Estimates of Surface Heat Flux from Sodar and Laser Scintillation Measurements in the Unstable Boundary Layer

Abstract

Measurements of acoustic backscatter in the lower planetary boundary layer and optical line-of-sight scintillation in the surface layer are each used to compute sensible heat fluxes in the unstable surface layer. Comparisons with simultaneous low-level point measurements by eddy correlation show good agreement, indicating that remote-sensing methods can be successful over less homogeneous terrain where conventional surface layer measurement techniques are less accurate. Corrections to take into account the effects of humidity fluctuations are found necessary in order to achieve accuracies within 10%. Free convection is assumed to permit interpretation of the sodar data, while either forced or free convection is assumed for the scintillation data. A systematic overestimate of heat fluxes is found from sodar measurements made during the morning, when the height of the convectively mixed layer is increasing rapidly.