Feasibility of Measuring Mean Vertical Motion for Estimating Advection

Numerous recent studies calculate horizontal and vertical advection terms for budget studies of net ecosystem exchange of carbon. One potential uncertainty in such studies is the estimate of mean vertical motion. This work addresses the reliability of vertical advection estimates by contrasting the vertical motion obtained from the standard practise of measuring the vertical velocity and applying a tilt correction, to the vertical motion calculated from measurements of the horizontal divergence of the flow using a network of towers. Results are compared for three different tilt correction methods. Estimates of mean vertical motion are sensitive to the choice of tilt correction method. The short-term mean (10 to 60 minutes) vertical motion based on the horizontal divergence is more realistic compared to the estimates derived from the standard practise. The divergence shows long-term mean (days to months) sinking motion at the site, apparently due to the surface roughness change. Because all the tilt correction methods rely on the assumption that the long-term mean vertical motion is zero for a given wind direction, they fail to reproduce the vertical motion based on the divergence.