Long-term measurements of near-surface turbulent fluxes in the Arctic environment - additional laser Scintillometer measurement campaign 2009 at Ny-Alesund on Svalbard (ARCTEX-2009)

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Johannes Lüers
• Subject Area: Atmospheric Science
• Term: from 2009 to 2012
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 146763652

Accurate quantification of turbulent fluxes between the surface and the atmospheric boundary layer in polar environments, characterized by frequent change of weather and exchange conditions (stable to very stable or intermittent (rapid, short term neutral to unstable stratified conditions, is a fundamental problem in soil-snow-ice-vegetation-atmosphere interaction studies. The observed rapid climate warming in the Arctic requires improvements in the permafrost and carbon cycle monitoring. To address these problems, it is essential to improve the databases with high-quality in-situ measurements of turbulent fluxes above typical pattern of tundra landscape surfaces applying the Eddy-Covariance method and the laser Scintillometry. Results from the Arctic Turbulence Experiment 2006 on Svalbard helped to better understand physical exchange processes of energy and matter transport and to improve instrumentation standards as well as quality assessment techniques. Therefore, the primary goal of this additional laser Scintillometer measurement campaign is to estimate the flux contributions covering typical tundra surfaces across the Bayelva catchment during a summer season south-west of the Ny-Ålesund village, Kongsfjord, Svalbard. This effort makes it possible to define the spatial context of the fluxes, and to include land use features of the surrounding terrain in the quality assessment of the whole AWI observations in the Bayelva catchment over the last 10 years.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Persons: Dr. Jörg Bareiss; Professorin Dr. Julia Boike; Professor Dr. Thomas Foken