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Title: Investigating the mechanisms responsible for the lack of surface energy balance closure in a central Amazonian tropical rainforest

Journal Article · · Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [6];  [9];  [8]
  1. Montana State Univ., Bozeman, MT (United States). Dept. of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences; Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States). Dept of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science
  2. Northern Arizona Univ., Flagstaff, AZ (United States). School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems
  3. Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States). Dept of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science
  4. Embrapa Amazonia Oriental, Belem, PA (Brazil)
  5. Univ. of Kansas, Lawrence, KS (United States). Dept. of Geography and Atmospheric Science
  6. Univ. do Estado do Amazonas (UEA), Manaus, AM (Brazil)
  7. National Inst. of Amazonian Research (INPA), Manaus, AM (Brazil)
  8. Montana State Univ., Bozeman, MT (United States). Dept. of Land Resources and Environmental Science
  9. Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Sao Jose dos Campos, Sao Paulo (Brazil). National Inst. for Space Research (INPE)
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This work investigates the diurnal and seasonal behavior of the energy balance residual (E) that results from the observed difference between available energy and the turbulent fluxes of sensible heat (H) and latent heat (LE) at the FLUXNET BR-Ma2 site located in the Brazilian central Amazon rainforest. The behavior of E is analyzed by extending the eddy covariance averaging length from 30 min to 4 h and by applying an Information Flow Dynamical Process Network to diagnose processes and conditions affecting E across different seasons. Results show that the seasonal turbulent flux dynamics and the Bowen ratio are primarily driven by net radiation (Rn), with substantial sub-seasonal variability. The Bowen ratio increased from 0.25 in April to 0.4 at the end of September. Extension of the averaging length from 0.5 (94.6% closure) to 4 h and thus inclusion of longer timescale eddies and mesoscale processes closes the energy balance and lead to an increase in the Bowen ratio, thus highlighting the importance of additional H to E. Information flow analysis reveals that the components of the energy balance explain between 25 and 40% of the total Shannon entropy with higher values during the wet season than the dry season. Dry season information flow from the buoyancy flux to E are 30–50% larger than that from H, indicating the potential importance of buoyancy fluxes to closing E. While the low closure highlights additional sources not captured in the flux data and random measurement errors contributing to E, the findings of the information flow and averaging length analysis are consistent with the impact of mesoscale circulations, which tend to transport more H than LE, on the lack of closure.

Research Organization:
Montana State Univ., Bozeman, MT (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Contributing Organization:
Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP), Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Amazonas (FAPEAM), Large-scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia (LBA)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0011075; 1552976; 1632810; 1417914
OSTI ID:
1368353
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1550523
Journal Information:
Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, Vol. 255; ISSN 0168-1923
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 22 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (5)

Robust observations of land-to-atmosphere feedbacks using the information flows of FLUXNET journal October 2019
Anticipating global terrestrial ecosystem state change using FLUXNET journal April 2019
Land–atmosphere interactions in the tropics – a review journal January 2019
A semi-empirical model of the energy balance closure in the surface layer journal December 2018
A semi-empirical model of the energy balance closure in the surface layer text January 2018

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Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
eddy covariance
energy balance closure
evapotranspiration
information theory sensible heat flux
tropical rainforest