Variation in energy balance components from six sites in a native prairie for three years

Six automatic stations were used to evaluate the surface energy and radiation balances on a native prairie near Manhattan, Kansas, using the Bowen ratio technique for a total of 300 days. Data were taken during the periods from May 26 to October 16, 1987, May 10 to September 18, 1988, and July 21 to August 13, 1989. The station site locations were selected to represent burned and unburned treatments on ridges, valley bottoms, and slopes with various aspects. The measured variables were (1) air and wet bulb temperatures at two heights, (2) net radiation, (3) solar radiation (up and down), (4) total hemispherical radiation (up and down), (5) diffuse radiation, (6) soil heat flow and soil temperature, (7) wind speed, (8) wind direction, and (9) precipitation. Energy balance components at the sites were compared for the 3 years. The variation between sites and years was small, even though some sites were as much as 10 km apart and the years had different rainfall amounts. The average values for the four summer intensive field campaigns (IFCs) were as follows: albedo, 0.2; ratio of net radiation to solar radiation, 62 percent; evaporation equivalent, 4 mm/d; Bowen ratio, 0.32; evaporation fraction, 70 percent; and the ratio of evaporation to solar energy, 40 percent. These values were different for the fall IFC. The latent and sensible heat fluxes were more variable than the radiation terms reflecting soil moisture differences between IFCs.