The role of surface energy fluxes in determining mixing layer heights

Beamesderfer, Eric R.; Biraud, Sebastien C.; Brunsell, Nathaniel A.; Friedl, Mark A.; Helbig, Manuel; Hollinger, David Y.; Milliman, Thomas; Rahn, David A.; Scott, Russell L.; Stoy, Paul C.; Diehl, Jen L.; Richardson, Andrew D.

doi:10.1016/j.agrformet.2023.109687

Item

ITEM ACTIONSEXPORT

Add to Basket

Local TagsRelease HistoryDetailsSummary

Released

Journal Article

The role of surface energy fluxes in determining mixing layer heights

Authors

Beamesderfer, Eric R.
External Organizations;

Biraud, Sebastien C.
External Organizations;

Brunsell, Nathaniel A.
External Organizations;

Friedl, Mark A.
External Organizations;

/persons/resource/helbig

Helbig, Manuel
0 Pre-GFZ, Departments, GFZ Publication Database, Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum;

Hollinger, David Y.
External Organizations;

Milliman, Thomas
External Organizations;

Rahn, David A.
External Organizations;

Scott, Russell L.
External Organizations;

Stoy, Paul C.
External Organizations;

Diehl, Jen L.
External Organizations;

Richardson, Andrew D.
External Organizations;

External Ressource

No external resources are shared

Fulltext (public)

There are no public fulltexts stored in GFZpublic

Supplementary Material (public)

There is no public supplementary material available

Citation

Beamesderfer, E. R., Biraud, S. C., Brunsell, N. A., Friedl, M. A., Helbig, M., Hollinger, D. Y., Milliman, T., Rahn, D. A., Scott, R. L., Stoy, P. C., Diehl, J. L., Richardson, A. D. (2023): The role of surface energy fluxes in determining mixing layer heights. - Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 342, 109687.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2023.109687

Cite as: https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_5034808

Abstract

The atmospheric mixing layer height (MLH) is a critical variable for understanding and constraining ecosystem and climate dynamics. Past MLH estimation efforts have largely relied on data with low temporal (radiosondes) or spatial (reanalysis) resolutions. This study is unique in that it utilized continuous point-based ceilometer- and radiosonde-derived measurements of MLH at surface flux tower sites to identify the surface influence on MLH dynamics. We found a strong correlation (R2 = 0.73-0.91) between radiosonde MLH and ceilometer MLH at two sites with co-located observations. Seasonally, mean MLH was the highest at all sites during the summer, while the highest annual mean MLH was found at the warm and dry sites, dominated by high sensible heat fluxes. At daily time scales, surface fluxes of sensible heat, latent heat, and vapor pressure deficit had the largest influence on afternoon MLH. However, at best, the identified forcing variables and surface fluxes only accounted for ∼38-65% of the variability in MLH under all sky conditions, and ∼53-76% of the variability under clear skies. These results highlight the difficulty in using single-point observations to explain MLH dynamics but should encourage the use of ceilometers or similar atmospheric measurements at surface flux sites in future studies.