A Brief Practical Guide to Eddy Covariance Flux Measurements
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Dr. Mario Tenuta (University of Manitoba) uses an LI-7700 Open Path CH4 Analyzer, LI-7500 Open Path CO2/H2O Analyzer, and sonic anemometer for flux research in Churchill, Manitoba. Regarding the LI-7700, Dr. Tenuta says, "The lack of access to micromet techniques for methane emission determinations has been a big gap... The LI-7700 will allow us to fill in that gap. The ability to do methane determinations without much power draw is really exciting to researchers."
The LI-7700 Open Path CH4 Analyzer and LI-7200 Enclosed CO2/H2O Analyzer used in a flux station by Dr. John Grace in Edinburgh.
The LI-7200 Enclosed CO2/H2O Analyzer, a sonic anemometer, and the LI-7700 Open Path CH4 Analyzer at a flux site near Mead, Nebraska.
The LI-7700 Open Path CH4 Analyzer and LI-7200 Enclosed CO2/H2O Analyzer covered in frost at an ICOS test site in a boreal wetland in Finland.
"We are happy with the LI-7700 sensor when compared to closed path tunable diode laser systems...It gives us a sensor to deploy where the scientific questions are interesting, rather than where there are power lines." - Dr. Dennis Baldocchi (University of California, Berkeley)
Dr. Dennis Baldocchi (University of California, Berkeley) operates several flux sites that include LI-COR analyzers.
Dr. Jiquan Chen (University of Toledo) uses a mobile flux site which includes an LI-7700 Open Path CH4 Analyzer and LI-7500A Open Path CO2/H2O Analyzer at Kellogg Biological Station in Michigan.
A specially designed irrigation pivot prepares to move over eddy covariance and radiation measurements towers at the Carbon Sequestration Research Facility of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, located in the middle of the Great Plains near Mead, Nebraska. Fluxes of CO2 and H2O are measured with an LI-7500 Open Path CO2/H2O analyzer. These and other micrometeorological variables are measured at this site, even through irrigation events.
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Why Use Eddy Covariance to Measure Flux?
The eddy covariance technique is the most widely used, accurate, and direct method presently available for quantifying exchanges of carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, various other gases, and energy between the surface of earth and the atmosphere.
Eddy covariance provides an accurate way to measure surface-to-atmosphere fluxes, gas exchange budgets, and emissions from a variety of ecosystems, including agricultural and urban plots, landfills, and various water surfaces. Emissions and fluxes can be measured by instrumentation on either a stationary or mobile tower, floating vessel (such as a ship or buoy), or aircraft.
Summary of Eddy Covariance
- Quantifies gas exchange rates (emissions and fluxes) by directly measuring movement of gases in the atmosphere
- Requires turbulent flow, with winds generally above 0.5 m/s
- Requires state-of-the-art fast instruments
- Most direct and defensible
way to measure flux