Mather et al. (2026) Where has all the energy gone? Quantifying advective energy fluxes with a dense tower network

Identification

• Journal: Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-08-18
• Authors: Emily R. Mather, Ankur R. Desai, Bethany Blakely, Brian J. Butterworth, Stefan Metzger, Sreenath Paleri
• DOI: 10.1016/j.agrformet.2026.111413

Research Groups

• Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado Boulder
• NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory (PSL)
• AtmoFacts
• Cooperative Institute for Severe and High-Impact Weather Research and Operations, University of Oklahoma
• Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division, NOAA/Air Resources Laboratory

Short Summary

The study investigates whether a high-density tower network can quantify advective energy fluxes to resolve the systematic energy imbalance observed in eddy covariance measurements.

Objective

• To determine if advective fluxes of sensible and latent heat can be estimated from a high-density network of tower measurements to improve the closure of the surface energy budget.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: CHEESEHEAD19 experiment domain (dense tower network).
• Temporal Scale: Not specified in the provided text.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Horizontal and vertical interpolation methods applied to temperature and humidity measurements to calculate gradients and quantify advective energy fluxes.
• Data sources: High-density tower measurements from the CHEESEHEAD19 experiment.

Main Results

• The inclusion of advective fluxes improved energy budget closure at 6 out of 15 sites.
• At 5 sites, the energy imbalance increased, and at 4 sites, an overcorrection occurred.
• Findings suggest that improving advection estimates requires greater spatial measurement density and alternative methods for measuring vertical velocity.

Contributions

• Evaluates the utility of dense tower networks in capturing the "missing" portion of the energy budget caused by secondary circulations, providing a quantitative assessment of the limitations of current interpolation methods for advective flux estimation.

Funding

• Not specified in the provided text.

Citation

@article{Mather2026Where,
  author = {Mather, Emily R. and Desai, Ankur R. and Blakely, Bethany and Butterworth, Brian  J. and Metzger, Stefan and Paleri, Sreenath},
  title = {Where has all the energy gone? Quantifying advective energy fluxes with a dense tower network},
  journal = {Agricultural and Forest Meteorology},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1016/j.agrformet.2026.111413},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2026.111413}
}