up to approximately � 14 ng N m � 2 s � 1 . The average daytime flux peaked at � 6.0 ng N m � 2 s � 1 and accounted for � 20% of the daytime NOy flux. Calculations suggest minimum daytime surface resistances for PAN in the range of 70–130 s m � 1 .I t was estimated that approximately half of daytime uptake was through plant stomates. Average PAN deposition velocities, Vd(PAN), showed a daytime maximum of � 10.0 mm s � 1 ; however, deposition did not cease during nighttime periods. Vd(PAN) was highly variable at night and increased when canopy elements were wet from either precipitation or dew formation. Diel patterns of deposition velocity of MPAN and PPN were similar to that of PAN. These results suggest that deposition of PAN, at least to coniferous forest canopies, is much faster than predicted with current deposition algorithms. Although deposition of PAN is unlikely to compete with thermal dissociation during warm summer periods, it will likely play an important role in removing PAN from the atmosphere in colder regions or during winter. The fate of PAN at the surface and within the plants remains unknown, but may present a previously ignored source of nitrogen to ecosystems.

article i nfo In this paper we integrate the information about water stress into SEBS, one of the surface energy balance models that employ remote sensing (RS) data. The level of water stress is taken into account in the calcula- tion of sensible heat, through a modified definition of kB −1 , the parameter that summarizes the excess aero- dynamic resistance to heat transfer compared to momentum transfer. Surface energy balance models are employed to obtain evapotranspiration as the remainder of available energy minus sensible heat flux (H). These models assume that information on the ratio of actual to potential evaporation is implicitly embedded in the land surface temperature. This assumption is usually adequate where available energy is the limiting factor for evapotranspiration (ET), but there is a problem when water availability becomes limiting for ET. In this case, the daily evapotranspiration is often overestimated, in particular for sparsely vegetated semi- arid regions, because of an underestimation of sensible heat flux for these areas. Our method remedies this shortcoming by progressively decreasing kB −1 with increasing levels of water stress. This decreases aerody- namic resistance, and hence increases H, leading to lower estimates of ET. The decrease of kB −1 with a rise in plant water stress is based on general plant physiological observations related to vertical canopy stomatal conductance profiles, which affects the exchange of sensible and latent heat between the canopy and the atmosphere. The new approach was tested by comparing SEBS H outputs with field observations from Bowen ratio sta- tions distributed over the Konya basin in Turkey, and the results indicate a large improvement when the soil moisture is integrated explicitly in the calculation of sensible heat flux by SEBS. More importantly, the new approach provides a considerable operational improvement for regional ET mapping through integrating microwave soil moisture measurements into SEBS, as illustrated by our findings for this semi-arid region. The daily ET map generated by the new SEBS model captured better the low ET values observed in the drylands, and also reflected better the overall contrast between irrigated fields and the extremely dry surrounding areas. Improved mapping of regional ET by soil moisture integrated SEBS offers the opportunity to provide more accurate estimation of energy and water fluxes in regions where plant water stress is a recurrent feature.

[1] We use a conditional averaging approach to estimate the parameters of a land surface water and energy balance model and then use the estimated parameters to partition net radiation into latent, sensible, and ground heat fluxes and precipitation into evapotranspiration and drainage plus runoff. Through conditional averaging of the modeled fluxes with respect to soil moisture and temperature, we write an objective function that approximates the temperature- and moisture-dependent errors of the modeled fluxes in terms of atmospheric forcing (e.g., precipitation and radiation), surface states (moisture (S) and temperature (Ts)), and model parameters. The novelty of the approach is that the error term is estimated without comparison to measured fluxes. Instead, it is inferred from the deviation of the conditionally averaged tendency terms (expectation and expectation ) from zero since each of these terms equals zero in stationary systems but diverges from zero in the presence of misspecified parameters. Minimization of the approximated error yields parameters for model applications. This strategy was previously studied for simple water balance models using soil moisture conditional averaging. Here we extend the idea to include energy balance fluxes and surface temperature conditioning. The method is tested at two AmeriFlux sites, Vaira Ranch (California) and Kendall Grassland (Arizona). The estimated fluxes (using only observed forcing and state variables) are in reasonable agreement with field measurements. Because this method is based on conditional averages, it can be applied to situations with subsampled or missing data; that is, continuous integration in time is not required.

[1] We report on the interannual variability of evapotranspiration (E) and energy exchange of an annual grassland in the Mediterranean climate zone of California. They were measured directly with the eddy covariance technique over a 6-year period that spanned between July 2001 and June 2007 and experienced a large range in precipitation (376 mm to 888 mm). Despite a two-fold range in precipitation, annual E ranged much less, between 266 mm and 391 mm. We found that pronounced energy-limited and water-limited periods occurred within the same year. In the water-limited period, monthly integrated E scaled negatively with solar radiation and was restrained by precipitation. In the energy-limited period, on the other hand, the majority of E scaled positively with solar radiation (Rg) and was confined by potential E (Ep). E was most sensitive to the availability of soil moisture during the transition to the senescence period rather than onset of the greenness period, causing annual E to be strongly modulated by growing season length. Bulk surface conductance scaled consistently with Priestley-Taylor α coefficient regardless of interannual and seasonal variability of precipitation, E, and solar radiation.

[1] The 1-D and single layer combination-based energy balance Penman-Monteith (PM) model has limitations in practical application due to the lack of canopy resistance (rc) data for different vegetation surfaces. rc could be estimated by inversion of the PM model if the actual evapotranspiration (ETa) rate is known, but this approach has its own set of issues. Instead, an empirical method of estimating rc is suggested in this study. We investigated the relationships between primary micrometeorological parameters and rc and developed seven models to estimate rc for a nonstressed maize canopy on an hourly time step using a generalized-linear modeling approach. The most complex rc model uses net radiation (Rn), air temperature (Ta), vapor pressure deficit (VPD), relative humidity (RH), wind speed at 3 m (u3), aerodynamic resistance (ra), leaf area index (LAI), and solar zenith angle (Θ). The simplest model requires Rn, Ta, and RH. We present the practical implementation of all models via experimental validation using scaled up rc data obtained from the dynamic diffusion porometer-measured leaf stomatal resistance through an extensive field campaign in 2006. For further validation, we estimated ETa by solving the PM model using the modeled rc from all seven models and compared the PM ETa estimates with the Bowen ratio energy balance system (BREBS)-measured ETa for an independent data set in 2005. The relationships between hourly rc versus Ta, RH, VPD, Rn, incoming shortwave radiation (Rs), u3, wind direction, LAI, Θ, and ra were presented and discussed. We demonstrated the negative impact of exclusion of LAI when modeling rc, whereas exclusion of ra and Θ did not impact the performance of the rc models. Compared to the calibration results, the validation root mean square difference between observed and modeled rc increased by 5 s m−1 for all rc models developed, ranging from 9.9 s m−1 for the most complex model to 22.8 s m−1 for the simplest model, as compared with the observed rc. The validation r2 values were close to 0.70 for all models, and the modeling efficiency ranged from 0.61 for the most complex model to −1.09 for the simplest model. There was a strong agreement between the BREBS-measured and the PM-estimated ETa using modeled rc. These findings can aid in the selection of a suitable model based on the availability and quality of the input data to predict rc for one-step application of the PM model to estimate ETa for a nonstressed maize canopy.

Xylem sap flow and environmental variables were measured on seven consecutive midsummer days in a 130-year-old Larix gmelinii (Rupr.) Rupr. forest located 160 km south of Yakutsk in eastern Siberia, Russia (61 degrees N, 128 degrees E, 300 m asl). The site received 20 mm of rainfall during the 4 days before measurements, and soil samples indicated that the trees were well watered. The tree canopy was sparse with a one-sided leaf area index of 1.5 and a tree density of 1760 ha(-1). On a clear day when air temperature ranged from 9 to 29 degrees C, and maximum air saturation deficit was 3.4 kPa, daily xylem sap flux (F) among 13 trees varied by an order of magnitude from 7 l day(-1) for subcanopy trees (representing 55% of trees in the forest) to 67 l day(-1) for emergent trees (representing 18% of trees in the forest). However, when based on xylem sap flux density (F'), calculated by dividing F by projected tree crown area (a surrogate for the occupied ground area), there was only a fourfold range in variability among the 13 trees, from 1.0 to 4.4 mm day(-1). The calculation of F' also eliminated systematic and large differences in F among emergent, canopy and subcanopy trees. Stand-level F', estimated by combining half-hourly linear relationships between F and stem cross-sectional area with tree size distribution data, ranged between 1.8 +/- 0.4 (standard deviation) and 2.3 +/- 0.6 mm day(-1). These stand-level F' values are about 0.6-0.7 mm day(-1) (30%) larger than daily tree canopy transpiration rates calculated from forest energy balance and understory evaporation measurements. Maximum total tree conductance for water vapor transfer (G(tmax), including canopy and aerodynamic conductances), calculated from the ratio of F' and the above-canopy air saturation deficit (D) for the eight trees with continuous data sets, was 9.9 +/- 2.8 mm s(-1). This is equivalent to a leaf-scale maximum stomatal conductance (g(smax)) of 6.1 mm s(-1), when expressed on a one-sided leaf area basis, which is comparable to the published porometer data for Larix. Diurnal variation in total tree conductance (G(t)) was related to changes in the above-canopy visible irradiance (Q) and D. A saturating upper-boundary function for the relationship between G(t) and Q was defined as G(t) = G(tmax)(Q/[Q + Q(50)]), where Q(50) = 164 +/- 85 micro mol m(-2) s(-1) when G(t) = G(tmax)/2. Accounting for Q by excluding data for Q < Q(85) when G(t) was at least 85% of G(tmax), the upper limit for the relationship between G(t) and D was determined based on the function G(t) = (a + blnD)(2), where a and b are regression coefficients. The relationship between G(t) and D was curvilinear, indicating that there was a proportional decrease in G(t) with increasing D such that F was relatively constant throughout much of the day, even when D ranged between about 2 and 4 kPa, which may be interpreted as an adaption of the species to its continental climate. However, at given values of Q and D, G(t) was generally higher in the morning than in the afternoon. The additional environmental constraints on G(t) imposed by leaf nitrogen nutrition and afternoon water stress are discussed.

With increasing evidence that exposures to air pollution near large roadways increases risks of a number of adverse human health effects, identifying methods to reduce these exposures has become a public health priority. Roadside vegetation barriers have shown the potential to reduce near-road air pollution concentrations; however, the characteristics of these barriers needed to ensure pollution reductions are not well understood. Designing vegetation barriers to mitigate near-road air pollution requires a mechanistic understanding of how barrier configurations affect the transport of traffic-related air pollutants. We first evaluated the performance of the Comprehensive Turbulent Aerosol Dynamics and Gas Chemistry (CTAG) model with Large Eddy Simulation (LES) to capture the effects of vegetation barriers on near-road air quality, compared against field data. Next, CTAG with LES was employed to explore the effects of six conceptual roadside vegetation/solid barrier configurations on near-road size-resolved particle concentrations, governed by dispersion and deposition. Two potentially viable design options are revealed: a) a wide vegetation barrier with high Leaf Area Density (LAD), and b) vegetation-solid barrier combinations, i.e., planting trees next to a solid barrier. Both designs reduce downwind particle concentrations significantly. The findings presented in the study will assist urban planning and forestry organizations with evaluating different green infrastructure design options.

W.G.M. Bastiaanssen, Regionalization of surface flux densities and moisture indicators in composite terrain. Doctoral thesis, Wageningen Agricultural University, Wageningen The Netherlands. 273 pp. The growing concern about environment has increased the number of land surface processes studies. Computer simulation models of land surface processes have been developed for a range of scales and with different levels of physical complexity. Because the interactions between soil, vegetation and atmosphere vary both spatially and temporally, regional evaporation in heterogeneous natural landscapes is difficult to predict by means of computer simulation models. Remote sensing measurements of land surface radiative properties offer however a means to indirectly measure land surface state conditions at a range of scales. A straightforward estimation of evaporation from radiative properties of the land surface is hampered by the fact that only a very few parameters of the classical flux-profile relationships can be estimated directly from remote sensing measurements. Moreover, the accuracy of surface temperature measurements necessary to solve flux-profile relationships is still poor. Inclusion of ground measurements is a possible solution, but the absence of such data on large scales and for heterogeneous land surfaces where these parameters are not measured, forms an immediate obstacle for the implementation of remote sensing algorithms. A Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL) has been developed in a way that the need for collateral measurements is partly eliminated, a very accurate surface temperature map is no longer required (although it should be as good as possible) and a land use classification to relate surface temperature to evaporation is not needed. Each pixel is characterized by a surface hemisherical reflectance, surface temperature and a vegetation index. The methodology composes of multiple flux-profile relationships for small sub-areas. Although the concept has a physical basis, the parameters are estimated by empirical relationships, for instance a relationship between near-surface vertical air temperature difference and surface temperature forms an essential component in the estimation of the sensible heat flux density. The absolute surface energy balance terms are estimated on an instantaneous time basis. Temporal integration of instantaneous surface flux densities is feasible using the evaporative fraction (latent heat flux density/net available energy): The evaporative fraction remains fairly constant during daytime hours for both homogeneous and heterogeneous areas. A physical explanation for this is given. A bulk surface resistance of a heterogeneous landscape has been related analytically to canopy and bare soil evaporation resistances. Measurements in central Spain have shown that the evaporative fraction and bulk surface resistance are suitable indicators to describe areal patterns

Values of zo and ZT, roughness scaling lengths for momentum and heat, are found to be 0.4±0.2m and 0.035±0.02m, respectively, for a heterogeneous surface comprising 8m high trees with transpiring foliage, 1 m high dry grass, and sandy soil. Determination of ZT utilizes aircraft and ground-based radiometric observations of surface temperature. The ratio Zo/ZT ≈ 12 was found essentially constant over the observed roughness Reynolds number range 5000–25000, consistent with values published for homogeneous natural vegetated surfaces.

Using meteorological data collected in the summer of 1996 and 1997, three evapotranspiration (ET) models, the Penman–Monteith (PM), the modified Penman for non-saturated surface, and the two-source models were applied to estimate hourly ET from different land-use covers of the Paddle River Basin (area = 265 km2). By assuming closed canopy conditions, the PM model could estimate the ET of coniferous forest and agricultural land because the contribution of soil evaporation under these land covers is not significant. For mixed forest and pasturelands that are partially vegetated, however, the amount of soil evaporation is significant and so PM underestimated the total ET. The modified Penman model mainly underestimated hourly ET during daytime when the atmosphere is unstable, but overestimated ET during early morning and late afternoon (stable atmosphere), particularly for pastureland. By re-establishing a relationship for the relative evaporation, the ET simulated by the modified Penman model improved. Both PM and the modified Penman are assessed with respect to the comprehensive, two-source model's simulated ET because the latter agrees favourably with the ET obtained from the basin water balance. The water balance ET is reliable because it is based on the streamflow, surface temperature, net radiation and soil moisture simulated by the semi-distributed hydrological model, Semi-distributed Physically based Hydrologic Model–Remote Sensing, DPHM-RS (host to the two-source model), all of which have been demonstrated to agree well with the observed data. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This work describes the tropical town energy budget (t-TEB) scheme addressed to simulate the diurnal occurrence of the urban heat island (UHI) as observed in the Metropolitan Area of Rio de Janeiro (MARJ; −22° S; −44° W) in Brazil. Reasoning about the tropical urban climate have guided the scheme implementation, starting from the original equations from Masson (Bound-Lay Meteorol 94:357–397, 2000). The modifications include (a) local scaling approaches for obtaining flux–gradient relationships in the roughness sub-layer, (b) the Monin-Obukhov similarity framework in the inertial sub-layer, (c) increasing aerodynamic conductance toward more unstable conditions, and (d) a modified urban subsurface drainage system to transfer the intercepted rainwater by roofs to the roads. Simulations along 2007 for the MARJ are obtained and compared with the climatology. The t-TEB simulation is consistent with the observations, suggesting that the timing and dynamics of the UHI in tropical cities could vary significantly from the familiar patterns observed in mid-latitude cities—with the peak heat island intensity occurring in the morning than at night. The simulations are suggesting that the thermal phase shift of this tropical diurnal UHI is a response of the surface energy budget to the large amount of solar radiation, intense evapotranspiration, and thermal response of the vegetated surfaces over a very humid soil layer.

This study investigates some basic aspects related to surface-flux parameterization in the Tibetan Plateau, based on the measurement at three sites. These sites are essentially flat and covered by very sparse and short grasses in the monsoon season. The main contributions include: (1) an optimization technique is proposed to estimate aerodynamic roughness length based on wind and temperature profiles. The approach is not sensitive to random measurement errors if the number of data samples is large enough. The optimized values reasonably vary with surface characteristics. (2) At the three sites, kB-1 (the logarithm of the ratio of aerodynamic roughness length to thermal roughness length) experiences seasonal and diurnal variations in addition to a dependence on surface types. The mean values for the individual sites vary over a range of 2.7 to 6.4 with large standard deviations. (3) A formula for estimatingthe value of kB-1 isproposed to account for the effect of seasonal variation of aerodynamic roughness length and diurnal variation of surface temperature. With the formula, the flux parameterization with surface temperature estimates sensible heat flux better than profile parameterization for all the sites.

This paper provides a comprehensive, critical review of turbulence observations over cities. More than fifty studies are analysed with their experimental conditions summarized in an appendix. The main results are based on 14 high-quality experiments which met criteria based on stringent experimental requirements. The observations are presented as non-dimensional statistics to facilitate comparison between urban studies and work conducted over other rough, inhomogeneous surfaces. Wake production associated with bluff bodies, and the inhomogeneous distribution of sources and sinks of scalars, result in a roughness sub-layer which for the studies reviewed extends to about 2.5 to 3 times the height of the buildings. It is shown that within this region the basis of several traditional micrometeorological approaches to describe the turbulent exchange is in doubt. There are strong similarities to flow over plant canopies, and many of the turbulence characteristics can be interpreted in the framework of a plane mixing layer. Future field observations should concentrate on the turbulent exchange near the top and within the urban canopy as well as within the urban boundary layer.

This paper describes a modified version of the Surface Energy Balance System (SEBS) as regards the use of radiometric data from space and presents the results of a large area validation study on estimated sensible heat flux, extended over several months. The improvements were made possible by the characteristics of the Along Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR-2) on board the European Remote Sensing satellite (ERS-2) and relate to: (a) the use of bi-angular radiometric data in two thermal infrared channels to estimate column atmospheric water vapor: (b) the use of bi-angular radiometric data in four spectral channels in the 550-1600 nm spectral regions to estimate aerosols optical depth: (c) determination of bottom of atmosphere (BOA) spectral reflectance using column water vapor, aerosols optical depth and a two-stream radiative transfer scheme to relate BOA spectral reflectance to top of atmosphere spectral radiance (d) direct and inverse modeling of radiative transfer in a vegetation canopy to relate BOA spectral reflectance to canopy properties, such as spectrally integrated hemispherical reflectance (albedo). A parameterization of the aerodynamic resistance for heat transfer (in term of kB(-1)) was applied for the first time at large spatial scales. For such large area analyses SEBS requires wind speed, potential temperature and humidity of air at an appropriate reference height. The latter was taken as being the height of the planetary boundary layer (PBL) and the data used were fields generated by an advanced numerical weather prediction model, i.e. regional atmospheric climate model (RACMO), integrated over the PBL. Validation of estimated sensible heat flux H obtained with the ATSR radiometric data was done using long-range, line-averaged measurements of H done with large aperture scintillometers (LAS) located at three sites in Spain and operated continuously between April and September 1999. The root mean square deviation of SEBS H estimates from LAS H measurements was 25.5 W m(-2). (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

This paper deals with the parameter kB21, the logarithm of the ratio between momentum and heat roughness length, of sparsely vegetated surfaces and bare soil. The bare soil surface is included as a reference, since it is fairly homogenous and smooth, having no distinguishable roughness elements. The mean value of kB21 is about 8 for the vineyard and 12 for the savannah. These values are significantly greater than kB 21 5 2, which is usually assumed to hold for vegetation. The mean value of kB21 for bare soil is small and negative, which agrees with the literature. A large variation of kB 21 during the day is measured for all three surfaces. This behavior has been observed for sparse vegetation in previous studies. Some authors explained the phenomenon with a vertical movement of the source of heat through the day as solar angle varies, or with the use of an inappropriate value of effective surface temperature to calculate kB21. For the first time, this diurnal variation is measured for a smooth surface, the bare soil, for which neither explanation is valid. A sensitivity study reveals that the calculated kB21 is very sensitive to measuring errors in the micrometeorological variables and errors in the roughness length for momentum. This explains the large range in observed kB21 values for one particular surface type. In addition, several semiempirical expressions for kB21 from the literature are tested. Two well-established formulas, both based on a simple combination of Reynolds and Prandtl numbers, appear to produce the best estimates of daily averaged kB21 values. None of the formulas are able to describe the diurnal variation. The authors conclude that the concept of kB21 is questionable as it is based upon extrapolating a theoretical profile through a region where this profile does not hold, toward a ‘‘surface temperature’’ that is difficult to define and to measure. It should therefore be avoided in meteorological models, for example, by applying canopy boundary layer resistances. Unfortunately, in remote sensing, the bulk transfer equations are up to now the only option, which therefore requires the use of kB21.

This paper considers the modelling of available energy partition into sensible and latent heat at land surfaces, inter alia for GCM applications. In a preliminary discussion, processes at canopy scale are reviewed briefly by outlining two classes of model: comprehensive, multilayer Canopy-Atmosphere Models (CAMs) which attempt to include all physical and biological processes influencing the canopy microclimate and atmospheric exchanges, and single-layer Simplified Canopy-Atmosphere Models (SCAMs) which attempt a physically acceptable description of energy partition with the fewest possible parameters. Details of a four-parameter SCAM are outlined. It is suggested that CAMs are necessary for understanding the ‘downward’ influence of climate on a canopy, but that SCAMs may be useful in modelling the ‘upward’ influence of vegetation on climate with GCMs.

This paper completes the construction of a two-layer model for the energy balance of sparse canopies begun by Van den Hurk and McNaughton (1994). The model is based on the Lagrangian theory of Raupach (1989). In the earlier work, we showed that the average effect of the near-field component of the scalar concentration profile can be represented by a ‘near-field’ resistor. Here we calculate values for the upper and lower ‘far-field’ resistors using Raupach's expression for the far-field diffusivity and his empirical descriptions of the profiles of vertical velocity variance and Lagrangian integral time scale (Raupach, 1988). The boundary-layer resistance for the foliage of the overstorey canopy is also reassessed. Calculations are carried out for a range of possible canopies. Representative values are chosen for use where a detailed description of the vegetation is unavailable.The resistors of the new model are compared with those of earlier two-layer models. The new ‘far-field’ resistors are smaller than the corresponding ‘aerodynamic’ resistors of the earlier models of Shuttleworth and Wallace (1985) and Choudhury and Monteith (1988) while the new boundary-layer resistor can be somewhat larger, depending on the choices made in the calculation. We could not find experimental data on canopy energy balances suitable for deciding which model is best. Instead, we have attempted to verify the model using measurements of surface temperature and calculated values of the ‘excess’ resistance, but the results are not definitive. A major conclusion is that turbulent transport near the ground beneath an overstorey canopy is poorly known and therefore is poorly represented in all models. Another conclusion is that current models for the excess resistance are inadequate.

This is the second paper describing a study of the turbulence regimes and exchange processes within and above an extensive Douglas-fir stand. The experiment was conducted on Vancouver Island during a two-week rainless period in July and August 1990. Two eddy correlation units were operated in the daytime to measure the fluxes of sensible heat and water vapour and other turbulence statistics at various heights within and above the stand. Net radiation was measured above the overstory using a stationary net radiometer and beneath the overstory using a tram system. Supplementary measurements included soil heat flux, humidity above and beneath the overstory, profiles of wind speed and air temperature, and the spatial variation of sensible heat flux near the forest floor.The sum of sensible and latent heat fluxes above the stand accounted for, on average, 83% of the available energy flux. On some days, energy budget closure was far better than on others. The average value of the Bowen ratio was 2.1 above the stand and 1.4 beneath the overstory. The mid-morning value of the canopy resistance was 150–450 s/m during the experiment and mid-day value of the Omega factor was about 0.20. The daytime mean canopy resistance showed a strong dependence on the mean saturation deficit during the two-week experimental period.The sum of sensible and latent heat fluxes beneath the overstory accounted for 74% of the available energy flux beneath the overstory. One of the reasons for this energy imbalance was that the small number of soil heat flux plates and the short pathway of the radiometer tram system was unable to account for the large horizontal heterogeneity in the available energy flux beneath the overstory. On the other hand, good agreement was obtained among the measurements of sensible heat flux made near the forest floor at four positions 15 m apart.There was a constant flux layer in the trunk space, a large flux divergence in the canopy layer, and a constant flux layer above the stand. Counter-gradient flux of sensible heat constantly occurred at the base of the canopy.The transfer of sensible heat and water vapour was dominated by intermittent cool downdraft and warm updraft events and dry downdraft and moist updraft events, respectively, at all levels. For sensible heat flux, the ratio of the contribution of cool downdrafts to that of warm updrafts was greater than one in the canopy layer and less than one above the stand and near the forest floor.

This interpretative literature survey examines problems with application of the bulk aerodynamic method to spatially averaged fluxes over heterogeneous surfaces. This task is approached by tying together concepts from a diverse range of recent studies on subgrid parameterization, the roughness sublayer, the roll of large “inactive” boundary-layer eddies, internal boundary-layer growth, the equilibrium sublayer, footprint theory and the blending height. Although these concepts are not completely compatible, qualitative scaling arguments based on these concepts lead to a tentative unified picture of the qualitative influence of surface heterogeneity for a wide spectrum of spatial scales.Generalization of the velocity scale is considered to account for nonvanishing heat and moisture fluxes in the limit of vanishing time-averaged wind speed and to account for the influence of subgrid mesoscale motions on the grid-averaged turbulent flux. The bulk aerodynamic relationship for the heat flux usually employs the surface radiation temperature or, equivalently, the temperature from the modelled surface energy budget. The corresponding thermal roughness length is quite variable and its dependence on available parameters is predictable only in special cases.An effective transfer coefficient to relate the spatially averaged surface fluxes to spatially averaged air-ground differences of temperature and other scalars can be most clearly defined when the blending height occurs below the reference level (observational level or first model level). This condition is satisfied only for surface heterogeneity occurring over horizontal scales up to a few times the boundary-layer depth, depending on the stability and height of the reference level. For surface heterogeneity on larger scales (small mesoscale), an effective transfer coefficient for the spatially averaged flow must be defined, for which predictive schemes are unavailable. For surface variations on large mesoscales, homogeneous subareas may be maintained where traditional similarity theory is locally applicable. Surface variations on these scales may generate thermally-driven mesoscale motions.

Theory of leaf energy balances is outlined in the context of four applications: (1) prediction of leaf temperatures during clear nights; (2) estimation of transpiration rates and stomatal conductances of individual leaves by using pairs of coated and normal leaves; (3) measurement of leaf boundary-layer conductances using pairs of artificial, electrically heated leaves; and (4) use of method (2) to assess validity of whole-tree transpiration rates measured with large ventilated chambers. Good agreement was found between predicted and measured leaf temperatures on clear nights. Leaf temperatures were controlled mainly by loss of thermal radiation to cold skies and by gain of sensible and latent heat from surrounding air. Leaves with condensation on them were 1-2 °C warmer than dry leaves under otherwise similar ambient conditions. Free convection was unimportant relative to forced convection as a mechanism for heat transfer to leaves during calm, clear nights. Satisfactory estimates of single-leaf transpiration were obtained using pairs of coated and uncoated leaves provided both were equally exposed to incoming radiation. Electrically heated facsimile leaves gave satisfactory estimates of leaf boundary-layer conductances in the field. Large ventilated chambers had a small influence on measured transpiration rates according to estimates made with the Penman-Monteith equation for both chamber positions.