Turbulent exchange of heat, water vapor, and momentum over a Tibetan prairie by eddy covariance and flux variance measurements

Land‐atmosphere interactions on the Tibetan Plateau are important because of their influence on energy and water cycles on both regional and global scales. Flux variance and eddy covariance methods were used to measure turbulent fluxes of heat, water vapor, and momentum over a Tibetan shortgrass prairie during the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) Asian Monsoon Experiment (GAME) in 1998. Under unstable conditions during the monsoon period (July–September), the observed standard deviations of temperature and specific humidity (normalized by appropriate scaling parameters) followed the Monin‐Obukhov theory. The similarity constants for heat CT and water vapor Cq in their dimensionless functions of stability under a free convection limit were both 1.1, unlike the differences (i.e., CT ≤ Cq) reported in other studies. While the transfer efficiency of heat and water vapor exchange generally agreed with the prediction from the Monin‐Obukhov theory, momentum exchange was less efficient than predicted. In comparison with the eddy covariance data, the flux variance method (with CT = Cq = 1.1) underestimated both heat and water vapor fluxes by <5%. When the eddy covariance data were absent, the flux variance method was used for gap filling the seasonal flux database. To estimate latent heat flux during the premonsoon period in June, CT/Cq was approximated as rTq (where rTq is a correlation coefficient for the fluctuations of temperature and water vapor) because of the sensitivity of Cq to changes in soil moisture conditions. The dramatic changes in the Bowen ratio from 9.0 to 0.4 indicate the shift of energy sources for atmospheric heating over the plateau, which, in turn, resulted in the shift of turbulent exchange mechanisms for heat and water vapor.