1.2. Visit to Observatory¶

Objective: The purpose of this visit is to think about how instrumentation is deployed and its fetch. See more details here: URAO

Tip

Activity in URAO

Identify the instrumentation to directly measure all terms of the surface energy balance, radiation balance, temperatures, wind speed, wind direction, boundary layer height and/or cloud height and various land surface model parameters. What are the instrument details, including name, manufacturer, sample rate, averaging time, height, orientation (e.g. wind direction of sonic anemometer), other variables observed or derived by/from an instrument
Look at the surroundings of the University of Reading Atmospheric Observatory (URAO). Identify in what wind directions will the sensors have different fetch (nature of upwind surface).

Activity after URAO visit

For your site in the AmeriFlux network, access key papers about your site to determine how the fluxes and other variables are observed. Create a summary table that includes:
- Instrument details, including name, manufacturer, sample rate, averaging time, height, orientation (e.g. wind direction of sonic anemometer)
- Photograph (from web) of the instruments (i.e. model,etc) you can work in teams to find these.
- General method used to obtain the flux
Using Google/Bing Maps (or other equivalent) to identify what upwind conditions are relative to the orientation of the instruments. Think carefully about which sensors this is critical for.
- Create an annotated figure for your site with sectors identified.
Prepare a document that summarises the information above for the start of next class.
- The document should have figure and table captions (if you are unclear review the journal papers you are reading about your site).
- Note: A figure/table caption should be sufficient for a reader to interpret the material without reading the body of the text.