Evapotranspiration (ET) is a key component of the atmospheric and terrestrial water and energy budgets. Satellite‐based vegetation index approaches have used remotely sensed vegetation and reanalysis meteorological properties with surface energy balance models to estimate global ET (MOD16 ET). We reconstructed satellite retrievals using in situ meteorology (Argonne‐ET) and evaluated them using a dense network… More
Releases of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) from thawing permafrost are expected to be among the largest feedbacks to climate from arctic ecosystems. However, the current net carbon (C) balance of terrestrial arctic ecosystems is unknown. Recent studies suggest that these ecosystems are sources, sinks, or approximately in balance at present…. More
The AmeriFlux Tech Team has completed another successful site visit season. This year they visited nine AmeriFlux sites. The below gallery features an image from each site visit. The Tech Team is planning for the upcoming site visit season. If you would like to learn more about site visits and what to expect, please see our… More
Aerodynamic canopy height (ha) is the effective height of vegetation canopy for its influence on atmospheric fluxes and is a key parameter of surface‐atmosphere coupling. However, methods to estimate ha from data are limited. This synthesis evaluates the applicability and robustness of the calculation of ha from eddy covariance momentum‐flux data. At 69 forest sites,… More
The vast forests and natural areas of the Pacific Northwest compose one of the most productive ecosystems in the Northern Hemisphere. The heterogeneous landscape of Oregon poses a particular challenge to ecosystem models. This study presents a framework using a scaling factor Bayesian inversion to improve the modeled atmosphere–biosphere exchange of CO2. Observations from five… More
The Pacific Northwest (PNW) region of the United States has some of the most productive forests in the world. As precipitation regimes may shift with changing climate in this area, droughts are predicted to increase in both frequency and degree of severity, which will have a significant impact on already drought-prone ecosystems. When modeling ecosystem… More
The possibility of global, three-dimensional remote sensing of forest structure with interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) bears on important forest ecological processes, particularly the carbon cycle. InSAR supplements two-dimensional remote sensing with information in the vertical dimension. Its strengths in potential for global coverage complement those of lidar (light detecting and ranging), which has the… More
Sources and sinks of carbon associated with forests depend strongly on the management regime and spatial patterns in potential productivity. Satellite remote sensing can provide spatially explicit information on land cover, stand-age class, and harvesting. Carbon-cycle process models coupled to regional climate databases can provide information on potential rates of production and related rates of… More