Energy balance closure at FLUXNET sites

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Abstract

A comprehensive evaluation of energy balance closure is performed across 22 sites and 50 site-years in FLUXNET, a network of eddy covariance sites measuring long-term carbon and energy fluxes in contrasting ecosystems and climates. Energy balance closure was evaluated by statistical regression of turbulent energy fluxes (sensible and latent heat (LE)) against available energy (net radiation, less the energy stored) and by solving for the energy balance ratio, the ratio of turbulent energy fluxes to available energy. These methods indicate a general lack of closure at most sites, with a mean imbalance in the order of 20%. The imbalance was prevalent in all measured vegetation types and in climates ranging from Mediterranean to temperate and arctic. There were no clear differences between sites using open and closed path infrared gas analyzers. At a majority of sites closure improved with turbulent intensity (friction velocity), but lack of total closure was still prevalent under most conditions. The imbalance was greatest during nocturnal periods. The results suggest that estimates of the scalar turbulent fluxes of sensible and LE are underestimated and/or that available energy is overestimated. The implications on interpreting long-term CO2 fluxes at FLUXNET sites depends on whether the imbalance results primarily from general errors associated with the eddy covariance technique or from errors in calculating the available energy terms. Although it was not entirely possible to critically evaluate all the possible sources of the imbalance, circumstantial evidence suggested a link between the imbalance and CO2 fluxes. For a given value of photosynthetically active radiation, the magnitude of CO2 uptake was less when the energy imbalance was greater. Similarly, respiration (estimated by nocturnal CO2 release to the atmosphere) was significantly less when the energy imbalance was greater.

Introduction

The global proliferation of long-term eddy covariance sites measuring carbon and energy fluxes (FLUXNET) provides a unique contribution to the study of the environmental, biological and climatological controls of net surface exchange between vegetation and the atmosphere (Baldocchi et al., 2001). Independent methods of evaluating the reliability of the eddy covariance measurements at FLUXNET sites are highly desirable. One method of independently evaluating scalar flux estimates from eddy covariance is energy balance closure. Energy balance closure, a formulation of the first law of thermodynamics, requires that the sum of the estimated latent (LE) and sensible (H) heat flux be equivalent to all other energy sinks and sourcesLE+H=Rn−G−S−Qwhere Rn is the net radiation, G the heat flux into the soil substrate, S the rate of change of heat storage (air and biomass) between the soil surface and the level of the eddy covariance instrumentation, and Q the sum of all additional energy sources and sinks. Typically, Q is neglected as a small term, and an imbalance between the remaining independently measured terms on the left- and right-hand sides of Eq. (1) may indicate inaccurate estimates of scalar fluxes.

Energy balance closure is directly relevant to the evaluation of latent and sensible heat fluxes and not to other scalar fluxes (e.g. CO2 fluxes, the primary constituent for FLUXNET). However, at least four considerations make an analysis of energy balance closure at FLUXNET sites relevant and functional. First, although the source–sink distributions for water, heat and CO2 are different from each other in an ecosystem, the atmospheric transport mechanisms within and above the canopy, which are measured by eddy covariance, are similar for all scalars. Second, the computation of all scalar fluxes using the eddy covariance technique is founded on similar theoretical assumptions in the conservation equations and their Reynolds decomposition (Paw U et al., 2000). Thirdly, at FLUXNET sites all the terms in Eq. (1) are typically measured and recorded continuously at a high temporal resolution, providing a data set for independently evaluating eddy covariance fluxes across multiple time scales. Finally, an independent evaluation of energy balance closure across FLUXNET sites is useful for its own purposes, especially in view of the close biophysical coupling between carbon, energy and water fluxes (Collatz et al., 1991, Baldocchi and Meyers, 1998).

Historically, energy balance closure has been accepted as an important test of eddy covariance data (Anderson et al., 1984, Verma et al., 1986, Mahrt, 1998), and a number of individual sites within the FLUXNET network report energy balance closure as a standard procedure (e.g. Hollinger et al., 1999, Anthoni et al., 1999, Aubinet et al., 2000; Goldstein et al., 2000; Wilson and Baldocchi, 2000, Schmid et al., 2000). From these studies and many others, a general concern has developed within the micrometeorological community because surface energy fluxes (LE+H) are frequently (but not always) underestimated by about 10–30% relative to estimates of available energy (RnGS). The imbalance is often present, though often to a lesser extent, even over flat, homogeneous surfaces and short vegetation (Stannard et al., 1994, Mahrt, 1998, Twine et al., 2000), which are presumably ideal conditions for the eddy covariance method.

An energy imbalance has implications on how energy flux measurements should be interpreted and how these estimates should be compared with model simulations (Liu et al., 1999, Twine et al., 2000, Culf et al., 2002). Within the FLUXNET community, the consequence of a possible widespread energy imbalance on the interpretation of CO2 fluxes is somewhat less certain and is dependent on the mechanisms creating the imbalance. General hypotheses have been suggested to account for the lack of energy balance closure, including: (1) sampling errors associated with different measurement source areas for the terms in Eq. (1), (2) a systematic bias in instrumentation, (3) neglected energy sinks, (4) the loss of low and/or high frequency contributions to the turbulent flux and (5) neglected advection of scalars. If the energy imbalance results from different measurement source areas for the terms in Eq. (1), or bias errors in net radiation, or neglected energy sinks and sources, there may be no reason to suspect that the measured CO2 fluxes are systematically inaccurate. However, if the mechanisms creating the imbalance result from inappropriate assumptions made from the scalar conservation equation, such as neglecting mean advection (Paw U et al., 2000), or result from low or high frequency loss of flux, the estimated CO2 flux may contain similar errors in relation to the actual terrestrial exchange. An overall evaluation of site characteristics and meteorological conditions associated with the energy imbalance may provide circumstantial evidence for its cause, and also suggest whether similar errors are likely in the CO2 flux estimates.

Because of the large geographic and biological variability at the contributing sites, FLUXNET offers a unique data set to compare energy balance closure for different vegetation types, terrain features and climates. Previous studies have focused on energy balance closure at multiple sites (Stannard et al., 1994, Barr et al., 1994, Aubinet et al., 2000, Twine et al., 2000), but FLUXNET encompasses a larger quantity of sites and with extensive variability in site characteristics. Although diverse instrumentation and processing methods in FLUXNET increase the possible sources affecting energy balance closure, instrumentation differences also present an opportunity to examine the effect of available techniques, especially potential differences between open and closed path infrared gas analyzers (IRGAs). Because FLUXNET sites typically measure continuously over annual cycles, an evaluation of closure over different seasons is possible, which has not generally been reported in other synthesis studies of energy balance closure (Stannard et al., 1994, Mahrt, 1998, Twine et al., 2000).

The goals of this study are: (1) to evaluate energy balance closure at all FLUXNET sites, and (2) to evaluate the potential source of differences in the imbalance within and between sites. Based on these considerations, (3) we will also discuss the relationship between energy balance closure and the consequences for interpreting CO2 fluxes.

Section snippets

Materials and methods

Methodology and review papers for many of the FLUXNET eddy covariance sites are published in Aubinet et al. (2000) and Baldocchi et al. (2001). Eddy covariance and the supporting environmental and meteorological data were contributed by individual investigators to the FLUXNET database at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Data Archive Center. The data set contains annual files of half-hourly flux and meteorological data at eddy covariance stations across Europe and North America (Table 1) and

Overall energy balance closure

Regression coefficients of LE+H against RnGS, using OLSs on all the half-hour data for each of the 50 site-years, are shown in Table 2. The slope was less than 1 for all site-years, ranging from 0.53 to 0.99, with a mean of 0.79±0.01. The intercept ranged from −32.9 to 36.9 W m−2, with a mean of 3.7±2.0 W m−2. There were more positive (31) than negative intercepts (19). The mean coefficient of determination (r2) was 0.86, ranging from 0.64 to 0.96.

Using the RMA approach, which accounted for

Discussion

Although the intercepts of the OLS regressions for the site-years were typically non-zero, the OLS slope (for positive and negative intercepts) was always less than 1. The EBR was less than 1 for over 80% of the site-years, further suggesting a general lack of closure. The general lack of complete energy balance closure at FLUXNET sites (linear regression slope and EBR typically less than 1) is consistent with historical evidence that the energy balance is often not closed using the eddy

Conclusions

  • 1.

    There was a general lack of energy balance closure at FLUXNET sites, with the scalar fluxes of sensible and LE being underestimated and/or available energy being overestimated. The mean imbalance was in the order of 20%.

  • 2.

    Energy balance closure is typically poor during nocturnal periods, especially when the turbulent mixing is weak. On average, energy balance closure was better in the afternoon than in the morning, possibly suggesting the underestimation of storage terms, which are usually larger

Acknowledgements

This work is the result of the FLUXNET (NASA) Workshop in Marconi, CA, USA (June 2000). It is also a contribution to the AmeriFlux program (US Department of Energy’s Terrestrial Carbon Program). We thank Bruce Hicks, Marc Pitchford and Jose Fuentes for reviewing and improving this manuscript.

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