REBAL '92—A Cooperative Radiation and Energy Balance Field Study for Imagery and Electromagnetic Propagation

Abstract

The surface energy balance directly affects vertical gradients in temperature and specific humidity within the atmospheric surface layer, and these gradients influence optical turbulence. This study was conducted to improve current understanding of the partitioning of energy at the ground surface of a bare soil field and its influence on the character and intensity of optical turbulence as represented by the refractive index structure parameter, Cn2 and to improve micrometeorological models of the surface energy balance. The field study entitled ?Radiation Energy Balance Experiment for Imagery and Electromagnetic Propagation? was conducted by the United States Army Atmospheric Sciences Laboratory and the United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service, at Bushland, Texas, during May and July 1992. The following were collected: diurnal radiation: evaporation (directly measured by large weighing lysimeters); five-level micrormeteorological profiles of windspeed, air temperature, and relative humility; soil temperature and volumetric water content; soil heat flux; optical turbulence (scintillometer); and near-and far-field infrared imager data over wet and dry bare soil for clear and cloudy sky conditions. Initial results from the modeling efforts indicate excellent agreement between measured and modeled values of radiation energy balance fluxes and Cn2 for one day. Future model evaluation will extend over the wide range of conditions encountered during the field study.