The respective effects of water vapor and temperature on the turbulent fluxes of sensible and latent heat

✍ Scribed by Roger F. Reinking

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1980
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 690 KB
• Volume: 19
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0006-8314
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00120598

✦ Synopsis

Various aspects of the Brook correction for the effects of moisture fluctuations or gradients on atmospheric specific heat and, consequently, on the vertical flux of sensible heat are discussed, and additional forms of the complete and approximate equations are derived. Corollary expressions for the influence of temperature fluctuations or gradients on vertical latent heat flux are presented. Errors due to neglecting these temperature and moisture effects on the respective fluxes are compared in terms of the Bowen ratio. Either of these normally neglected effects can change the direction (sign) and very substantially affect the magnitude of the corresponding flux. The effects sometimes compensate in the total, sensible plus latent, heat flux. Calculations include practical examples from the very different climates of the tropical Atlantic Ocean and the Great Plains of Nebraska.

In (l), pw'q' = E, the water vapor flux. Equation ( ) is a simplified form of the fluxgradient equation derived by Brook The quantities p, C,, w, T, and q are air density, specific heat of dry air, vertical eddy motion, temperature and specific humidity, respectively. Bars and primes represent means and fluctuations, respectively. Equations ( ) and ( ) are approximations, and are equivalent only if the assumption of equal eddy conductivities for heat and water vapor, K,=K, is applied. Brook applied assumption (3) to Equation (1) to derive his flux-gradient Boundary-Layer Meteorology 19 (1980) 373-385.