NWC REU 1998

 

 

OASIS98 Oklahoma Atmospheric Surface-Layer Instrumentation System

Christopher McAloon and Scott Richardson

 

Abstract:

The OASIS (Oklahoma Atmospheric Surface-layer Instrumentation System) Project, supported by the National Science Foundation, is enhancing the existing Oklahoma Mesonet over the next two years by adding a system of surface flux stations. These flux stations will directly measure the net radiation and ground heat flux and indirectly estimate the sensible heat flux; latent heat flux will be calculated as a residual from the energy balance equation. In addition, selected stations will directly measure all four components of the energy budget including sensible and latent heat fluxes.

The OASIS98 Field Project, conducted from 27 June to 8 August 1998, was designed to assess the accuracy of surface fluxes measured using OASIS instrumentation. For this project, the National Center for Atmospheric Research's (NCAR) Atmosphere-Surface Turbulent Exchange Research (ASTER) Facility was used. The ASTER Facility measures surface fluxes by eddy-correlation and measures atmospheric profiles of temperature, moisture, and wind speed and direction. In this paper, the ASTER-measured surface fluxes, which serve as a reference, are compared to those made using OASIS instrumentation. This comparison provides an estimate of the uncertainty associated with OASIS measurements.

Paper available upon request.