| 6 | | A detailed description will follow soon...\\ |
| | 6 | The turbulent exchange of heat and water vapour are essential land surface - atmosphere interaction processes in the local, regional and global energy and water cycles. Scintillometry can be considered as the only technique presently available for the quasi-operational experimental determination of area-averaged turbulent fluxes needed to validate the fluxes simulated by regional atmospheric models ord derived from satellite images at a horizontal scale of a few kilometers. The scintillometer principle is based on the quantitative evaluation of intensity fluctuations of electromagnetic radiation propagating across the turbulent atmosphere over distances up to several kilometres.\\ |
| | 7 | \\ |
| | 8 | This research project will study some fundamental issues related to the applicability of scintillometry. Special emphasis will be put on the determination of the spatial and temporal variability of structure parameters over heterogeneous terrain. The project essentially relies on a coupling of field measurements (eddy-covariance technique, scintillometry and airborne measurements) and modelling using the large-eddy simulation (LES) model PALM. With this combination the proposed project represents the worldwide first attempt both to measure the statistics of the turbulent temperature and humidity field along a scintillometer path by airborne techniques, and to simulate the pattern of structure parameters along this path by LES.\\ |
| | 9 | \\ |
| | 10 | Simulations of the turbulent structure of the lower boundary layer for different forcing simulations under well-controlled conditions will be performed in order to study the behavior of structure parameters over a heterogeneous land surface. Setup of the model simulations and interpretation of the results will be performed in close cooperation with the other project partners. |
