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Eddy Covariance Measurements On Mountain Slopes: The Advantage Of

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EDDY COVARIANCE MEASUREMENTS ON MOUNTAIN SLOPES: THE
ADVANTAGE OF SURFACE-NORMAL SENSOR ORIENTATION OVER
A VERTICAL SET-UP

PETER GEISSBÜHLER and ROLF SIEGWOLF

Paul Scherrer Institute, CH-5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland
WERNER EUGSTER?
University of Bern, Institute of Geography, Hallerstrasse 12, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland

(Received in final form 1 February 2000)

Abstract. The measurement of scalar fluxes employing the eddy covariance method is a widely used
experimental approach, for which the flow distortion due to obstacles (e.g., sensor mounts and mast)
is a well-known but not fully solved problem. In order to reduce flow distortion we installed a sonic
anemometer in a surface-normal orientation relative to the terrain slope, and a second instrument in
a vertical position at a horizontal distance of 1.54 m from the first instrument
We found a significant reduction in the rotation angle necessary for the coordinate rotation pro-
cedure in the x-z plane when computing 30-minute flux averages with the surface-normal orientation.
In 91% of all cases this rotation angle remained within the angle of incidence of ±10◦ recommended
by the manufacturer. In contrast, only 24% of the measurements taken with the vertically mounted
anemometer were obtained at an angle of incidence within ±10◦ , and 3% were outside the ±30◦
range specified for an acceptable operation.
A data quality test based on the variance of vertical wind speed normalized with friction velocity
(σw /u∗ ) revealed problems for application under stable conditions due to large uncertainties in the
determination of the Monin–Obukhov stability parameter z/L. An alternative test using the bulk drag
coefficient CD revealed other problems related to the dependence of CD on z/z0 , the measuring
height normalized by the roughness length, which do not appear to be constant in complex terrain.
With both tests, a tendency for a slightly improved data quality was found for the surface normal
set-up, which, however, proved statistically insignificant.
It is concluded that the surface-normal set-up of a sonic anemometer significantly reduces flow
distortion by the sensor head. Although the surface-normal mounting position therefore appears to
be the preferred one, with decreased flow distortion and a slightly improved data quality, no signi-
ficant differences in turbulent quantities were found between the two set-up positions. Hence, the
consequences for short-term measurements of mass and energy fluxes with a surface-normal set-up
in complex terrain appear to be relevant only if single flux events are to be inspected, while for long-
term measurements of integrated fluxes both the surface-normal and vertical installation of the sonic
anemometer are adequate, indicating that eddy covariance measurements in complex terrain are less
delicate than expected.

Keywords: Atmospheric turbulence, Complex terrain, ECOMONT, Flow distortion, Microme-

teorology.

? Author for correspondence: E-mail: eugster@giub.unibe.ch

Boundary-Layer Meteorology 96: 371–392, 2000.

© 2000 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.
372 PETER GEISSBÜHLER ET AL.

1. Introduction

During the last decade the interest in carbon dioxide, water vapour, and momentum
fluxes has increased rapidly in concert with increased awareness in environmental
problems. The need for measuring turbulent fluxes over different surfaces and un-
der varying weather conditions is indispensable for the discussion of global change.
The fluxes of CO2 , H2 O, and sensible heat have been measured by a variety of
techniques at carefully selected ‘ideal sites’, i.e., level terrain with a homogeneous
surface and sufficiently large fetch. Ideal sites are rarely found worldwide and are
absent in the Alps and other mountainous regions. However, it is known that Alpine
ecosystems are more susceptible to anthropogenic impacts, such as air, water, and
soil pollution, than ecosystems at lower altitudes. Therefore, there is a great need
to widen the applicability of the eddy covariance flux measurement technique to
non-ideal sites, although it is obvious that flux measurements are more difficult to
perform under such circumstances.
The ECOMONT project (Ecological Effects of Land Use Changes on European
Terrestrial Mountain Ecosystems) is focused on the impacts of land-use changes
in mountainous ecosystems. In this context, the analysis of energy transfer pro-
cesses, water vapour, and carbon dioxide fluxes play a key role in understanding
the interactions between vegetation and climate (see Cernusca et al., 1996) and
their effects on climate change. One aim of the ECOMONT project is therefore
to characterize energy, momentum, CO2 , and H2 O fluxes over various vegeta-
tion types employing the widely used eddy covariance method. In principle, it is
relatively easy to measure scalar fluxes even in complex terrain thanks to easy-
to-use sonic anemometers and reliable infrared gas analysers. However, because
eddy covariance measurements are actually point measurements, their representat-
iveness for larger areas may be limited, although the point measurements can be
very reliable (Wyngaard, 1981). Averaging problems and measuring errors have
been extensively discussed in the scientific literature (e.g., Kaimal et al., 1968;
Kaimal and Gaynor, 1991; Blanken et al , 1997; Cirant and Watkins, 1989; Hicks
and Millen, 1988; Skupniewicz et al., 1989). Based on this available knowledge,
measurements were made on Monte Bondone (ltaly), a broad saddle located on
the Viote plateau in the Italian Alps, close to the town of Trento. In this complex
terrain the land surface is composed of a variety of vegetation types, predominantly
subalpine deciduous forest types, grasslands, meadows, and wetlands.
Eddy covariance measurements in complex terrain raise the question of how
it is possible to reduce measuring errors introduced by topographic and surface
inhomogeneities. In this paper we will test the hypothesis that a surface-normal
orientation of the sonic anemometer yields higher quality flux data than a standard
vertical orientation. For the experiments, we selected a site located on a slope with
a 23◦ angle. Thus, we reduce the problem of measuring fluxes in complex terrain to
the case where there is a relatively uniform vegetation on a non-flat topographical
 EDDY COVARIANCE MEASUREMENTS ON MOUNTAIN SLOPES 373

surface in order to minimize the influence of additional sources of errors that must
be expected in typical complex terrain.

2. Material and Methods

2.1. S ITE DESCRIPTION

The experimental site is located on Monte Bondone (Italy) (46◦ 010 2000 N,
11◦ 020 3000 E, 1520 m above sea level) and is one of the three experimental sites
of ECOMONT. The Monte Bondone region can be characterised as a broad saddle
with gentle slopes. The field station was designed to study the CO2 and water
vapour exchange processes between the atmosphere and the three most abund-
ant vegetation types: (1) a Fagus stand (Dentario-Fagetum), (2) a hay meadow
(Nardetum alpigenum), and (3) a wetland (a Caricetum nigrae fen). An 18-m tall
tower was installed in the 60-years-old Fagus stand on a NNW facing slope with an
average angle of 23◦ . The average tree height was around 11 m. The dominant tree
species is beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) intermixed with larch (Larix decidua) and fir
(Picea abies L.) trees.
The mean length of homogeneous fetch on this slope was ≈ 900 m in the
two directions of the prevailing winds from the south (down-slope winds) and
north-east (up-slope winds) and ≈ 250–500 m in all other directions. Thus, al-
though the fetch conditions for the prevailing wind directions are satisfactory for
daytime conditions with neutral to unstable stratification, the Monte Bondone ex-
perimental site is a typical case of a non-ideal location for the purpose of eddy
covariance flux measurements. That is to say that although we consider the fetch to
be homogeneous in terms of aerodynamic roughness, there is considerable small-
scale heterogeneity in the forest canopy due to the tree species composition, their
ages and their individual heights. However, because eddy-correlation fluxes are
integrated measurements over a certain size of fetch or footprint source area, it
is considered to be the most promising technique for flux measurements even at
non-ideal sites.
The measuring system was set up 7 m above the average canopy height of
the Fagus stand, corresponding to ≈10.6 m above displacement height, and was
operated from the beginning of June to mid-August 1998. The special experimental
set-up for the present analysis was carried out for one week (1–7 August 1998).

2.2. E XPERIMENTAL SET- UP AND INSTRUMENTATION

Two identical eddy covariance systems were installed on the 18-m tower consisting
of an 11-m base bearing a 7-m telescopic aluminium mast. The instrument height
was 18 m with a horizontal separation of 1.54 m between the two three-dimensional
sonic anemometers (Solent 1012R2A-0040 three-axis research ultrasonic anemo-
meter, serial numbers 0054 and 0055, Gill Instruments Ltd., U.K.). Beginning on
374 PETER GEISSBÜHLER ET AL.

1 August 1998, one anemometer was mounted in a surface-normal position (i.e.,

perpendicular to the average slope angle), and the other one vertically.
The eddy covariance technique measures the flux of a scalar (heat, mass) or
momentum at a certain height above the ground from the covariance of the tur-
bulent vertical wind speed fluctuations and the concurrent turbulent fluctuations
of a scalar quantity (e.g., CO2 , water vapour, temperature, moisture), and uses
Taylor’s (1938) frozen wave hypothesis to link temporal and spatial observations.
The scaling up from eddy covariance point measurements to landscape-scale fluxes
is usually based on the assumption of spatial homogeneity, i.e., the assumption that
statistical properties are spatially invariant. In reality, however, this assumption is
seldom justified in complex terrain. Therefore a detailed assessment of data quality
will be done in Section 2.4.
Raw data were recorded on laptop computers with 21 Hz temporal resolution,
using the FASTCOM software supplied by the manufacturer of the instruments.
The computer clocks were synchronized, and data were transferred to exchangable
1-GB Iomega Jaz disks every 24 hours. After 78 hours we changed the mounting
positions of the two sonic anemometers to identical vertical orientation for another
78 hours of this experiment.
CO2 and H2 O concentration fluctuations were measured with infrared gas ana-
lysers (IRGA; LI-COR model 6262, serial numbers 145 and 156, Lincoln, NB,
U.S.A.). Air was pumped through two separate teflon tubes with 10-mm inner
diameter from each sonic anemometer to the IRGA at a flow rate of 700 l min−1 .
The tube inlets were attached to one of the struts of the respective anemometer
sensor head; tube lengths were ≤ 9 m during this experiment.
The temperature and pressure of the optical cell in each IRGA was continuously
recorded at the same temporal resolution as the CO2 and H2 O concentrations.
The calibrated analogue outputs (5 Hz resolution for CO2 and H2 O concentration
measurements) of all signals were attached to the analogue inputs of the sonic
anemometer (11 bit resolution, corresponding to ≈ 2 mV within the 0–5 V signal
range).
Every 48 hours the IRGAs were recalibrated with a CO2 -free gas and a calib-
ration gas (291 ppm CO2 was used for this specific experiment because there was
a problem with the resupply of calibration gas with a higher CO2 concentration).
Ancillary micrometeorological data (not shown) were measured at several levels
inside and above the canopy employing a data logger (Campbell Scientific, Inc.,
U.K., model CR10), which stored average data every 10 minutes: global radiation
K↓, reflected shortwave radiation K↑, photosynthetic active radiation, soil temper-
ature Ts , air temperature Ta , leaf temperature Tl , relative humidity, wind speed, and
wind direction.
 EDDY COVARIANCE MEASUREMENTS ON MOUNTAIN SLOPES 375

2.3. DATA PROCESSING

All raw data recorded on Iomega Jaz disks were finally processed on a SUN
workstation using the in-house software convertall version 9.041.? The following
processing steps were involved: (1) final calibration of CO2 and H2 O time series;
(2) coordinate rotation of u, v, and w wind components to align the coordinate
system with the stream lines of the averaging interval (McMillen, 1988) and in-
cluding a rotation in the y-z plane that forces v 0 w 0 = 0; (3) computing mean values
and variances; (4) linear detrending of scalar data (sonic temperature, CO2 and
H2 O; see Rannik and Vesala (1999) for the advantages of linear detrending over
autoregressive filtering); (5) determining time lag values for CO2 and H2 O channels
using a cross-correlation procedure that finds the maximum absolute correlation
within a time lag window of O ≤ τ ≤ 8 seconds for both CO2 and H2 O using
all raw data of each averaging interval (not only a subset); (6) CO2 and H2 O data
were then aligned with the wind speed data according to the respective τ found;
(7) computing turbulent fluxes.
In this way 5-minute and 30-minute averages were computed. Five-minute aver-
ages were only used for the stationarity test described in the following section. The
damping-loss and high frequency loss correction described by Eugster and Senn
(1995) or similar corrections (e.g., Moore, 1986) were not applied for the specific
analysis presented here. This analysis only attempts to resolve the influence of the
instrument set-up, not influences of other factors that could affect eddy covari-
ance flux measurements. For the same reason we also applied no sensor separation
correction (e.g., Moore, 1986; Laubach and McNaughton, 1998).

2.4. DATA QUALITY ASSESSMENT

Because stationarity and homogeneity require that the turbulent statistics do not
vary in space (Foken and Wichura, 1996), the effects of an inhomogeneous surface
are closely linked to the effects of nonstationarities. Additionally, homogeneity
usually increases with a decrease in roughness length of the surface and the number
of obstacles per unit area, and it may change with height above ground.
Besides these site-specific limitations there are systematic limitations given
by the design and set-up of an eddy covariance system. For example, the flow
distortion effects of a sonic anemometer’s sensor configuration were thoroughly
investigated by Wyngaard (1981), and a three-dimensional coordinate rotation of
wind vector data was found to reduce the effects of local streamlines in non-simple
terrain (McMillen, 1988; Kaimal and Finnigan, 1994).
The turbulent flux Fx of a given scalar X (e.g., temperature, moisture, CO2 ) is
given by

Fx = w 0 X 0 = wX − w̄ X̄, (1)
? The C source code can be obtained freely from the authors.
376 PETER GEISSBÜHLER ET AL.

where w 0 and X 0 are the short term deviations of vertical wind speed and scalar
concentration from their average (e.g., Stull, 1988). In addition, random errors,
fully systematic and selective errors of the system can complicate eddy covariance
flux measurements under a range of atmospheric conditions, over certain surface
types, or due to the instrumental design. In our case, the manufacturer’s specific-
ation for use of the sonic anemometer apply to a temperature range between 5 ◦ C
and 35 ◦ C, and for wind incidence angles within ±10◦ of the horizontal plain.
Operation outside an incidence angle of more than ±30◦ from the horizontal is
not recommended. This leads us to presume that measurements in complex terrain
(especially on slopes) are expected to be less accurate if the main stream flow is
from outside 1300 of the instrument horizontal (e.g., in a mountain wind regime)
due to increased flow distortion and transducer shadowing effects.
Although the coordinate rotation procedure is intended to account for non-
horizontal stream flow conditions, McMillen (1988) clearly states that this pro-
cedure does not eliminate the problems of flow distortion effects addressed by
Wyngaard (1981). However, most random errors are associated with violations
of atmospheric stationarity and the consequences of intermittent turbulence (Bal-
docchi et al., 1996), which can be due to the terrain, transducer shadow effects,
or low obstruction by the instrument mast (Baldocehi et al., 1996). Baldocchi et
al. (1996) showed that these errors are generally small during the day but can be
significant at dusk, during the night and at dawn when turbulent mixing is low. This
is particularly relevant for flux measurements over forests (Baldocchi et al., 1996),
Several models exist for checking eddy covariance time series for violations
of theoretical assumptions. One of them is the stationarity test (e.g., Foken and
Wichura, 1996). Stationarity of a time series X can be expressed by

X̄ = E{X(t)} = E{X(t + τ )}, (2)

where E is the expected value of a parameter X measured at time t and after a lag
time τ .
The stationarity of the data was investigated using a test introduced by Foken
0
and Wichura (1996). For each 30-minute interval the covariances hw 0 X30 min i were
calculated and compared with the arithmetic average of six intervals of 5-minute
covariances hw 0 X50 min i. If there was a difference of less than ±30% between the
two covariance computations

hw 0 X 0 i5 min
0.7 < 0 < 1.3, (3)
w 0 X30 min

then the measurements were considered to be stationary. With the set-up used
here we expect a 5-minute flux average to cover roughly 75% of the 30-minute
flux average under weak wind (ū = 1 m s−1 ) conditions and neutral to unstable
stratification. The underestimation, however, is less severe for moderate to strong
winds and when the atmosphere is stably stratified, as can be estimated from the
 EDDY COVARIANCE MEASUREMENTS ON MOUNTAIN SLOPES 377
TABLE I
Selected parameter estimates of different authors for the Panofsky and
Dutton (1984) model (Equation (4)) for testing the quality of turbulent
data.

Authors α β γ z/L

Panofsky and Dutton (1984) 1.3 2.5 1 −4 . . . 1

3
Wyngaard et al. (1971) 1.4 1 0 ≥ −0.4
1.9 1 1 < −0.4
3
Blanken et al. (1997) 1.23 3 1 <0
8
Foken and Wichura (1996) 2 1 1 < −1
6
2 1 1 −1 · · · − 0.0625
8
1.41 1 0 −0.0625 · · · < 0

integration of the idealized cospectra of Kaimal et al. (1972) (e.g., Eugster and
Senn, 1995, p. 61).
Another data quality test compares the ratio between the square root of the
variance of the vertical wind speed (σw ) scaled with the friction velocity u∗ , a
ratio that depends only on the atmospheric stability z/L, and not on terrain type or
other local surface conditions (Panofsky and Dutton, 1984). This model was first
published by Panofsky et al. (1977) and is of the form

σw  z γ
=α 1−β , (4)
u∗ L

where α, β and γ are empirically fitted parameters. According to the Monin–

Obukhov similarity theory σw /u∗ should be constant in the surface layer. Nu-
merical model results, however, indicate an approximately exponential decrease of
σw /u∗ with height (Arya, 1988). Several authors suggest differing values for α, β,
and γ for rough estimates of normalized turbulent fluctuations. A selection of these
parameter estimates is tabulated in Table I. Some authors do not explicitly state
which parametrisation should be used for positive z/L (stable conditions). Based
on Panofsky and Dutton (1984) and the common usage in many recent publications,
we assume symmetrical curves for these cases. Foken and Wichura (1996) suggest
that the data quality is good if the relative difference between the measured and
calculated ratio σw /u∗ is not larger than 20–30%. As an alternative to the Panofsky
and Dutton (1984) test for assessing the data quality of turbulent measurements we
also compared the measured bulk drag coefficient CD

 u 2
∗
CD = , (5)
ū
378 PETER GEISSBÜHLER ET AL.

with the expected value for neutral conditions, which is

k2
CDN = , (6)
[ln(z/z0)]2

(Garratt, 1992) where ū is the mean horizontal wind speed, k is the von Karman
constant (0.40), z is the measuring height above the zero-plane displacement, and
z0 is the effective aerodynamic roughness length. Data quality was classified as
‘good’ if CD was greater than CDN − 50% under unstable conditions, smaller
than CDN + 50% under stable conditions, or within ±50% of CDN under neutral
conditions.

3. Results and Discussion

Figures 1 and 2 show the coordinate rotation angle in the x-z plane as a function
of wind direction during the first experiment (Figure 1A and B) and the control ex-
periment (Figure 2). As was expected from McMillen’s (1988) coordinate rotation,
the surface-normal set-up yielded a very high proportion of data from within the
recommended inclination angle of ±10◦ (90.7%), while this proportion was only
23.8% with the vertical set-up. While there were no data outside: the acceptable
range of ±30% with the surface-normal set-up (Figure 1A), the vertical set-up
recorded 3.3% of all data outside this range (Figure 1B). Thus, the surface-normal
installation is more appropriate for the mountain wind system at this slope: the
coordinate rotation angle in the x-z plane is significantly reduced, and thus flow
distortion effects are minimized.
Moreover, the control experiment (Figure 2) indicates that the differences
between the rotation angles of the two sonic anemometer set-ups are very small
if both instruments are installed vertically. The average reduction of magnitude of
the rotation angle in the x-z plane experienced in this experiment is 67% for a
surface-normal set-up as compared with a vertical set-up (see Figure 1).
Many authors adapt the model of Panofsky and Dutton (1984) for their own
application (e.g., special terrain conditions) in order to perform data quality tests.
The most advantageous feature of σw /u∗ is its independence of topography and all
the problems that are associated with flow over non-flat terrain. However, as one
reviewer correctly pointed out, there is no physical explanation for the increase in
σw /u∗ at high z/L (very stable conditions). Although Panofsky and Dutton (1984)
were aware of this shortcoming, there is currently no alternative model available for
data quality tests in complex terrain under very stable conditions. We tried to adapt
the use of the bulk drag coefficient CD as a test criterion to see whether this would
be a viable alternative approach for data quality assessment. However; the problem
is that the behaviour of CD over land surfaces is not as well understood as over
the oceans (e.g., Miao and Ji, 1996), and that a serious limitation for application
 EDDY COVARIANCE MEASUREMENTS ON MOUNTAIN SLOPES 379

Figure 1. Reduction of the rotation angle in the x-z plane. Panel A: sonic anemometer with sur-
face-normal orientation (Serial No. 0054); panel B: sonic anemometer vertically mounted (Serial
No. 0055). The open squares represent data for stable (z/L > 0.06), filled circles for neutral
(−0.06 ≤ z/L ≤ 0.06) and diamonds for unstable conditions (z/L < −0.06).

in mountainous terrain is its dependence on z/z0. Due to the complex interactions

of multiple spatial scales that influence z0 in mountainous terrain, we would not
expect z/z0 to be constant, but rather a function of wind direction, atmospheric
stability, wind speed, and the roughness of the macroscale topography upwind from
the tower site.
As expected from standard valley and slope wind system theory (e.g., Wag-
ner, 1938; Barry, 1992; Whiteman and Doran, 1993) our data show a strong
interdependency upon wind direction and atmospheric stability (Figure 1); stable
stratification at nighttime is generally associated with (katabatic) down-valley and
down-slope winds with a wind direction from a wide sector centered at around
380 PETER GEISSBÜHLER ET AL.

Figure 2. As in Figure 1, but with both sonic anemometers in a vertical position. Crosses and
solid line: sonic anemometer with Serial No. 0054; open squares and broken line: sonic anemo-
meter with Serial No. 0055. The solid and broken lines show the respective least-squares fits of
π + a ) with a = −3.98, a = 21.82 and a = 0.59 for Instrument No. 0054,
y = a0 + a1 · (x 180 2 0 1 2
and a0 = −4.52, a1 = 22.47 and a2 = 1.17 for Instrument No. 0055.

south for our site; unstable stratification at daytime is generally associated with
up-valley and up-slope winds with more variable wind direction from the north
and the east. Therefore, it is not possible to use the dependence of CD on z/L
for each wind-direction sector as a quality criterion for turbulence data under such
circumstances. The best one could do is to simply test whether the measured value
of CD is lower or higher than the expected value under neutral conditions. Table
II shows the statistics for the seven stability regimes. The results indicate that the
data quality is slightly higher with a surface-normal (34.3% good quality data)
than a vertical mounting position (26.0%). However, this difference is not highly
significant (p = 0.28), and the data points classified as “bad” in Table II do not
necessarily mean that they are erroneous. Moreover, the dependence of measured
values of CD on z/L is generally much less pronounced in the data than what would
be expected from theoretical curves for constant values of z/z0. Although our data
set is too small to address all the open questions brought up by using CD for testing
data quality, there is an indication that z/z0 cannot be assumed to be constant at our
 EDDY COVARIANCE MEASUREMENTS ON MOUNTAIN SLOPES 381
TABLE II
Data quality assessment using the bulk drag coefficient CD with the criterion of CD ≥ 0.5
CDN , CDN ± 50%, and CD ≤ 1.5 CDN for unstable, neutral (−0.06 ≤ z/L ≤ 0.06), and
stable conditions, respectively. The p values are error probabilities of the Student’s t-test for the
hypothesis that the surface-normal set-up improved data quality.

Surface-normal Vertical
‘Bad’ ‘Good’ ‘Bad’ ‘Good’ p-value

All data, n = 116 76 40 122 89 33 0.28

Stability class n % % n % % p-value Criterion
−1.0 < z/L 12 2.6 7.8 10 6.8 1.4 0.34
−1.0 ≤ z/L < −0.2 11 0.9 8.6 10 0.8 7.3 0.85 CD ≥ 0.5 CDN
−0.2 ≤ z/L ≤ −0.06 2 0.0 1.7 7 2.2 3.5 0.61
−0.06 ≤ z/L < 0.06 25 13.8 7.7 38 24.6 6.7 0.83 CDN ± 50%
0.06 ≤ z/L < 0.2 7 2.6 3.4 17 10.5 3.4 0.57
0.2 ≤ z/L ≤ 1.0 30 21.6 4.3 24 15.6 4.1 0.66 CD ≤ 1.5 CDN
1.0 < z/L 29 24.1 0.9 16 13.1 0.0 0.35
All classes 116 65.6 34.4 122 73.6 26.4 0.28

site. It appears that our data points would be closer to the theoretical value of CD if
one were to use the locally determined value of z/z0 for neutral stratification as a
minimum, which increases both towards very stable and very unstable conditions.
One interpretation of this would be that for a site like ours there is not only a
dependence of effective z0 on the macroscale roughness of the topography, but that
there is also a change in the effective measuring height z in relation to the atmo-
spheric flow. This implies that, in addition to the measuring height z as determined
by the height over the local displacement height, there is a non-zero component re-
lated to the topographic elevation of the site and some as yet unknown larger-scale
displacement height such as average topographical elevation.
In summary we found that an important problem of CD for application in
complex terrain is its dependence on both z/L and z/z0 , whereas σw /u∗ only
depends on z/L. Therefore, we also analysed the σw /u∗ values for the two differ-
ent mounting positions of our sonic anemometers, although this approach is only
physically justified for unstable conditions (Figure 3) while this is not the case for
stable conditions (Figure 4). Our error analysis (Appendix A) indicates that with
our observed values of u∗ it is not primarily the uncertainty in determining small
values of u∗ during stable stratification, but that the problems are more related
to large uncertainties in determining z/L under very stable conditions. Panofsky
and Dutton (1984) suggested using the value for neutral conditions in place of
increasing values of σw /u∗ at high z/L. However, based on our error analysis it is
not impossible that the observed increase in σw /u∗ is real, although the suitability
382 PETER GEISSBÜHLER ET AL.

Figure 3. Quality test with two different models for conditions where the angle of inclination was out-
side the range ±10◦ . Panel A: sonic anemometer in surface-normal position under stable conditions
(z/L > 0). Panel B: sonic anemometer in vertical position under stable conditions (z/L > 0). Panels
C and D show the data from the surface-normal and vertical sonic anemometer, respectively, under
unstable conditions (z/L < 0). Line 1: model of Panofsky and Dutton (1984); bold lines: ±30%
tolerance stipulated by Foken and Wichura (1996); Line 2: model of Foken and Wichura (1996);
Line 3: model of Blanken et al. (1997); Line 4: model of Wyngaard (1981). Closed circles refer to
the data points that lie within less than a 30% deviation from the theoretical curve, open circles refer
to points lying outside this range.

for using this criterion as a quality test is questionable due to the uncertainty in
z/L.
The selection of model fits (Table I) used here show that the differences between
these fits are generally small and are most pronounced at values of z/L that cannot
accurately be determined with current eddy covariance equipment. It is remarkable,
that each model fits the data quite well in a certain range of z/L (Figures 3 and 4).
However, the method of Blanken et al. (1997) adequately fits the data only under
slightly unstable conditions. Figures 3 and 4 indicate that the ratio σw /u∗ of the
vertical sonic anemometer is, overestimated: 19.0% of the data are over 30% above
the empirical curve of Panofsky and Dutton (1984), while the surface-normal sonic
anemometer shows a small tendency to underestimate σw /u∗ (4.8% outliers more
than 30% below the curve of Panofsky and Dutton, 1984).
 EDDY COVARIANCE MEASUREMENTS ON MOUNTAIN SLOPES 383

Figure 4. As in Figure 3, but for conditions where the angle of inclination was inside the range
±10◦ . Panel A: surface-normal sonic anemometer (z/L > 0; panel B: vertical sonic anemo-
meter (z/L > 0); panel C: surface-normal sonic anemometer (z/L < 0); panel D: vertical sonic
anemometer (z/L < 0).

If there is any improvement of data quality obtainable by installing the sonic

anemometer surface-normal, this should also be supported by the stationarity test
that Foken and Wichura (1996) proposed (see Equation (3)). However, our data
(Figure 5) rather indicate that there is no significant improvement related to sta-
tionarity. In fact, the interpretation of our results is not as straightforward as had
been expected; since stationarity is a quality of the turbulent air flow (which is
assumed not to change with sensor positioning) the comparison of stationarity of
the two mounting positions in a strict sense does not address the issue, ‘whether
the measurements were more stationary with one or the other set-up’, but rather,
‘which of the two set-ups is more likely to capture and detect nonstationarities in
the flow’.
The sensible heat flux QH is used to check whether the stationarity XQH , of the
two sonic anemometers differs significantly from the theoretical value of 1. The
99% Wilcoxon Signed Rank Confidence Interval has been calculated according
to Noether (1991), which takes zero-differences into account. The interquartile
distances IQD of the surface-normally and vertically mounted sonic anemometers
384 PETER GEISSBÜHLER ET AL.

Figure 5. Stationarity test according to Foken and Wichura (1996). Panel A: stationarity test of
sensible heat flux (w0 T 0 ) for the vertical mounted sonic anemometer; panel B: stationarity test of
sensible heat flux (w0 T 0 ) for the surface-normal mounted sonic anemometer; solid lines in panels
A and B: confidence interval (±30%) stipulated by Foken and Wichura (1996); panel C: Wilcoxon
Signed Rank Confidence Interval; left boxplot: vertically mounted sonic anemometer, right boxplot:
surface-normally mounted sonic anemometer, horizontal line in box: median; height of the box:
interquartile distance (IQD) with notches (if the notches on two boxes do not overlap, this indicates
a difference in a location at the 5% significance level); vertical dotted lines: range of extreme val-
ues (1.5 · IQD); horizontal dotted lines: 95% of normal distribution, solid horizontal lines: outliers
(whiskers).
 EDDY COVARIANCE MEASUREMENTS ON MOUNTAIN SLOPES 385

indicated that 50% of XQH do not differ significantly. Further, the notches, which
are a visual indication for the difference between the two means µ of the data sets,
show no significant difference (see Figure 5). However, the higher dispersion (1.5·
IQD) and the variability of QH of the surface-normal sonic compared to the vertical
sonic leads to the conclusion that the surface-normal orientation is better suited to
detect nonstationarities X. Since 75% of the vertically-oriented sonic anemometer
data fall outside the recommended inclination angle of ±10◦ , the smaller variation
in the stationarity index is rather a result of the additional flow distortion and
damped response of the vertically-oriented instrument to such nonstationarities and
does not indicate a better performance.
The direct comparison of simultaneously measured data from the two sonic
anemometers (Figure 6) shows that the corresponding measurements of means,
variances, and covariances are highly correlated with a linear regression slope
close to 1.0, independent of sensor orientation. The data in Figure 6 were classified
into two groups according to the measured angle of incidence of the streamlines
(one group containing all data and the other with data that were in the range of
±10◦ ) in order to test whether the quantities ū, σw /u∗ , and CO2 flux depend on the
rotation angle in the x-z plane or not. However, no significant differences between
the regression slopes were found (Figure 6, right panels). Since there is a close
correlation between σw (Figure 6A) and σcCO2 (data not shown), the good agreement
of the CO2 fluxes (Figure 6C) is no surprise (the correlation coefficient rw,c , the
covariance w 0 c0 and the variances of the two time series are dependent on each
other according to w 0 c0 = rw,c · σw · σc ).

4. Conclusions

Two set-ups of the sonic anemometers in vertical and surface-normal positions

were used to assess the influence that the sensor orientation has on (1) the coordi-
nate rotation angle in the x-z plane (2) the data quality using tests based on
empirical parametrizations of CD and σw /u∗ , and (3) the stationarity test pro-
posed by Foken and Wichura (1996). In general, no highly significant differences
in mean values or turbulent quantities were found, despite the fact that only
a surface-normal orientation can minimize flow distortion by the instrument it-
self. Nevertheless, both orientations can be justified depending on the scientific
questions that are to be addressed.
Where the aim is to study short-term values and to test data quality of individual
30-minute averages, then it is suggested to install the sonic anemometer in surface-
normal position since:
1. The coordinate rotation angle in the x-z plane of 91% of all data were in the
range of ±10◦ in our experiment, and therefore a better adaption to a mountain-
wind system was achieved.
386 PETER GEISSBÜHLER ET AL.

Figure 6. Comparison of eddy covariance measurements between two instrumental set-ups with
varying sonic anemometer orientation. Left panels: both instruments vertically oriented; right panels:
surface-normal versus vertical orientation. Panels A1 and A2: σw ; panels B1 and B2; stream-
line-parallel mean wind speed ū; panels C1 and C2; turbulent CO2 flux. For σw , ū, and CO2 flux no
statistically significant differences were found between the two sensor orientations (t-test, p ≤ 0.05).
All data are shown as filled circles. Crosses indicate data with angles of incidence outside the ±10◦
range. The linear regression of the data inside the ±10◦ range (broken line) indicates no significant
improvement of σw , ū and CO2 compared with the linear regression (solid line) where all data are
used.
 EDDY COVARIANCE MEASUREMENTS ON MOUNTAIN SLOPES 387

2. The quality tests showed that 95% of the data of the surface-normal sonic
anemometer had σw /u∗ inside the ±30% interval of the empirical estimates
(stipulated by Foken and Wichura, 1996) in contrast to the surface-normal
sonic where this fraction was only 81%.
3. It is assumed that, due to less flow distortion, the data from a surface-normal
sonic anemometer are more reliable for precisely determining the degree of
nonstationarity.
If the aim is to investigate long-term means of scalar, momentum, and en-
ergy fluxes, then the sonic anemometer can be mounted either in a vertical or
surface-normal position since:
1. No significant differences were found for means and variances between the
two mounting positions.
2. The stationarity test does not indicate a significant difference between the two
set-ups.
Consequently, it can be assumed that long-term measurements of turbulent
fluxes in complex terrain are less delicate than previously thought and are thus an
invaluable tool for ecological applications as well, where a very detailed inspection
of each single 30-minute flux average is no longer possible. It is even possible that
a variable and automatically adjustable mounting of the sonic anemometer would
be required to obtain the highest data quality under all possible circumstances.
However, the net benefit of such a technically demanding installation is expected
to be rather small in most field applications.

Acknowledgements

This study was partly supported by the Swiss Federal Office for Education and Sci-
ence under contract 95.0382-2. We thank Frank Neidhöfer, Institute of Geography
and Daniel Dietrich, Institute of Mathematical Statistics and Actuarial Sciences
(IMSV), both University of Bern, for their statistical support, Roland Vogt, Institute
of Geography, University of Basel, for the loan of a sonic anemometer for this
experiment, the two anonymous reviewers for their thorough review and construct-
ive criticism, and April Siegwolf and Christopher E. Sidle for language checks.
We also acknowledge the technical assistance and logistical support received from
René Richter and Robert Erne from the Paul Scherrer Institute.

Appendix A. Error Estimation

In order to assess any potential uncertainties in the turbulence parameters that are
widely used for quality assessment, we estimate the measurement errors for u∗ ,
σw /u∗ and z/L. Since problems are generally expected for small values of u∗ , we
first derive an error estimate for u∗ = 0 to assess how large a measured value needs
388 PETER GEISSBÜHLER ET AL.

to be in order to be considered different from zero. After this we use the generally
applicable relative error of σw /u∗ and z/L based on reasonable values of the tur-
bulent sensible heat flux w 0 Tv0 , the virtual temperature Tv (which is approximated
by the sonic anemometer temperature), the measuring height z, and typical values
of u∗ .
We assume that each single measurement of the wind velocity components u, v
and w is contaminated by a random measurement error, which is considered to be
at most 1u, 1v and 1w, respectively. The random measurement errors are treated
as constant and are set to 0.03 m s−1 for single measurements of wind velocity
components as measured by an ultrasonic anemometer (see DeFelice, 1998, p.
94). The instruments under consideration derive their 21 Hz output values from
eight measurements over each of the three transducer pairs. √ If we assume that
the absolute measurement error decreases by a factor 1/ n due to the internal
averaging done by the instrument, we estimate the absolute measurement error of
wind velocity components to be on the order of 0.01 m s−1 . However, due to the fact
that the instrument also detects and eliminates invalid data, each output value might
be an average of less than eight measurements per transducer pair, which suggests
that an estimated measurement error of 0.02 m s−1 is probably more realistic under
actual outdoor measuring conditions.
Using the Reynolds averaging rules (Stull, 1988) we decompose each meas-
urement χ (where χ is any of the wind components, temperature or other entity)
obtained from the sonic anemometer into its time average χ̄ and an instantaneous
turbulent deviation χ 0 from this average,

χ = χ̄ + χ 0 .
√
Then we assume that the standard error of the mean component 1χ̄ ≈ 1χ/ n;
thus, the standard error of the mean component can be neglected for large n. This
is certainly a valid assumption for 30-minute averages of eddy covariance data
sampled at 21 Hz where n = 37800. Hence, the estimated absolute measurement
error of χ 0 is considered to be the same as the one for the instantaneous value χ.
Note, however, that this is only true for the random measurement error, but not for
any systematical errors, which are not considered here.
By decomposing the momentum flux into its measured value and the measure-
ment error,

u0 w 0 ± 1u0 w 0 = (u0 + 1u) · (w 0 ± 1w)

= u0 w 0 ± w 0 1u ± u0 1w ± 1u · 1w

= u0 w 0 ± w 0 1u ± u0 1w ± 1u · 1w (A1)

= u0 w 0 ± w 0 1u ± u0 1w ± 1u · 1w

= u0 w 0 ± 1u · 1w,
 EDDY COVARIANCE MEASUREMENTS ON MOUNTAIN SLOPES 389

we find that u0 w 0 is accurate to within ±0.0004 m s−1 for small values of u0 w 0 . For
the friction velocity u∗ we estimate the measurement error from
p
u∗ ± 1u∗ = −u0 w 0 ± 1u0 w 0 .

For low values of u∗ → 0 this yields

q
1u∗ ≈ |1u0 w 0 |,

which is of the same order of magnitude as 1w and 1u.

The measurement error of σw is estimated from
v
u n
u1 X
σw ± 1σw = t (wi ± 1w − w̄ ± 1w̄)2 ,
n i=1

from which we estimate the absolute measuring error 1σw to be of the same order
of magnitude as 1w for large n.
Based on these error estimates we now estimate the accuracy of σw /u∗ and z/L
as measured by a sonic anemometer using

z z (z ± 1z) · k · g · (w 0 Tv0 ± 1w 0 Tv0 )

±1 =− (A2)
L L (Tv ± 1Tv ) · (u∗ ± 1u∗ )3
and
 
σw σw σw ± 1σw
±1 = .
u∗ u∗ u∗ ± 1u∗

1(z/L) is derived as the sum of the relative errors of all components in Equation
(8),

       
1 Lz  1z   1Tv   1w 0 Tv0   1u∗ 

= +  + 0 0 +3·  .
z
z  T   w T  u 
L v v ∗

For a measuring height z on the order of metres and a measuring accuracy of ±

0.02 m, the first term yields a value of O(0.01). Tv in the second term is thought to
be accurate to within ±0.04 K (see Eugster, 1994, p. 71). As the sonic anemometers
used for this study measure the speed of sound c with a resolution of ±0.02 m s−1 ,
the absolute accuracy of Tv computed as Tv ≈ c2 /403 (Kaimal and Gaynor, 1991)
is less than what is achieved by contemporary sonic anemometers. For a value of
Tv of roughly 300 K, a relative error of O(0.0001) is expected. For the third term
we argued that large values of z/L are determined inaccurately and thus insert a
value of 50 W m−2 (or 0.0406 K m s−1 ) for w 0 Tv0 . Using the same considerations
390 PETER GEISSBÜHLER ET AL.

as in Equation (A1), the relative error of term three is on the order of 0.01 like the
first term. The last term appears then to be the most critical one. For u∗ = 0.2 m s−1
its relative error is 0.15 or 15%, growing to 0.60 for u∗ = 0.05 m s−1 . Thus, for
small values of u∗ the expected error of z/L is 17–62%.
The relative error of σw /u∗ is
 
σw    
1  1σw   1u∗ 
=  + ,
u∗
σw
u∗
σw   u∗ 

where both terms are of the same order of magnitude. For u∗ = 0.20 and 0.05 m s−1
the first term is 0.04 and 0.16, and the second term is 0.05 and 0.20, respectively.
In total, the relative error of σw /u∗ is 9–36% and is slightly more influenced by
inaccuracies in than in u∗ than in σw measurements.
Hence, for a quality assessment of turbulence data a ±30% tolerance for σw /u∗
would seem to be appropriate if there were no uncertainties in z/L. However, due
to a ±17–62% uncertainty in estimating z/L this criterion becomes problematic
whenever ∂(σw /u∗ )/∂(z/L) 6 = 0. This is the case both for large negative and large
positive z/L, although the problem is less pronounced when z/L < 0 because u∗
tends to be larger than under very stable stratification.
The conclusion of this error assessment is that σw /u∗ is certainly a viable para-
meter for assessing data quality for near-neutral, and moderately stable or unstable
conditions. For very stable conditions there is an indication that the observed in-
crease in σw /u∗ with increasing z/L is not just an artefact of random measurement
error in u∗ or any other component involved in deriving all parameters. However,
we did not discuss systematic errors and should therefore be aware that if there is
no physical explanation for increasing σw /u∗ at z/L  0, then it is most likely a
systematic error in measurement of u∗ , e.g., due to the fact that u∗ is commonly
computed in a two-dimensional framework and not as a fully three-dimensional
vector component.

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