Assessment of the Energy Balance Closure under Advective Conditions and Its Impact Using Remote Sensing Data

A unique and intensive flux observation matrix was established during May to September of 2012 in an oasis–desert area located in the middle reaches of the Heihe River basin, China. The flux observation matrix included 22 eddy covariance systems belonging to the first thematic experiment of the Heihe Watershed Allied Telemetry Experimental Research (HiWATER) project. The energy balance closure ratio (EBR) was assessed and possible mechanisms were investigated using remote sensing data. The results showed that 1) the EBR was in the range of 0.78–1.04 at all sites with an average EBR of 0.92, and 2) the calculated daily EBR exhibited better performance than the 30-min averages. 3) The heat storage cannot be ignored during the crop growing season. An improvement of approximately 6% in the total closure was found after considering the heat storage terms (canopy and photosynthesis storage) in the energy budget at the maize surface, and the canopy and photosynthesis showed approximately equal contributions of 3% for each storage term. The results also showed that 4) the land heterogeneous surface had a significant effect on the EBR. The EBR decreased with land surface heterogeneity increasing (taking the standard deviation of the surface temperature in the eddy covariance system source area as an index). The EBR also decreased when irrigation occurred and increased after irrigation was completed. The advection or secondary circulation broke the closed system of the energy balance given the phenomenon of EBR increasing when the advection or secondary circulation occurred.