Meteorologische Zeitschrift, Vol. 10, No.

1, 71-80 (February 2001) c by Gebr der Borntraeger 2001 u

Article

A modied Bowen ratio method to determine sensible and latent heat uxes
H EPING L IU 1 2 and T HOMAS F OKEN
1 2

University of Bayreuth, Department of Micrometeorology, Bayreuth, Germany Department of Geophysics, Peking University, China

(Manuscript received May 7, 2000; in revised form October 5, 2000; accepted December 4, 2000)

Abstract The sensible heat ux (H) and the latent heat ux (E) were measured above a grassland during June, 1997 (LINEX-97/1 Experiment), using the eddy covariance method (EC) and the Bowen ratio/Energy balance method (BREB). The results indicate that HBREB is about (30 20) W m;2 higher than HEC , and EBREB is about (180 40) W m;2 higher than EEC during the daytime, and this is mainly caused by an imbalance in the closure of the surface energy balance in the BREB. In order to avoid the inaccuracies associated with the surface energy balance method, we propose a modied Bowen ratio method (MBR) to determine sensible and latent heat uxes without using the surface energy balance equation. The results and error analysis show that MBR can give more accurate results than BREB. For the MBR, a measurement system using a sonic anemometer together with temperature and humidity measurements at two levels is being recommended to obtain sensible and latent heat uxes. Zusammenfassung Der f hlbare (H) und der latente (E) W rmestrom wurden w hrend des Experimentes LINEX-97/1 im Juni u a a 1997 uber Grasland mit der Eddy-Kovarianz-Methode (EC) und der Bowen-Ratio-/Energiebilanz-Methode o (BREB) erfasst. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dass am Tage HBREB etwa (30 20) W m;2 h her als HEC liegt und o EBREB etwa (180 40) W m;2 h her als EEC , was im wesentlichen auf einer Unausgeglichenheit in der Schlieung der Energiebilanz am Boden bei BREB zur ckgef hrt werden kann. Um diese Unsicherheiten u u in der Energiebilanz auszuschlieen, wird ein modiziertes Bowen-Ratio-Verfahren (MBR) zur Bestimmung des f hlbaren und latenten W rmestromes vorgeschlagen, welches die Energiebilanzgleichung nicht nutzt. u a Die Fehleranalyse zeigt, dass die MBR-Methode geringere Fehler aufweist als BREB. F r die MBR weru den ein Messsystem aus einem Ultraschallanemometer und Messungen der Temperatur und Feuchte in zwei Niveaus ben tigt. o

1 Introduction

on the individual uxes (F OKEN, 1998a; F OKEN et al., 1999; F OKEN and O NCLEY, 1995; PANIN et al., 1996; The Bowen ratio/Energy balance (BREB) method has W ICKE and B ERNHOFER, 1996). These authors pointed been widely used for determining evaporation over vari- out that the surface energy balance equation can be modous underlying surfaces such as irrigated wheat (D UGAS ied as, et al., 1991), forest (BARR et al., 1994; G AY et al., 1996; L INDROTH and H ALLDIN, 1990), bare soil (D UGAS, (1.1) Rn ; G ; H ; E = R e 1993), and even at a non-ideal site (B ERNHOFER, 1992; N IE et al., 1992). It is straight-forward to implement be- where Rn is net radiation; G, soil heat ux measured with cause it only requires the measurement of temperature a heat ux plate; H, sensible heat ux; E, latent heat and humidity at two levels, net radiation, and soil heat ux; R e, residuum of the closure of the energy balance ux. Recently, an imbalance of the surface energy bud- which in most cases is not equal zero. The ratio of the get has been widely observed and which implies some residuum and the available energy, R e=(Rn ; G) 100%, inaccuracies of BREB method due to a residuum. The estimated by different researchers are summarized in Tacauses of the imbalance of the energy budget can be re- ble 1. Undoubtedly, the various R e=(Rn ; G) 100% vallated to measurement errors (net radiation, latent heat ues obtained indicate the nature of the imbalance of the ux, sensible heat ux), heat storage problems in the surface energy budget over the different underlying sursoil because the soil heat ux is not measured directly faces. If the heat storage in the upper soil layer is inat the surface, and the inuence of different footprints cluded in Eq. (1.1) the residuum may be reduced but Corresponding author: Thomas Foken, Universit t Bayreuth, still is not negligible (F OKEN et al., 1999). a In order to avoid the problems associated with the Abteilung Mikrometeorologie, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany, email: thomas.foken@uni-bayreuth.de imbalance of the surface energy budget in BREB, we
0941-2948/01/0010-0071 $ 04.50 c Gebr der Borntraeger, Berlin, Stuttgart 2001 u

DOI: 10.1127/0941-2948/2001/0010-0071

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Table 1: Comparison of the R e=(Rn ; G) (%) values obtained from different eld experiments.

Experiment KUREX-88 FIFE-89 TARTEX-90 KUREX-91 LINEX-96/2 LINEX-97/1 LITFASS-1998

Reference T SVANG et al., 1991 K ANEMASU et al., 1992 F OKEN et al., 1993 PANIN et al., 1996 F OKEN et al., 1997a F OKEN, 1998b B EYRICH, 2000 L EE and B LACK, 1993

Re=(Rn ; G) in % 23 10 33 33 20 32 37 17

Underlying surface type different surfaces steppe barley and bare soil different surfaces medium grass short grass nearly bare soil 16 m deciduous forest

propose a modied Bowen ratio method (MBR) to obtain sensible and latent heat uxes. This approach is based on a similar method by B USINGER (1986), who used the Bowen ratio similarity (the ratio of the temperature and humidity/concentration differences between two levels in the surface layer is proportional to the ratio of the sensible and latent heat/ deposition ux) to determine the exchange coefcient for a deposition ux which can only be measured by a gradient approach (M EYERS et al., 1996). The buoyancy ux determined with a sonic anemometer was also used as a reference ux. The main difference in our proposal is the use of the Bowen ratio similarity for both the determination of the latent heat ux and the correction of the buoyancy ux. A sonic anemometer can be used to measure the buoyancy ux (the measured sonic temperature is nearly equal to the virtual temperature, see below) and to calculate sensible heat ux. These data with the temperature and humidity measurements at two levels (in the lower surface layer up to approximately 5 m the potential temperature is nearly equal to the actual temperature) are then used to obtain the latent heat ux. Recently, the use of sonic anemometers has become popular due to their convenient maintenance, easy operation and high accuracy (lower than 10% for uxes based on the eddy covariance method). The possibility of using sonic temperature to derive sensible heat ux from buoyancy ux taking into consideration humidity and velocity transformations is discussed in this paper. Comparisons and error analysis show the advantages of using MBR, and the criteria for the implementation of MBR are evaluated.

assuming similarity of the eddy diffusivities of heat and water vapor and a negligible inuence of stratication because the measurements are mostly made near the surface the Bowen ratio may be dened by nite differences as: cp T Bo = (2.1) q where cp is the specic heat of air for constant pressure, is the latent heat of vaporization of water, q is the specic humidity, T is the temperature, z is the height, T = T (z2 ) ; T (z1 ), q = q(z2 ) ; q(z1 ) and z2 =z1 4 to reduce the measuring error. H and E of BREB are then estimated from: Bo (Rn ; G) (2.2) HBREB = 1 + Bo 1 (Rn ; G) (2.3) EBREB = 1 + Bo The advantage of BREB is the simple determination of the Bowen ratio according to (2.1), but because of the imbalance in the closure of the energy terms the available energy, Rn ; G, should be replaced by Rn ; G ; R e according to Eq. (1.1). This error is very important and usually it is in the order of 2030%. This error is split accordingly in the Bowen ratio between the sensible and latent heat uxes, thus making it impossible to obtain both uxes with high degree of accuracy.

2.2 The modied Bowen ratio method

Eddy covariance (EC) measurements of the latent heat ux is very complicated and expensive to carry out (AUBINET et al., 2000; F OKEN et al., 1998; M ON 2 Methods CRIEFF et al., 1997), but not so for the friction velocity and the sensible heat ux. Using a sonic anemometer, it 2.1 The Bowen ratio/energy balance method is even cheaper than a net radiometer with a moderate degree of accuracy (F OKEN, 1998a). Therefore, we proThe uxes of sensible and latent heat over a natural pose a MBR method to measure Bowen ratio according surface (soil and/or vegetation) can be estimated us- to (2.1) and sensible heat ux by the eddy covariance ing the energy balance equation and the Bowen-ratio, method (AUBINET et al., 2000; B USINGER, 1986) acBo = H =E (F OKEN et al., 1997b; F UCHS and TAN - cording to NER, 1970; O HMURA, 1982). Using the classical equa(2.4) tions of the turbulent diffusion of heat and water and HMBR = cp w T
0 0

Meteorol. Z., 10, 2001

0

H. Liu and Th. Foken: Bowen ratio method for heat uxes
0

73

(w : uctuation of the vertical wind component, T uctuation of the temperature) and latent heat ux EMBR = HMBR Bo
0 0

(2.5)

HMBR in (2.4) can not be measured directly by a sonic anemometer (i.e., HMBR 6= HS = cp w TS ), because the sonic anemometer measures the sonic temperature (T ) S which is nearly equal to the virtual temperature, and the ux HS is nearly equal to the buoyancy ux (K AIMAL and G AYNOR, 1991; S UN et al., 1995). It is possible to obtain by the eddy covariance method measurements of the temperature uctuation directly with a thin platinum wire (i.e., HMBR = HBC = cp w T ); but such equipment can easily be destroyed and it is not feasible to include this sensor in a simple system for general uses. Some theoretical backgrounds have been well established investigating the use of a sonic anemometer to calculate sensible heat ux (e.g., K AIMAL and B USINGER, 1963; S CHOTANUS et al., 1983). Results indicate that the sonic-derived temperature can be affected by humidity and velocity uctuations. Therefore, the sonic derived buoyancy ux obtained by the sonic anemometer can be expressed as follows:
0 0

Finally, based on the determination of Bo according to (2.1) and the sensible heat ux according to (2.8) and (2.9), we determine the latent heat ux by (2.5). Equation (2.6) was derived based on a sonic anemometer that measures temperature along the vertical axis (e.g., Kaijo Denki DAT-300 which was used during LINEX97/1 eld study, see Section 3). For the new types of sonic anemometers (e.g., CSAT3) it is possible to calculate the temperature from an average value of temperatures measured along the three paths. Therefore a new equation has been derived to obtain HMBR (L IU et al., 2001) as follows: HMBR = cp (w T
0 0 0 0

cp

w TS + 2T u u w A + v v w B 2
0 0 0 0

)c =
0:51 T cp Bo

(2.10)

1+

where A and B are correction factors, and given in Table 2. In the LITFASS-1998 experiment (see Chapter 3), a CSAT3 sonic anemometer was used, and the data obtained will be used to verify the modied Bowen ratio method using Eqs. (2.9), (2.10) and (2.5).
Table 2: The values of A and B for different sonic anemometers (L IU et al., 2001). : elevation angle of all axes measured up from horizontal.

w TS
0

= w T + 0:51T
0 0

wq
0

; 2 T 2u u w
0

(2.6)

The rst term of the right-hand side of (2.6) is the sensible heat ux [used in (2.4)] and can be obtained by the eddy covariance method (w T ) with a thin wire thermometer. In the MBR method, sensible heat ux is determined using (2.6), and written as (w T )c . The third term of the right-hand side of (2.6) is small in unstable conditions but cannot be neglected in near-neutral situations (S CHOTANUS et al., 1983) where its value can be up to 20% of the ux. But because of the small uxes under these conditions the absolute error is also small. The second term in (2.6) has a magnitude of 10% for both cases. At present, there is no difculty in considering both terms to get the transformed sonic derived heat ux, (w T )c , from the buoyancy ux, (w TS ), with w q = cp =( Bo) w T , and u is the horizontal wind velocity, c is sound speed:
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Factors CSAT3 USA-1 A B 7/8 7/8 3/4 3/4

1 ; 1=2 cos2 1 ; 1=2 cos2

Solent

Solent-R2 1/2 1

2.3 Limitations of the BREB vs limitations of the MBR

The limitations of both the BREB and MBR methods are discussed in the following in order to illustrate the advantages of using the MBR. The use of the Bowen ratio similarity requires dynamic or dynamic/thermal turbulent conditions withh i out intermittencies because the exchange coefcients are w TS + 2 T 2u u w functions of the friction velocity. Therefore, some turbuc (w T )c = h 0 51 T cp i (2.7) lent conditions are required to obtain the measurements, 1 + Bo such as u(z1 ) > 1:0 m s 1 and u(z2 ); u(z1 ) > 0:3 m s 1 , which means that wind measurements at both levels h i must be incorporated into the Bowen ratio system (F O w TS + 2 T 2u u w c i (2.8) KEN et al., 1997b). The data that do not satisfy the conHMBR = cp (w T )c = cp h 0 51 T c ditions must be excluded. The proposed MBR does not 1 + Bo p include measurements of the wind gradient but direct The mean sound speed can be replaced (S CHOTANUS measurements of the friction velocity. Using statistical et al., 1983) by (R is the gas constant for dry air and results of the data as adequate criteria for the friction velocity, it has been found that measurements of the fric = 1:4) tion velocity with u < 0:07 m s 1 should be excluded c2 = R T (1 + 0:51 q) (2.9) because of poorly developed turbulent conditions. This
: ; ; 0 0 0 0 0 0 : ;

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Table 3: Instrumentation used during LINEX-97/1 and LITFASS1998.

Height (m)

Devices

Experiments
both both LINEX-97/1 LITFASS1998 both LINEX-97/1 LITFASS1998 both

0.5 ), 2.0 ) Climatronics anemometer model F 460 0.5 ), 2.0 ) Frankenberger psychrometer (aspirated) 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 0.05
)

to obtain sensible and latent heat uxes (see Appendix for more detail). Another important criterion for BREB proposed by O HMURA (1982) is based on the measurements of net radiation and soil heat ux, which is rewritten as follows, If Rn ; G < 0 then q + cp T < 0 If Rn ; G > 0 then q + cp T < 0 (2.11) (2.12)

Kaijo-Denki DAT 310/A (H ANAFUSA et al., 1982) CSAT3, Campbell Sci. fast response 12 m platinum wire, AIR Lyman-alpha hygrometer (F OKEN et al., 1998) Krypton Hygrometer KH 20, Campbell Sci. Albedometer CM14 (short wave radiation)

Net radiometer by Schulze (sum LINEX-97/1 (of short and long wave radiation) Eppley net-pyrgeometers, mod. (P HILIPONA et al., 1995) Soil heat ux plate Rimco HP3 LITFASS1998 both

This means that BREB, which is based on the theory of the ux/gradient relationship, should give uxes in the opposite direction to that of the gradient. Otherwise, the data giving uxes with the counter-gradient transfer should be excluded, although the absolute magnitude of the measurements may, in fact, be correct. The surface energy balance equation with measurements of net radiation and soil heat ux are used to formulate O HMURAs criterion. The measurements of net radiation and soil heat ux are not used in the MBR. The sign of the uxes of MBR simply follows the equations used and needs no further investigation. Recently, more attention has been paid to the footprint inuence of ux measurements. An advantage of the MBR measurement system of temperature and humidity at two levels and the sonic anemometer measurements is nearly the same footprint sources. While for the BREB system, the footprints of the gradient measuring system of the net radiometer and the soil heat ux plates are different. The underlying surface of all footprint areas of the different sensors should be the same (S CHMID, 1997).

height above zero-plane displacement

criterion is in agreement with our experiences with nonsteady state conditions and intermittencies. Of course, low friction velocities are also typical for thermally turbulent conditions with free convection W YNGAARD et al., 1971). But the criterion for free convection is not fullled close to the surface (z < 5 m) under most conditions and therefore is not discussed here in detail. The theoretical limitations of the BREB can often produce extremely inaccurate magnitudes of the uxes when the Bowen ratio approaches 1 or is 1 (O HMURA, 1982). Usually the BREB uxes whose Bowen ratio is between 0.75 and 1.25 are excluded (C ELLIER and O LIOSO, 1993). The following results (Section 4) will show that the MBR can be used in such conditions because it uses a different method. However, the results also illustrate that the uxes whose Bowen ratio is between 0.15 and 0.05, and the uxes with w TS of at least between 0.001 K m s 1 and 0.002 K m s 1 should be excluded because of theoretical limitation of the MBR. When the Bowen ratio is between 0.15 and 0.05, the atmosphere stratication is changing, and the atmosphere is in a non-steady state with H nearly close to zero (positive and negative). Under these conditions, large relative errors can occur when (2.5), and (2.8) or (2.10) are used
0 0 ; ;

3 Validation experiment
During June 1997, the LINEX-97/1 experiment (F O KEN, 1998b) took place at the boundary layer measuring eld near Falkenberg (52 1002N, 14 0724E) which is about 5 km south of the Lindenberg Meteorological Observatory of the German Weather Service. The topography of the whole area is fairly at, and was covered by short grass during the period of the experiment and within the footprint area of the systems used for this study (fetch 150 to 200 m, no internal boundary layers, J EGEDE and F OKEN, 1999). At the site, an assortment of micrometeorological instrumentation for mean and eddy covariance measurements were installed. The list of the instrumentation used is given in Table 3. In this study, we used turbulence data collected by a Kaijo-Denki DAT-310 sonic anemometer, a thin wire platinum thermometer (for HEC ), and a Lyman-alpha hygrometer (for EEC ) at 2 m. In order to ensure the quality of turbulence data, a quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) scheme was used (F OKEN and W ICHURA, 1996). The wind, dry and wet bulb temperatures were measured at different heights on a 10-m tower, however, only the data from 0.5 m and 2.0 m are used for the present study. The net

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75

Figure 2: Residuum of the surface energy balance in LINEX-97/1 eld study on 16, 17 and 18 June, 1997.

Figure 1: Comparison of BREB and EC estimates of the sensible heat ux (a) and latent heat ux (b) for the grassland at LINEX-97/1 eld study 16 June, 1997.

radiation was obtained by measurements of all radiation components at 2 m above the grass, and the soil heat ux by plates at 0.05 m below the surface. During June 1998, the LITFASS-1998 experiment (B EYRICH, 2000) was conducted in the same location as LINEX-97/1, and at that time the surface was covered by less than 10% of short maize, about 10 cm in height with the same fetch conditions. A CSAT3 sonic anemometer, a thin wire Platinum thermometer, and a Krypton hygrometer were used to obtain sensible and latent heat uxes at 2 m and a 6-m mast with psychrometers was employed to measure the Bowen ratios (see Table 3).

Figure 3: Surface energy balance closure for the grassland at LINEX-97/1 eld study on 16, 17 and 18 June, 1997.

4 Results and discussion

The results of the sensible and latent heat uxes obtained by BREB and EC methods are compared in the LINEX-97/1 eld study. The results of 16 June for example are illustrated in Fig. 1. During the daytime, the results show that the sensible and latent heat uxes using BREB are always higher than those by EC. On average, HBREB is about 30 20 W m 2 higher than HEC
;

(Fig. 1a), and EBREB is about 180 40 W m 2 higher than EEC (Fig. 1b). Figure 2 illustrates the residuum of the surface energy balance on the 16, 17, and 18 June 1997 according to Eq. (1.1) using eddy covariance data. On average, the residuum is about +130 W m 2 to +180 W m 2 during the daytime, and about 20 W m 2 during the nighttime. Figure 3 shows that H + E is only about 68% of the available energy, Rn ; G. In this study the heat storage in the upper surface layer was not included in Figures 1 and 2 and is a part of the residuum. Therefore, even if Rn and could be measured correctly, it is impossible to use BREB to obtain sensible and latent heat uxes with high degree of accuracy because of the large residuum of the surface energy balance, which is splitted accordingly in the Bowen ratio among the turbulent uxes. Parallel investigations with the same data set (F OKEN et al., 1999) have shown that inclusion of the heat storage can reduce the residuum under some conditions but will not solve the closure problem.
; ; ; ;

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Figure 4: Comparison of Bowen ratios between Eq. (2.1) and Bo = H =E where H and E are HEC and EEC respectively for the grassland at LINEX-97/1 eld study on 16, 17 and 18 June, 1997.

Figure 6: The latent heat ux EMBR by Eq. (2.5) compared with EEC for the grassland in LINEX-97/1 eld study on 16 June, 1997. Table 4: Comparison of the excluded data for Bo ;1 (BREB) with the results of MBR for the grassland in LINEX-97/1 eld study on the 16, 17 and 18 June, 1997 at 19:30 UTC.

In order to conrm that the above ux discrepancies between BREB and EC were not caused by measurement errors in the Bowen ratios, we have compared the Bowen ratios in (2.1) with Bo = H =E where H and E are the values of eddy covariance measurement, namely HEC and EEC . These results strongly imply that the Bowen ratios can be obtained precisely (see Fig. 4). The modied Bowen ratio method can be used to obtain sensible heat ux, HMBR , and latent heat uxes, EMBR , without the problem of imbalance of the surface energy balance. Therefore, the possibility of using the buoyancy ux measured by a sonic anemometer to calculate sensible heat ux has to be discussed. In Figure 5 is a comparison between the measured ux (approximately the buoyancy ux), Hs , using the sonic temperature without transformation, the calculated sensible heat ux HMBR according to (2.8) and the measured sensible heat ux HEC . On average, Hs is about 28% higher than HEC ; but the calculated ux HMBR is only about 10% higher than HEC and is within the limit of typical

Date

Bo

HBREB

HMBR

HEC

EBREB EMBR

EEC

m;2

m;2

m;2

m;2

m;2

W m;2 8.5 1.9 1.5

16 June 1.39 83.8 10.9 7.0 60.3 17 June 1.26 133.2 5.3 2.9 105.7 18 June 1.04 699.5 5.4 1.6 671.8

5.1 4.2 5.1

Figure 5: The measured ux (approximately buoyancy ux) Hs , and the calculated sensible heat ux HMBR compared with the sensible heat ux HEC for the grassland in LINEX-97/1 eld study on 16 June, 1997.

errors of measured sensible heat uxes. The differences between HMBR and HEC are mainly caused by measurement errors in the friction velocity u , the Bowen ratio Bo, the mean temperature T , and the mean wind speed. The error analysis can be found in the appendix. Furthermore, we have also calculated the latent heat ux, EMBR , using the MBR from (2.5), and compared it with the measured EEC (see Fig. 6). On the average, EMBR is about 20% higher than EEC . The data for LITFASS-1998 were used to calculate HMBR (2.10) which is sketched in Fig. 7, and latent heat ux EMBR by (2.5) and is sketched in Fig. 8. Error comparisons of the two different methods to determine sensible and latent heat uxes were made using the data from LINEX-97/1 and LITFASS-1998. In general, the modied Bowen ratio method gives better results with errors of around 10% for the sensible heat ux and around 20% for the latent heat ux. This is in contrast to BREB with errors up to about 35% for the sensible heat ux and 55% for the latent heat ux. As previously mentioned, when Bowen ratio approaches 1 or is exactly 1, the values of sensible and latent heat uxes are unacceptable from (2.2) and (2.3) due to the mathematical limitation of BREB. Even if the measurements of Bowen ratios, net radiation and soil heat ux are correct, these uxes must be excluded. The MBR avoids this limitation. As an example, Table 4 indicates the results of BREB and MBR using the data

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Figure 7: The measured ux (approximately buoyancy ux) Hs , the calculated sensible heat ux HMBR by Eq. (2.10) compared with the sensible heat ux HEC in LITFASS-1998 eld study on 2, 3, 4 and 5 June, 1998.

Figure 8: The latent heat ux EMBR by Eq. (2.5) compared with EEC in LITFASS-1998 eld study on 2, 3, 4 and 5 June, 1998.

and B LACK, 1980), it can also cause large uncertainties because BREB uses the surface energy balance equaexcluded by Bo ;1 on the 16, 17 and 18 June 1997. tion and often the heat storage is ignored (F OKEN et al., From the results, MBR works well under these condi- 1999). tions; therefore MBR can be used at times when BREB is often invalid.

5 Error analysis
The error analysis for MBR (similar to the BREB method) is based on the error analysis of the Bowen ratio and is widely discussed in the literature (see below). The error in the eddy covariance method (B USINGER, 1986) is less than 10% according to a recent comparison experiments, with new types of anemometers (F OKEN and O NCLEY, 1995). The error in the correction of the buoyancy is discussed in the appendix. Finally, the MBR can obtain uxes with errors of less than 10% for sensible heat ux and less than 20% for latent heat ux. The error of uxes obtained by BREB has been investigated by several authors (F OKEN et al., 1997b; F UCHS and TANNER, 1970; O HMURA, 1982; W ICKE and B ERNHOFER, 1996). Many researchers have found that, when Bo > 0:0, the uxes obtained by BREB can be accepted with errors of less than 20% with the condition of ignoring the error caused by the residuum of the closure of the surface energy balance, R e=(Rn ; G), around 25%. But when Bo < 0:0, especially when Bo is close to 1, the BREB can cause unacceptable errors, sometimes up to 100%. This means that the BREB can not be used in hours of early morning, late afternoon, during precipitation and during an oasis effect, when the direction of the latent heat ux is opposite that of the sensible heat ux (O HMURA, 1982). Most importantly, according to the research results of others and in this paper, the ratio of the residuum of the closure of the surface energy to the available energy is usually in the order of 20 ; 30%. Even if available energy (Rn ; G) measurement could be measured accurately with errors of about 10% (BARR et al., 1994; C ELLIER and O LIOSO, 1993; S PITTLEHOUSE

6 Conclusion

The sensible heat ux and the latent heat ux were measured above a grassland during June, 1997 (LINEX97/1 experiment) and over sparse vegetated surface during June, 1998 (LITFASS-1998), using the eddy covariance method (EC) and the Bowen ratio/Energy balance method (BREB). From the experiment results of LINEX-97/1, the BREB had errors of up to 35% for the sensible heat ux and 55% for the latent heat ux due to the imbalance of the surface energy balance. In order to avoid the theoretical limitations of BREB, these experiments provided the impetus to develop a modied Bowen ratio method (MBR) to determine sensible and latent heat uxes using a sonic anemometer and temperature and humidity measurements at two levels. The results show that the buoyancy ux measured with a sonic anemometer can be accepted after considering humidity and velocity transformations with errors of less than 10%, and the latent heat ux can be obtained with errors of less than 20%. These errors are within the typical range of errors for these uxes and the eddy covariance method is often within the same range of accuracy. The results and error analysis also indicate that the MBR is still valid even when Bowen ratio approaches 1, making O HMURAs BREB criteria unnecessary when using the MBR. The use of MBR is only limited under conditions with very low uxes or intermittent turbulence. Under these circumstances the absolute value of the ux is so low that gaps can be lled with zero uxes. The error analysis has shown that under the following conditions the determination of the uxes should be excluded: Poorly developed turbulent conditions (intermittancies, non-steady state conditions) are given for

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u < 0:07 m s 1 , a criteria which is similar for all turbulence measurements (F OKEN and W ICHURA, 1996). These conditions are often connected with a Bowen ratio between 0.15 and 0.05, and with w TS of at least between 0.001 K m s 1 and 0.002 K m s 1 . Because w TS is directly determined by the eddy covariance method, the sign of EMBR can be easily determined according to the given equations and needs no further criteria like O HMURAs criteria for BREB even if Bo < 0. We recommend the modied Bowen ratio method as a simple and reliable system to measure sensible and latent heat uxes using the benets of the Bowen ratio similarity, and in contrast to the BREB method, excludes all uncertainties associated with the use of the energy balance equation.
0 0 ; ; 0 0

Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the support of the German Weather Service, Meteorological Observatory Lindenberg for providing the data of the LINEX-97/1 experiment. The rst author wishes to acknowledge the exchange program between Peking University and University of Bayreuth.

References
AUBINET, M. ET AL ., 2000: Estimates of the Annual Net Carbon and Water Exchange of Forests: the EUROFLUX Methodology. Adv. Ecol. Res. 30, 113175. BARR , A.G., K.M. K ING , T.J. G ILLESPIE , G.D. H ARTOG , H.H. N EUMANN, 1994: A comparison of Bowen ratio and eddy correlation sensible and latent heat ux measurements above deciduous forest. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 71, 2141. B ERNHOFER , C., 1992: Estimating forest evapotranspiration at a non-ideal site. Agric. Forest Meteorol. 60, 1732. B EYRICH , F. (Editor), 2000: LITFASS-98 Experiment, 25.5.1998 - 30.06.1998, Experimental report. Deutscher Wetterdienst, Forschung und Entwicklung, Arbeitsergebnisse., in press. B USINGER , J.A., 1986: Evaluation of the accuracy with which dry deposition can be measured with current micrometeorological techniques. J. Appl. Meteorol. 25, 11001124. C ELLIER , P., A. O LIOSO, 1993: A simple system for automated long-term Bowen ratio measurement. Agric. Forest Meteorol. 66, 8192. D UGAS , W.A., 1993: Micrometeorological and chamber measurements of CO2 ux from bare soil. Agric. Forest Meteorol. 67, 115128. D UGAS , W.A., L.J. F RITSCHEN , L.W. G AY, A.A. H ELD , A.D. M ATTHIAS , D.C. R EICOSKY, P. S TEDUTO , J.L. S TEINER, 1991: Bowen ratio, eddy correlation, and portable chamber measurements of sensible and latent heat ux over irrigated spring wheat. Agric. Forest Meteorol. 56, 1220. F OKEN , T., 1998a: Die scheinbar ungeschlossene Energiebilanz am Erdboden - eine Herausforderung an die Experimentelle Meteorologie. Sitzungsberichte der LeibnizSoziet t 24, 131150. a

1998b: Ergebnisse des LINEX-97/1 Experimentes. Deutscher Wetterdienst, Forschung und Entwicklung, Arbeitsergebnisse 53, 38 pp. [available from German Weather Service] F OKEN , T., A.L. B UCK , R.A. N YE , R.D. H ORN, 1998: A Lyman-alpha hygrometer with variable path length. J. Atmosph. Ocenanic Techn. 15, 211214. F OKEN , T., W. G ERSTMANN , S.H. R ICHTER , B. W ICHU RA , W. BAUM , J. ROSS , M. S ULEV, M. M OLDER , L.R. T SVANG , S.L. Z UBKOVSKII , V.P. K UKHARETS , A.K. A LIGUSEINOV, V.G. P EREPELKIN , J. Z ELEN Y, 1993: Study of the energy exchange processes over different types of surfaces during TARTEX-90. Deutscher Wetterdienst, Forschung und Entwicklung, Arbeitsergebnisse 4, 34 pp. [available from German Weather Service] F OKEN , T., O.O. J EGEDE , U. W EISENSEE , S.H. R ICHTER , D. H ANDORF, U. G ORSDORF, G. VOGEL , U. S CHU BERT, H.-J. K IRZEL , V. T HIERMANN , 1997a: Results of the LINEX-96/2 Experiment. Deutscher Wetterdienst, Forschung und Entwicklung, Arbeitsergebnisse 48, 75 pp. [available from German Weather Service] F OKEN , T., V.P. K UKHARETS , V.G. P EREPELKIN , L.R. T SVANG , S.H. R ICHTER , U. W EISENSEE, 1999: The inuence of the variation of the surface temperature on the closure of the surface energy balance. 13th Symposium on Boundary Layer and Turbulence, Dallas, TX., 1015 Jan. 1999, Am. Meteorol. Soc., 308309. F OKEN , T., S.P. O NCLEY, 1995: Results of the workshop Instrumental and methodical problems of land surface ux measurements. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc. 76, 11911193. F OKEN , T., S.H. R ICHTER , H. M ULLER, 1997b: Zur Genauigkeit der Bowen-Ratio-Methode. Wetter und Leben 49, 5777. F OKEN , T., B. W ICHURA, 1996: Tools for quality assessment of surface-based ux measurements. Agric. Forest Meteorol. 78, 83105. F UCHS , M., C.B. TANNER, 1970: Error analysis of Bowen ratios measured by differential psychrometry. Agric. Meteorol. 7, 329334. G AY, L.W., R. VOGT, C. B ERNHOFER , J.H. B LANFORD, 1996: Flux agreement above a Scots pine plantation. Theor. Appl. Climat. 53, 3348. H ANAFUSA , T., T. F UJITANA , Y. KOBORI , Y. M ITSUTA, 1982: A new type sonic anemometer-thermometer for eld operation. Papers in Meteorol. Geophys. 33, 119. J EGEDE , O.O., T. F OKEN, 1999: A study of the internal boundary layer due to a roughness change in neutral conditions observed during the LINEX eld campaigns. Theor. Appl. Climatol. 62, 3141. K AIMAL , J.C., J.A. B USINGER, 1963: A continuous wave sonic anemometer-thermometer. J. Appl. Meteorol. 2, 156164. K AIMAL , J.C., J.E. G AYNOR, 1991: Another look to sonic thermometry. Boundary-Layer Meteorol. 56, 401410. K ANEMASU , E.T., S.B. V ERMA , E.A. S MITH , L.Y. F RITSCHEN , M. W ESELY, R.T. F ILD , W.P. K USTAS , H. W EAVER , Y.B. S TEAWART, R. G ENEY, G.N. PANIN , J.B. M ONCRIEFF, 1992: Surface ux measurements in FIFE: An overview. J. Geophys. Res. 97, 18,54718,555. L EE , X., T.A. B LACK, 1993: Atmospheric turbulence within and above a Douglas-r stand, Part II: Eddy uxes of sensible heat and water vapour. Boundary-Layer Meteorol. 64, 369389. L INDROTH , A., S. H ALLDIN, 1990: Gradient measurements with xed and reversing temperature and humidity sensors above a thin forest. Agric. Forest Meteorol. 53, 81103.

Meteorol. Z., 10, 2001

H. Liu and Th. Foken: Bowen ratio method for heat uxes

79

Table 5: Some examples of the errors of all terms in Eq. (A.1) and its total error obtained using the data of LINEX-97/1 eld study over the grassland on 16th 18 June, 1997. Please note that the absolute error in all cases is very small!

Time UTC

I (%)

II (%)

III (%)

IV (%) 16 June 1997

V (%)

VI (%)

Total (%)

Reason

0430 w TS
0 0

= 0:001 = 0:001

11.1 14.3

6.1 19.4

0.1 0.2

6.1 19.4

56.2 7.6

0.3 0.0

57.6 32.4

Bo = ;0:07 Bo = 0:02

1730 w TS
0 0

18 June 1997 0430 1730 5.5 3.8 0.5 1.3 0.1 0.0 0.5 1.3 18.1 21.7 0.1 0.1 22.6 28.1 Bo = ;0:03 Bo = ;0:03

L IU , H., G. P ETERS , G., T. F OKEN, 2001: New equations for sonic temperature variance and buoyancy heat ux with an omni-directional sonic anemometer. Boundary-Layer Meteorol., accepted for publication after minor revision. M EYERS , T.P., M.E. H ALL , S.E. L INDBERG , K. K IM, 1996: Use of the modied Bowen-ratio technique to measure uxes of trace gases. Atmosph. Environm. 30, 3321 3329. M ONCRIEFF , J.B., J.M. M ASSHEDER , H. D E B RUIN , J. E L BERS , T. F RIBORG , B. H EUSINKVELD , P. K ABAT, S. S COTT, H. S GAARD , A. V ERHOEF, 1997: A system to measure surface uxes of momentum, sensible heat, water vapor and carbon dioxide. J. Hydrol. 188189, 589611. N IE , D., I.D. F LITCROFT, E.T. K ANEMASU, 1992: Performance of Bowen ratio system on a slope. Agric. Forest Meteorol. 59, 165181. O HMURA , A., 1982: Objective criteria for rejecting data for Bowen ratio ux calculations. J. Appl. Meteorol. 21, 595 598. PANIN , G.N., G. T ETZLAFF , A. R AABE , H.-J. S CH ON FELD , A.E. NASONOV , 1996: Inhomogeneity of the land surface and the parametrization of surface uxes - a discussion. Wiss. Mitt. aus dem Inst. f r Meteorol. der Univ. u Leipzig und dem Institut f r Troposph renforschung e.V. u a Leipzig 4, 204215. P HILIPONA , R., C. F R OHLICH , C. B ETZ, 1995: Characterization of pyrgeometers and the accuracy of atmospheric long-wave radiation measurements. Appl. Optics 34, 15981605. S CHMID , H.P., 1997: Experimental design for ux measurements: matching scales of observations and uxes. Agric. Forest Meteorol. 87, 179200. S CHOTANUS , P., F.T.M. N IEUWSTADT, H.A.R. D E B RUIN, 1983: Temperature measurement with a sonic anemometer and its application to heat and moisture uctuations. Boundary-Layer Meteorol. 26, 8193. S PITTLEHOUSE , D.L., T.A. B LACK, 1980: Evaluation of the Bowen ratio/energy balance method for determining forest evaporation. Atmosphere-Ocean 18, 98116. S UN , J., S.K. E SBENSEN , L. M AHRT, 1995: Estimation of surface heat ux. J. Atmosph. Sci. 52, 31623171.

T SVANG , L.R., M.M. F EDOROV, B.A. K ADER , S.L. Z UBKOVSKII , T. F OKEN , S.H. R ICHTER , J. Z ELEN Y, 1991: Turbulent exchange over a surface with chessboardtype inhomogeneities. Boundary-Layer Meteorol. 55, 141160. W ICKE , W., C. B ERNHOFER, 1996: Energy balance comparison of the Hartheim Forest and an adjacent grassland site during the HartX Experiment. Theoret. Appl. Climatol. 53, 4958. W YNGAARD , J.C., O.R. C OT E , Y. I ZUMI, 1971: Local free convection, similarity and the budgets of shear stress and heat ux. J. Atm. Sci. 28, 11711182.

Appendix Error analysis of the MBR method

The error in the sensible and latent heat uxes obtained by the modied Bowen ratio method can be determined from eqn. (2.5) and (2.8): HMBR HMBR

= + +

1+2

w0 TS0 w0 TS0 T u c2 T T
2

w0 u0 w0 TS0

1+ 2c u T
2

w0 u0 w0 u w0 TS0 w0 u0

1+ 2c u T 1+

w0 TS0 w0 u0

1+ 2c u T
2

u u

w0 TS0 w0 u0

(A.1)

Bo Bo Bo 0:51 T cp

1+

T T Bo 0:51 T cp

EMBR EMBR

= Bo + HMBR Bo H
MBR

(A.2)

80

H. Liu and Th. Foken: Bowen ratio method for heat uxes

Meteorol. Z., 10, 2001

The notation x refers to the error on variable x. From (A.1), we can see that the error of HMBR is nonlinearly dependent upon the measurement errors of w TS , u , Bo, T , and u. In order to investigate the error contribution of each term, the data for LINEX-97/1 and numerical experiments have been designed to determine the possible considerations. In the present study, for data to be of high quality it is assumed that w TS =w TS = 5%
0 0 0 0 0 0

when w TS > 0:05 K m s 1 , w u =w u

0 0 ; 0 0 0

> 0:005 m2 s 2 (the data for u < 0:07 m s 1 have been excluded), Bo=Bo = 10% when Bo 6= 0:0, T =T = 0:05%, and u=u = 5% when u > 0:7 m s 1 due to u > 0:07 m s 1 . The results show that the factor j1 + Bo=(0:51 T cp )j in (A.1) is greater than 1 when Bo 6= 0:0 (see below for the Bo interval, i.e., Bo < ;0:15 and Bo > 0:05), and the error of the last term on the right hand side (R.H.S.) of (A.1) can be ignored, and the sum of the errors of the last two terms on R.H.S. of (A.1) is around 1%. When Bowen ratios are close to zero, however, the fth term on R.H.S. of (A.1) can produce large errors because the values of 1 + Bo=(0:51 T c ) can p be much less than 1. The numerical experiments show that these conditions often occur when Bo is between 0.15 and 0.05. From the data of the LINEX-97/1 eld experiment, these conditions occasionally occur during short periods, 04.30 UTC and 17.30 UTC (see Table 5). It is strongly suggested that the ux, HMBR , should be excluded when the Bowen ratio is between 0.15 and 0.05. Under this circumstances HMBR is very small!
0 0 ; ; ; ;

;w u

5% when

ever, when w TS is very small (e.g., jw TS j < 0:005), the

0 0 0 0 0 0

the factor 1 + c2 =(2 T u) w TS =w u is much greater than 1, and the sum of the errors of the second, third and forth terms on R.H.S. of (A.1) can be neglected. The factor 1 + 2 T u=c2 w u =w TS is around 1 in this condition, the error of the rst term on R.H.S. of (A.1) is nearly equal to the error of w TS , around 5%. How0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

In normal conditions when the ux is not negligible, that is w TS 0:005 K m s 1 , the results show that
0 0 ;

measurement error of w TS can be up to 100%, which causes the error of the rst term on R.H.S. of (A.1) to increase with it up to 100%. On the other hand, very small values of w TS can make the values of the two factors very small and can lead to large values for the rst four terms on R.H.S. of (A.1). Even if the measurement error of w TS could be taken as 5% in the case, we have found that large errors can occur when the w TS values are between 0.001 K m s 1 and 0.002 K m s 1 . Therefore it is suggested that at least the w TS value between 0.001 K m s 1 to 0.002 K m s 1 should be excluded. The results from both the numerical experiment and the data calculation imply that the error of HMBR could be from 5% to 10%. A few large errors are excluded by the criteria given above. Notice that the absolute error of w TS is very small and under these conditions gaps can be lled with zero. From (A.2), it can be seen that the error of EMBR is simply the linear sum of the errors of Bo and HMBR without any non-linear relationship. The error of Bo may be around 10% (F OKEN et al., 1997b), therefore the error of EMBR might be considered to be less than 20%.
0 0 0 0 0 0 ; ; 0 0 ; ; 0 0