Energy budget closure and field scale estimation of canopy energy storage with increased and sustained turbulence

Eddy Covariance (EC) is widely used for direct, non-invasive observations of land-atmosphere energy and mass fluxes. However, EC observations of available energy fluxes are usually less than fluxes inferred from radiometer and soil heat flux observations; thus introducing additional uncertainty in using and interpreting EC flux measurements. We compare EC observations from two towers established over sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) in Hawai'i, USA under similar cultivation, temperature, sunlight, and precipitation, but drastically different wind conditions due to orographic effects. At a daily scale, we find that energy closure for both towers occurs on days when the entire 24 hours has sufficient turbulence. At our windier site, this turbulence condition occurs over 60% of the time, which contributes to substantially better daily energy closure (~98%) than at the calmer site (~75%). At our windy site, we then invert the daily energy closure for continuously windy days to calculate canopy energy storage. At full canopy, peak daily canopy energy storage fluxes (200-400 Wm-2) are approximately an order of magnitude larger than soil heat flux (20-40 Wm-2). As a fraction of net radiation, canopy energy storage appears to vary seasonally and shows substantially greater variability than soil heat flux. The results illustrate the importance of sustained turbulence for accurate, direct measurement of land-atmosphere fluxes. As increasing number of EC towers are established in complex terrain, these results indicate the need for preliminary wind studies to optimize tower placement where orography enhances, rather than suppresses, turbulence.