High-resolution LES studies of the turbulent exchange processes inside a forest and the forest-atmosphere interactions under heterogeneous conditions
Responsible: Farah Kanani?
Project type: ​DFG research project with ​Universität Bayreuth and ​Max-Planck-Institut für Chemie Mainz
Duration: 1/12/2010-30/11/2013

Small scale heterogeneities in the order of hundreds of meters are under suspicion to be the cause of the unclosed energy balance. Especially in the vicinity of distinct surface transitions such as forest edges, turbulent fluxes and their contribution to a flux measurement are sparsely understood. Forest edges are well known to induce secondary circulations or coherent structures which significantly contribute to the turbulent fluxes of energy and matter.

Within this project, the coherent structures associated with clear cut to forest transitions, and their significance for the unclosed energy balance are investigated. Therefore, highly resolved large-eddy simulations are conducted, while reproducing the measuring site conditions as realistic as possible. The topography will be considered as well as the contribution of the vegetation components to the fluxes of momentum, heat and matter. The large scale driving force is provided to the LES by WRF data.