Abstract
Mid-Missouri experienced up to 2 min 40 s of totality at around solar noon during the total eclipse of 2017. We conducted the Mid-Missouri Eclipse Meteorology Experiment to examine land-atmosphere interactions during the eclipse. Here, research examining the eclipse responses in three contrasting ecosystems (forest, prairie, and soybeans) is described. There was variable cloudiness around first and fourth contacts (i.e., the start and end of partial solar obscuration) at the forest and prairie; however, solar irradiance (K ↓ ) signals during the eclipse were relatively clean. Unfortunately, the eclipse forcing at the soybean field was contaminated by convective activity, which decreased K ↓ beginning about an hour before first contact and exposed the field to cold outflow ~30 min before second contact. Turbulence was suppressed during the eclipse at all sites; however, there was also an amplified signal at the soybean field during the passage of a gust front. The standard deviations of the horizontal and vertical wind velocities and friction velocities decreased by ~75% at the forest (aerodynamically rough), and ~60% at the prairie (aerodynamically smooth). The eddy fluxes of energy were highly coherent with the solar forcing with the latent and sensible heat fluxes approaching 0 W/m 2 and changing in direction, respectively. For the prairie site, we estimated a canopy-scale time constant for the surface conductance light response of 10 min. Although the eclipse imparted large forcings on surface energy balances, the air temperature response was relatively muted (1.5–2.5 °C decrease) due to the absence of topographic effects and the relatively moist land and atmosphere.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 530-543 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres |
| Volume | 124 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 27 2019 |
Funding
This work was partially supported by funding from NASA (grant NNX17AH79G) through the Interdisciplinary Science For Eclipse 2017 program. This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research Program, Climate and Environmental Sciences Division through Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Terrestrial Ecosystem Science-Science Focus Area (J.D.W. and L.G.). ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725. E.J.S. and J.D.W. acknowledge support by USDA-ARS Project 5070–12130-005-00D, “Long-term management of water resources in the Central Mississippi River Basin” for the soybean and prairie sites. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under award IIA-1355406 (N.I.F., P.A.M., and A.R.L.). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Tucker Prairie is a preserve of the University of Missouri and managed by the Division of Biological Sciences. The data analyzed in this research will be made available upon publication through Oak Ridge National Lab's Terrestrial Ecosystem Science Focus Area data portal. This work was partially supported by funding from NASA (grant NNX17AH79G) through the Interdisciplinary Science For Eclipse 2017 program. This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research Program, Climate and Environmental Sciences Division through Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Terrestrial Ecosystem Science‐Science Focus Area (J.D.W. and L.G.). ORNL is managed by UT‐ Battelle, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE‐AC05‐ 00OR22725. E.J.S. and J.D.W. acknowledge support by USDA‐ARS Project 5070–12130‐005‐00D, “Long‐ term management of water resources in the Central Mississippi River Basin” for the soybean and prairie sites. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under award IIA‐1355406 (N.I.F., P.A. M., and A.R.L.). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Tucker Prairie is a preserve of the University of Missouri and managed by the Division of Biological Sciences. The data analyzed in this research will be made available upon publication through Oak Ridge National Lab's Terrestrial Ecosystem Science Focus Area data portal.
Keywords
- eclipse micrometeorology and biometeorology
- ecosystem science
- eddy covariance