Using sonic anemometer temperature to measure sensible heat flux in strong winds

Abstract

Sonic anemometers simultaneously measure the turbulent fluctuations of vertical wind (w') and sonic temperature (T_s '), and are commonly used to measure sensible heat flux (H). Our study examines 30-min heat fluxes measured with a Campbell Scientific CSAT3 sonic anemometer above a subalpine forest. We compared H calculated with T_s to H calculated with a co-located thermocouple and found that, for horizontal wind speed (U) less than 8 m s^-1 , the agreement was around ±30 W m^-2 . However, for U ≈ 8 m s^-1 , the CSAT H had a generally positive deviation from H calculated with the thermocouple, reaching a maximum difference of [approximate]250 W m^-2 at U [approximate] 18 m s^-1 . With version 4 of the CSAT firmware, we found significant underestimation of the speed of sound and thus T_s in high winds (due to a delayed detection of the sonic pulse), which resulted in the large CSAT heat flux errors. Although this T_s error is qualitatively similar to the well-known fundamental correction for the crosswind component, it is quantitatively different and directly related to the firmware estimation of the pulse arrival time. For a CSAT running version 3 of the firmware, there does not appear to be a significant underestimation of T_s ; however, a T_s error similar to that of version 4 may occur if the CSAT is sufficiently out of calibration. An empirical correction to the CSAT heat flux that is consistent with our conceptual understanding of the T_s error is presented. Within a broader context, the surface energy balance is used to evaluate the heat flux measurements, and the usefulness of side-by-side instrument comparisons is discussed.

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COPYRIGHT: © Author(s) 2012. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.