Open AccessScale dependence of coherent structures' contribution to the daytime buoyancy heat flux over the Pantanal wetland, Brazil
Author(s) -
Zeri Marcelo,
Sá Leonardo Deane de Abreu
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
atmospheric science letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.951
H-Index - 45
ISSN - 1530-261X
DOI - 10.1002/asl.311
Subject(s) - buoyancy , eddy covariance , daytime , mesoscale meteorology , turbulence , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , heat flux , wavelet , flux (metallurgy) , meteorology , climatology , geology , physics , mechanics , heat transfer , ecosystem , materials science , ecology , artificial intelligence , computer science , metallurgy , biology
The contribution of organized motions to buoyancy heat flux was determined for several time scales by applying wavelet decomposition to signals of vertical velocity and air temperature. Measurements were performed using an eddy covariance system installed over the Pantanal wetland, in Brazil, during two campaigns (1998 and 1999). The signals were decomposed in several time scales and then used in the quadrant analysis. Overall, coherent structures were responsible for ∼40% of the buoyancy heat flux, if the contributions of ejections and sweeps are summed over the range of 10–100 s, which excludes the contribution of stochastic high‐frequency turbulence and low‐frequency mesoscale motions. Copyright © 2011 Royal Meteorological Society