Connecting Land-Atmosphere Interactions to Surface Heterogeneity in CHEESEHEAD 2019
Scholarly Edition
Overview
abstract
The Chequamegon Heterogeneous Ecosystem Energy-balance Study Enabled by; a High-density Extensive Array of Detectors 2019 (CHEESEHEAD19) is an; ongoing National Science Foundation project based on an intensive field; campaign that occurred from June-October 2019. The purpose of the study; is to examine how the atmospheric boundary layer responds to spatial; heterogeneity in surface energy fluxes. One of the main objectives is to; test whether lack of energy balance closure measured by eddy covariance; (EC) towers is related to mesoscale atmospheric processes. Finally, the; project evaluates data-driven methods for scaling surface energy fluxes,; with the aim to improve model-data comparison and integration. To; address these questions, an extensive suite of ground, tower, profiling,; and airborne instrumentation was deployed over a 10×10 km domain of a; heterogeneous forest ecosystem in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National; Forest in northern Wisconsin USA, centered on the existing Park Falls; 447-m tower that anchors an Ameriflux/NOAA supersite (US-PFa / WLEF).; The project deployed one of the world’s highest-density networks of; above-canopy EC measurements of surface energy fluxes. This tower EC; network was coupled with spatial measurements of EC fluxes from; aircraft, maps of leaf and canopy properties derived from airborne; spectroscopy, ground-based measurements of plant productivity,; phenology, and physiology, and atmospheric profiles of wind, water; vapor, and temperature using radar, sodar, lidar, microwave radiometers,; infrared interferometers, and radiosondes. These observations are being; used with large eddy simulation and scaling experiments to better; understand sub-mesoscale processes and improve formulations of sub-grid; scale processes in numerical weather and climate models.
