Characterization of turbulent flux transfer over a Gobi surface with quality-controlled observations

This study evaluates the spatial distributions in the quality of momentum and sensible heat fluxes, and determines the turbulent transfer characteristics with quality-controlled observations. The research is based on raw turbulence data collected over a Gobi surface in the Dunhuang area in June 2004. The results indicate that part of the momentum fluxes are of poor quality in the daytime and nighttime. The poor quality of the momentum fluxes in the daytime is mainly attributed to the development of turbulence. The footprint reveals that, in general, the momentum fluxes and sensible heat fluxes can be measured well in the east and west upwind sectors under unstable conditions. The relationship between the non-dimensional standard deviation of the wind components and atmospheric stability follow the "1/3 power law", which supports the Monin-Obukhov similarity theory. Moreover, this study identifies a clear disturbance in the measurements surrounding the Gobi surface. The momentum roughness length of z (0m) =0.59 mm is determined after excluding such disturbance, and the additional resistance during the daytime is proposed to be an average of 3.1, although its actual value is highly scattered. This study discusses the applicability of several thermodynamic parameterization schemes for the Gobi surface. The results show that the scheme kappa B (-1)=3.1 can represent well the summer diurnal turbulent heat transfer.