Göckede, M; Rebmann, C; Foken, T: A combination of quality assessment tools for eddy covariance measurements with footprint modelling for the characterisation of complex sites, Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 127, 175-188 (2004) | |
Abstract: The adoption of the eddy covariance technique to estimate surface exchange is based on the assump-tion that certain meteorological conditions are valid. The most important of these are horizontal ho-mogeneity, steady-state, and non-advective conditions. As such conditions are often violated under complex terrain conditions, e.g. at flux monitoring sites over forests, this study aims to evaluate the influence of surface heterogeneity in order to allow a correct interpretation of the measurement results. An approach has been developed which combines existing quality assessment tools for eddy covari-ance measurements with footprint modelling. This makes it possible to define the spatial context of the fluxes, and to include land use features of the surrounding terrain in the analysis. Such an approach also determines the dominating flux data quality for different wind sectors and varying meteorological conditions, so that the most suitable situations for the collection of high-quality data sets can be identi-fied. Additionally, the flux contribution of the different land use types present in the footprint area is calculated. |