Airborne flux measurements of BVOCs above Californian oak forests: Experimental investigation of surface and entrainment fluxes, OH densities, and Damköhler numbers

Airborne flux measurements of isoprene were performed over the Californian oak belts surrounding the Central Valley. The authors demonstrate for the first time 1) the feasibility of airborne eddy covariance measurements of reactive biogenic volatile organic compounds; 2) the effect of chemistry on the vertical transport of reactive species, such as isoprene; and 3) the applicability of wavelet analysis to estimate regional fluxes of biogenic volatile organic compounds. These flux measurements demonstrate that instrumentation operating at slower response times (e.g., 1-5 s) can still be used to determine eddy covariance fluxes in the mixed layer above land, where typical length scales of 0.5-3 km were observed. Flux divergence of isoprene measured in the planetary boundary layer (PBL) is indicative of OH densities in the range of 4-7 × 10⁶ molecules per cubic centimeter and allows extrapolation of airborne fluxes to the surface with Damköhler numbers (ratio between the mixing time scale and the chemical time scale) in the range of 0.3-0.9. Most of the isoprene is oxidized in the PBL with entrainment fluxes of about 10% compared to the corresponding surface fluxes. Entrainment velocities of 1-10 cm s⁻¹ were measured. The authors present implications for parameterizing PBL schemes of reactive species in regional and global models.

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Author Karl, Thomas
Misztal, P.
Jonsson, H.
Shertz, Stephen
Goldstein, A.
Guenther, Alex
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2013-10-01T00:00:00
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Not Assigned
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Topic Category geoscientificInformation
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Metadata Date 2023-08-18T18:48:12.015321
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:12925
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Karl, Thomas, Misztal, P., Jonsson, H., Shertz, Stephen, Goldstein, A., Guenther, Alex. (2013). Airborne flux measurements of BVOCs above Californian oak forests: Experimental investigation of surface and entrainment fluxes, OH densities, and Damköhler numbers. UCAR/NCAR - Library. http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7q52qg3. Accessed 15 January 2025.

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