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Title: SPATIAL SOURCE-AREA ANALYSIS OF THREE-DIMENSIONAL MOISTURE FIELDS FROM LIDAR, EDDY COVARIANCE, AND A FOOTPRINT MODEL

Author
item COOPER, D - LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LAB
item EICHINGER, W - UNIVERSITY OF IOWA
item ARCHULETA, J - LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LAB
item HIPPS, L - UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY
item KAO, J - LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LAB
item LECLERC, M - UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA
item NEALE, C - UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY
item Prueger, John

Submitted to: Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/1/2002
Publication Date: 2/1/2003
Citation: COOPER, D.I., EICHINGER, W.E., ARCHULETA, J., HIPPS, L., KAO, J., LECLERC, M.Y., NEALE, C.M., PRUEGER, J.H. SPATIAL SOURCE-AREA ANALYSIS OF THREE-DIMENSIONAL MOISTURE FIELDS FROM LIDAR, EDDY COVARIANCE, AND A FOOTPRINT MODEL. AGRICULTURAL AND FOREST METEOROLOGY. 2003. v. 114. p. 213-234.

Interpretive Summary: The earth's surface is a complex array of different vegetation, buildings, and roads. It is difficult to study the changes that occur at the surface using some of the current methods because they were developed to only consider a uniform surface condition. One example of this change is the development of the salt cedar area next to rivers in the western United States. It is unclear how much water these trees remove from the river that could be used for other purposes downstream. Traditional methods of evaluating the impact of small areas next to rivers have not produced satisfactory results. A study was conducted to compare three different methods along a section of the Rio Grande River south of Soccoro, New Mexico. The different methods have their strength and weaknesses in understanding the water loss from a riparian area. These data are being used to help water planners evaluate management practices for the Rio Grande river and guide future studies to determine the impact of salt cedar management along the river.

Technical Abstract: The Los Alamos National Laboratory scanning Raman lidar was used to measure the three-dimensional moisture field over a salt cedar canopy. A critical question concerning these measurements is; what are the spatial properties of the source region that contributes to the observed three-dimensional moisture field? Traditional methods used to address footprint properties rely on point sensor time-series data and the assumption of Taylor's hypothesis to transform temporal data into the spatial domain. In this paper, the analysis of horizontal source-area size is addressed from direct lidar-based spatial analysis techniques converged on the microscale average source region of between 25 and 75 m under ideal conditions. This work supports the concept that the scanning lidar can be used to map small scale boundary layer processes, including riparian zone moisture fields and fluxes.