This is a traditional topic in micrometeorology. It is valuable to continue to have one or more sessions at AMS 35th Conference on Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. Work using field observations and laboratory experiments, and modeling techniques (large-eddy simulation, direct numerical simulation, Reynolds averaging closure models, Largrangian stochastic diffusion and footprint models), to advance our studies of turbulent transport, dispersion and diffusion processes in and above both horizontally homogeneous and heterogeneous vegetation canopies, over flat or uneven topographies, in various stability conditions, are all worthy presentations. Modeling work that couple canopy-scale turbulence model into large-scale models such as WRF also fits in this session.

Sponsored by Campbell Scientific

The eddy covariance technique has become the standard method for measuring the sensible and latent heat fluxes, as well as the fluxes of carbon dioxide and other trace gases, needed for atmospheric, meteorological, climatological, hydrological, ecological and agricultural research and practical applications. For example, these data are critical to the calibration and evaluation of the numerical and remote sensing models used for such applications as predicting weather and climate, evaluating water use in agriculture, and understanding the impacts of climate change on ecosystem health. However, the lack of energy balance closure in eddy covariance measurements, which is required by the models, results in a level of uncertainty that can hamper model development and validation activities and adversely impact operational applications. The session will provide an opportunity to update the state of the scientific knowledge concerning the sources of errors and any associated uncertainties in energy balance components caused by instrumentation, measurement techniques, landscape heterogeneity and the neglect of importance of factors such as heat storage and advection. The session will also focus on the impacts of this uncertainty on the land surface modeling community. It is also intended to provide an opportunity to seek new and novel insights into this long-standing issue and improve our understanding of how interactions between the atmosphere and the land surface affect the measurement and modeling of surface fluxes.

This session aims to discuss the state-of-the-art developments in radiation transfer research in forest and agricultural systems. The characteristics and behavior of radiative fluxes activate many of the physical, chemical, and biological processes in plants. Solar radiation plays a crucial role in growth and competition and affects the physiological ecology of plant stands. The quantity of radiation penetrating a plant canopy is highly spatially and temporally variable.

Due to wavelength-selective reflection, transmission, and absorption of photons, the spectral composition, and therefore quality, of radiation is altered, and its subsequent interaction with biomass is of fundamental significance. Radiation supplies the phytoelements with the necessary energetic input for photosynthesis and regulates growth through pigmentary absorption, especially in the ultraviolet, blue, and red fraction of the solar spectrum. Besides the physiological implications, the distribution, characteristics, and behavior of radiative fluxes and their interaction with the canopy also have implications for micrometeorological and biogeochemical processes, such as gas and energy exchange, stand-scale climate, and primary production. The radiation properties of a canopy are also crucial in remote sensing applications.

This session aspires to contribute to a better understanding of the current knowledge underlying physical, chemical, and biological processes of forest and agricultural radiative transfer, and their interactions with the atmosphere. It is open for contributions from experimental and modeling studies as well as interdisciplinary approaches.

This session focus on recent advances in methods and instrumentation (e.g., eddy covariance, surface renewal, and scintillometry) that have enhanced the accuracy and utility for measuring surface energy and trace gas fluxes in both natural and managed ecosystems. Presentation discussing both improvements to data collection and post-processing with these techniques and there application, e.g. to monitor ecosystem water use and carbon uptake, are welcome.

Sponsored by US Forest Service 

Unlike most other crops, such as cereals and row crops, vineyards and orchards (tree crops) are characterized by wide rows and tall canopies with the biomass strongly clumped in the upper half of the plants. This unique configuration strongly influences how these highly structured crops interact with their environment and suggests that the methods commonly used to monitor the interactions between plants and their environment (e.g., the exchange of heat, moisture and carbon dioxide, the interception of sunlight) may not be directly applicable. This session focuses on both recent advances in measuring and modeling the interactions of vineyards, orchards, and other highly organized crops with the environment and how that interplay is influenced by the characteristic organizational structure of these perennial crops. This includes not only the development or refinement of in-situ and remote sensing-based measurement techniques, but also advances in the understanding of the physical processes controlling the interactions of these crops with their environment. Submissions discussing the application of these advances to address the operational needs of growers such as irrigation decisions, disease and pest management, yield prediction, and crop quality, are also strongly encouraged.