Creating Surface Flux Maps from Airborne Measurements: Application to the Mackenzie Area GEWEX Study MAGS 1999

The objective of this study is to produce two-dimensional maps of the sensible and the latent heat fluxes from airborne measurements, based on the analysis of a flight pattern, called grid flights. A footprint model with along-wind and cross-wind components was used to project the measured fluxes onto the surface map. The method was applied to measurements over Arctic tundra during the Mackenzie Area GEWEX (Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment) Study (MAGS) 1999. The resulting flux estimates were computed by integration of a wavelet transform, and corrected for long wavelength losses using information from 100 km long regional runs that were conducted close to the grid flights. The random flux error was estimated based on the flight length that is represented in each map element, and a map resolution of 3 x 3 km was chosen in order to keep the average random error of the latent heat flux below 25%. The random error of the sensible heat flux was smaller by a factor of 1.4 on average. An analysis of airborne flux measurements at different altitudes showed no significant increase of flux estimates for measurement heights below 90 m. Thus, the fluxes measured at heights between 48 and 64 m were not corrected for vertical flux divergence. The resulting flux maps provide quantitative two-dimensional estimates of the energy exchange between the surface and the atmosphere during the snow melt period in an Arctic environment, which are well-suited for calibration and validation of numerical models.