In meteorology, an anemometer is a device that measures wind speed and direction. It is a common instrument used in weather stations. The earliest known description of an anemometer was by Italian architect and author Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472) in 1450.
Evapotranspiration (ET) is the combined processes which move water from the Earth's surface into the atmosphere. It covers both water evaporation and transpiration. Evapotranspiration is an important part of the local water cycle and climate, and measurement of it plays a key role in agricultural irrigation and water resource management.
Sensible heat is heat exchanged by a body or thermodynamic system in which the exchange of heat changes the temperature of the body or system, and some macroscopic variables of the body or system, but leaves unchanged certain other macroscopic variables of the body or system, such as volume or pressure.
Latent heat is energy released or absorbed, by a body or a thermodynamic system, during a constant-temperature process—usually a first-order phase transition, like melting or condensation.
The surface layer is the layer of a turbulent fluid most affected by interaction with a solid surface or the surface separating a gas and a liquid where the characteristics of the turbulence depend on distance from the interface. Surface layers are characterized by large normal gradients of tangential velocity and large concentration gradients of any substances transported to or from the interface.
In thermodynamics, the heat transfer coefficient or film coefficient, or film effectiveness, is the proportionality constant between the heat flux and the thermodynamic driving force for the flow of heat. It is used in calculating the heat transfer, typically by convection or phase transition between a fluid and a solid. The heat transfer coefficient has SI units in watts per square meter per kelvin (W/m²K).
Fluorescence anisotropy or fluorescence polarization is the phenomenon where the light emitted by a fluorophore has unequal intensities along different axes of polarization. Early pioneers in the field include Aleksander Jablonski, Gregorio Weber, and Andreas Albrecht. The principles of fluorescence polarization and some applications of the method are presented in Lakowicz's book.
In fluid dynamics, eddy diffusion, eddy dispersion, or turbulent diffusion is a process by which fluid substances mix together due to eddy motion. These eddies can vary widely in size, from subtropical ocean gyres down to the small Kolmogorov microscales, and occur as a result of turbulence. The theory of eddy diffusion was first developed by Sir Geoffrey Ingram Taylor.
FLUXNET is a global network of micrometeorological tower sites that use eddy covariance methods to measure the exchanges of carbon dioxide, water vapor, and energy between the biosphere and atmosphere. FLUXNET is a global 'network of regional networks' that serves to provide an infrastructure to compile, archive and distribute data for the scientific community. The most recent FLUXNET data product, FLUXNET2015, is hosted by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (USA) and is publicly available for download. Currently there are over 1000 active and historic flux measurement sites.
The MEMO model is a Eulerian non-hydrostatic prognostic mesoscale model for wind-flow simulation. It was developed by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in collaboration with the Universität Karlsruhe. The MEMO Model together with the photochemical dispersion model MARS are the two core models of the European zooming model (EZM). This model belongs to the family of models designed for describing atmospheric transport phenomena in the local-to-regional scale, frequently referred to as mesoscale air pollution models.
LI-COR Biosciences is an international biotech company which designs, manufactures, and markets instruments, measurement systems, and software for biological and environmental research, and develops relevant measurement methodologies and techniques.
Microscale meteorology or micrometeorology is the study of short-lived atmospheric phenomena smaller than mesoscale, about 1 kilometre (0.6 mi) or less. These two branches of meteorology are sometimes grouped together as "mesoscale and microscale meteorology" (MMM) and together study all phenomena smaller than synoptic scale; that is they study features generally too small to be depicted on a standard weather map. These include small and generally fleeting cloud "puffs" and other small cloud features. Microscale meteorology controls the most important mixing and dilution processes in the atmosphere. Important topics in microscale meteorology include heat transfer and gas exchange between soil, vegetation, and/or surface water and the atmosphere caused by near-ground turbulence. Measuring these transport processes involves use of micrometeorological towers. Variables often measured or derived include net radiation, sensible heat flux, latent heat flux, ground heat storage, and fluxes of trace gases important to the atmosphere, biosphere, and hydrosphere.
The Penman–Monteith equation approximates net evapotranspiration (ET) from meteorological data, as a replacement for direct measurement of evapotranspiration. The equation is widely used, and was derived by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization for modeling reference evapotranspiration ET0.
Flux footprint is an upwind area where the atmospheric flux measured by an instrument is generated. Specifically, the term flux footprint describes an upwind area "seen" by the instruments measuring vertical turbulent fluxes, such that heat, water, gas and momentum transport generated in this area is registered by the instruments. Another frequently used term, fetch, usually refers to the distance from the tower when describing the footprint.
Turbulent diffusion is the transport of mass, heat, or momentum within a system due to random and chaotic time dependent motions. It occurs when turbulent fluid systems reach critical conditions in response to shear flow, which results from a combination of steep concentration gradients, density gradients, and high velocities. It occurs much more rapidly than molecular diffusion and is therefore extremely important for problems concerning mixing and transport in systems dealing with combustion, contaminants, dissolved oxygen, and solutions in industry. In these fields, turbulent diffusion acts as an excellent process for quickly reducing the concentrations of a species in a fluid or environment, in cases where this is needed for rapid mixing during processing, or rapid pollutant or contaminant reduction for safety.
Monin–Obukhov (M–O) similarity theory describes the non-dimensionalized mean flow and mean temperature in the surface layer under non-neutral conditions as a function of the dimensionless height parameter, named after Russian scientists A. S. Monin and A. M. Obukhov. Similarity theory is an empirical method that describes universal relationships between non-dimensionalized variables of fluids based on the Buckingham π theorem. Similarity theory is extensively used in boundary layer meteorology since relations in turbulent processes are not always resolvable from first principles.
Elizabeth Pattey is a principal research scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and the leader of the micrometeorology laboratory at the Ottawa Research and Development Centre. Her research supports nationwide improvement in the environmental performance of agriculture, in support of the United Nations' Framework Convention on Climate Change and Canada’s Clean Air Act. She is the co-author for over 80 peer-reviewed scientific publications, and her areas of expertise include trace gas flux measurement techniques, process-based models, and remote-sensing applications.
George Burba is an American bio-atmospheric scientist, author, and inventor.
BAITSSS is biophysical Evapotranspiration (ET) computer model that determines water use, primarily in agriculture landscape, using remote sensing-based information. It was developed and refined by Ramesh Dhungel and the water resources group at University of Idaho's Kimberly Research and Extension Center since 2010. It has been used in different areas in the United States including Southern Idaho, Northern California, northwest Kansas, Texas, and Arizona.
William Christopher Swinbank was a British-born meteorological physicist who worked at the UK Meteorological Office, the CSIRO Australia and the NCAR Colorado. His main areas of research were fog prediction, upper atmosphere analysis, wind predictions, hail storms and turbulent fluxes.
