative approach based on terrestrial laser-scanner technology. The comparison of the wind statistics of two measurement campaigns (5 and 12 months long) showed the spatial and temporal representativeness of the ultrasonic anemometer measurements within the canopy. An improved method for the correction of the vertical velocity enables the distinction between the instrumental offsets and the vertical winds due to the inclination of the instrument. Despite a 13 % fraction of deciduous plants within the otherwise evergreen canopy, the effects of phenological seasons on the velocity profiles were small. The data classified according to the wind speed revealed the intermittent nature of recirculating air in the clearing. Furthermore, the development of sub-canopy wind-speed maxima is explained by considering the velocity moments and the momentum equation (including measurements of the local pressure gradient). Clearings deflect the flow downward and feed the sub-canopy flow, i.e., advective fluxes, according to wind speed and, likely, clearing size, whereas local pressure gradients play an important role in the development of sub-canopy flow. The presented dataset is freely available at the project homepage.

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Notes

  1. ADVEX: The extensive experimental activities of the CarboEurope-Integrated Project (CE-IP) advection group took into account the 3D aspects of the problem.

  2. EGER: ExchanGE processes in mountainous Regions.

  3. CHATS: Canopy Horizontal Array Turbulence Study experiment.

  4. UMBS: University of Michigan Biological Station in northern, lower Michigan, USA.

  5. Project homepage: http://tu-dresden.de/turbefa.

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Acknowledgments

The work was supported by the German National Science Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) within the priority programme SPP 1276, ‘Multiple Scales in Fluid Mechanics and Meteorology’ (MetStröm) within the project ‘Turbulent Exchange processes between Forested areas and the Atmosphere’. We thank Dr. Christian Feigenwinter and Dr. Roland Vogt (University of Basel) for their logistical support and scientific discussions and we thank the staff of the Chair of Meteorology of the TU Dresden, namely Uwe Eichelmann, Heiko Prasse and Markus Hehn for technical support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Hydrology and Meteorology, Technische Universität Dresden, 01062, Dresden, Germany

    Ronald Queck & Christian Bernhofer

  2. Institute of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany

    Anne Bienert

  3. Institute of Fluid Mechanics, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany

    Fabian Schlegel

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  1. Ronald Queck
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  2. Christian Bernhofer
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  3. Anne Bienert
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  4. Fabian Schlegel
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Correspondence to Ronald Queck.

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Queck, R., Bernhofer, C., Bienert, A. et al. The TurbEFA Field Experiment—Measuring the Influence of a Forest Clearing on the Turbulent Wind Field. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 160, 397–423 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-016-0151-z

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