Advances in Earth Science ›› 2018, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (9): 898-913. doi: 10.11867/j.issn.1001-8166.2018.09.0898

• Orginal Article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Progress in the Energy Closure of Eddy Covariance Systems

Yanzhao Zhou 1, 2( ), Xin Li 3, 4, *( )   

  1. 1.Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing of Gansu Province, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources,Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
    2.University of Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100049, China
    3.CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
    4.Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research,Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
  • Online:2018-10-20 Published:2018-10-24
  • Contact: Xin Li E-mail:zhouyanzhao@lzb.ac.cn;lixin@lzb.ac.cn
  • About author:

    First author:Zhou Yanzhao(1989-), male, Xingtai City, Hebei Province, Ph.D student. Research areas include applications of remote sensing and GIS in hydrology and numerical simulations in atmospheric boundary layer. E-mail:zhouyanzhao@lzb.ac.cn

  • Supported by:
    Foundation item:Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China "Integrated modeling and prediction of the water-ecosystem-economy in the Heihe River Basin"(No.91425303);The Inter-disciplinary Innovation Team of the Chinese Academy of Science "The inter-disciplinary innovation team of data assimilation in hydrology"(No.XXH13505-06).

Yanzhao Zhou, Xin Li. Progress in the Energy Closure of Eddy Covariance Systems[J]. Advances in Earth Science, 2018, 33(9): 898-913.

The sum of turbulent fluxes measured by the eddy-covariance method is often 10%~30% lower than available energy (i.e., the net radiation minus the ground heat flux). This systematic bias in the EC method is called the "EC energy closure problem" and has been one of the biggest challenges in micrometeorology. In the past decades, lots of studies have focused on this problem and have found extensive knowledge about it. In this paper, we introduced the reasons to the EC energy closure problem and systematically summarized the understandings on this problem with a discussion regarding the merits and limitations of possible correction methods. Compared with previous overview studies, our study focused on the methods and progresses on the EC energy closure problem using the Large Eddy Simulation (LES). The existing problem, e.g., the lack of high quality and high spatial density of "surface true fluxes" observations (e.g., matric observations), the failure of fully emulating the EC using the LES and how to mechanistically understand that large eddies affect turbulence structures and lead to non-closure problem, hinder the further understanding of the EC energy closure problem. Thus, in the future, focus should be put on the mechanistic understanding of how large eddies affect the non-closure problem and some dense field observations to obtain the high quality "surface true fluxes".

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