Flux measurements by the NRC Twin Otter atmospheric research aircraft: 1987–2011

Abstract

Abstract. Over the past 30 years, the Canadian Twin Otter research group has operated an aircraft platform for the study of atmospheric greenhouse gas fluxes (carbon dioxide, ozone, nitrous oxide and methane) and energy exchange (latent and sensible heat) over a wide range of terrestrial ecosystems in North America. Some of the acquired data from these projects have now been archived at the Flight Research Laboratory and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. The dataset, which contains the measurements obtained in eight projects from 1987 to 2011 are now publicly available. All these projects were carried out in order to improve our understanding of the biophysical controls acting on land-surface atmosphere fluxes. Some of the projects also attempted to quantify the impacts of agroecosystems on the environment. To provide information on the data available, we briefly describe each project and some of the key findings by referring to previously published relevant work. As new flux analysis techniques are being developed, we are confident that much additional information can be extracted from this unique data set.

A UAV-Based Eddy Covariance System for Measurement of Mass and Energy Exchange of the Ecosystem: Preliminary Results

“…The major advantage of airborne EC is the ability to measure turbulent fluxes that are more spatially representative than ground-based EC measurements and that have higher temporal resolution and accuracy than those estimated from models [ 17 ]. At present, small environmental research aircraft (SERA), such as the Sky Arrow 650 environmental research aircraft (ERA) or Twin Otter, represent the most advanced airborne flux technology and have been used in numerous large field experiments [ 18 , 19 ]. These airborne EC measurements offer the opportunity to investigate surface fluxes on the regional scale and complement ground-based observations by providing insight into the spatial variability information of surface fluxes [ 20 ].…”

Evaluation of the quality of a UAV-based eddy covariance system for measurements of wind and turbulent flux

“…Otter, NASA CARAFE) (Desjardins et al, 2016;Wolfe et al, 2018) and larger quad-engine utility aircrafts (e.g., NOAA WP-3D) (Khelif et al, 1999). These airborne flux measurements, in combination with ground measurements, provide an excellent opportunity to produce regional-scaled, spatio-temporal surface flux datasets that can improve our understanding of the interactive processes between the land surface and the atmosphere in regional and global change (Chen et al, 1999;Liu et al, 1999;Prueger et al, 2005).…”