Integral turbulence characteristics over a clear woodland forest in
northern Benin (West Africa)
Abstract
The work of Monin and Obukhov has enabled a description of turbulent
processes in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer using flux-variance
similarity functions. These functions, also called Integral Turbulence
Characteristics (ITC), are used to characterize the state of turbulence
at all frequencies. However, due to the non-universality of ITC models,
more investigations are necessary, especially in tropical regions where
low wind conditions frequently occur. This study aims at investigating
whether these normalized standard deviations obey the Monin-Obukhov
Similarity Theory (MOST) above a forest site in the Sudanian climate,
and at identifying the appropriate ITC models for this ecosystem. Data
were collected from a 18m tower equipped with an Eddy Covariance system,
above the clear forest at Bellefoungou’s village, Northwest of Benin,
West Africa. The turbulence intensity parameters calculated for five
years and half, were analyzed according to wind speed, stability
conditions and seasons. From their relationships with the stability
parameter, data driven models were then obtained by the nonlinear least
squares. The results showed that, all similarity functions follow MOST
with a 1/3 power law whatever the stratification of the atmosphere
during all the seasons excepted the temperature which had a parabolic
shape in near neutral condition (-0.05 < ζ < 0.1). A
seasonal dependence of all ITCs was evidenced under stable conditions.
Indeed, roughness length and strong winds which dominating especially in
the dry season favored more efficient turbulent exchange at the site. We
also showed that the heat transfer is relatively more efficient than
H2O transfer under both stability conditions. The
established temperature and CO2 similarity models are
found to be closer, and for some given stratification conditions, to
those already existing in literature. But a noteworthy finding is that
the models often used to assign a quality criterion to turbulent fluxes
showed an overestimation relatively to those established ‘locally’ for u
and w through all atmospheric stratification.