The modified ogive analysis and the block ensemble average were employed to investigate the impact of the averaging time extension on the energy balance closure over six land-use types. The modified ogive analysis, which requires a steady-state condition, can extend the averaging time up to a few hours and suggests that an averaging time of 30 min is still overall sufficient for eddy-covariance measurements over low vegetation. The block ensemble average, which does not require a steady-state condition, can extend the averaging time to several days. However, it can improve the energy balance closure for some sites during specific periods, when secondary circulations exist in the vicinity of the sensor. These nearsurface secondary circulations mainly transport sensible heat, and when near-ground warm air is transported upward, the sensible heat flux observed by the block ensemble average will increase at longer averaging times. These findings suggest an alternative energy balance correction for a ground-based eddy-covariance measurement, in which the attribution of the residual depends on the ratio of sensible heat flux to the buoyancy flux. The fraction of the
We estimated the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) dissipation rate ( ) for thirtytwo 1-h intervals of unstable stratification covering the stability range 0.12 ≤ −z/L ≤ 43 (z/L is the ratio of instrument height to the Obukhov length), by fitting Kolmogorov's inertial subrange spectrum to streamwise spectra observed over a desert flat. Estimated values are compatible with the existence of local equilibrium, in that the TKE dissipation rate approximately equalled the sum of shear and buoyant production rates. Only in the neutral limit was the turbulent transport term in the TKE budget measured to be small.
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