Buoyancy and the sensible heat flux budget within dense canopies

In contrast to atmospheric surface-layer (ASL) turbulence, a linear relationship between turbulent heat fluxes (F T) and vertical gradients of mean air temperature within canopies is frustrated by numerous factors, including local variation in heat sources and sinks and large-scale eddy motion whose signature is often linked with the ejection-sweep cycle. Furthermore, how atmospheric stability modifies such a relationship remains poorly understood, especially in stable canopy flows. To date, no explicit model exists for relating F T to the mean air temperature gradient, buoyancy, and the statistical properties of the ejection-sweep cycle within the canopy volume. Using third-order cumulant expansion methods (CEM) and the heat flux budget equation, a “diagnostic” analytical relationship that links ejections and sweeps and the sensible heat flux for a wide range of atmospheric stability classes is derived. Closure model assumptions that relate scalar dissipation rates with sensible heat flux, and the validity of CEM in linking ejections and sweeps with the triple scalar-velocity correlations, were tested for a mixed hardwood forest in Lavarone, Italy. We showed that when the heat sources (S T) and F T have the same sign (i.e. the canopy is heating and sensible heat flux is positive), sweeps dominate the sensible heat flux. Conversely, if S T and F T are opposite in sign, standard gradient-diffusion closure model predict that ejections must dominate the sensible heat flux