Pioneering contributions by Eiichi Inoue and forerunners on the establishment of flux study

Abstract

　Flux study has in an important position in earth science today. Pioneering flux studies were considered to learn the background of the todays’ prosperity, the philosophy and methods of pioneers for the next progress.
　Dr. Eiichi Inoue developed “Turbulent Eddy Model” to reveal the mechanism of turbulent structure of wind near the ground. The model was composed of mean flow and many ranks of eddies, Largest, Medium, and Smallest turbulent eddies, those were assumed as mutual actions among them such as Stokes’ friction. The model provided the eddy-energy spectrum of -5/3 power law, by the assumption of the same energy dissipation among all ranks of eddies (Inoue, 1951, in Japanese). Those were approved by applications of observed natural wind data. Inoue paid attention to the interaction between the waving plant phenomena “Honami” and wind, and the logarithmic function over plant canopy was also derived from the model analysis. Investigation of Honami with the model provided zero-plane displacement, roughness length, and the diffusion coefficient over plant canopy, resulted in establishment of the flux calculation method “Gradient Technique”. Inoue and the colleagues applied their profile data of wind, temperature, water vapor, and CO₂ to Gradient Technique and succeeded to determine fluxes at first in the world (Inoue et al., 1958, in Japanese).
　Today, we can get the field observed fluxes automatically with quality control and we believe them as the true reflection of the nature unconditionally. However, the great efforts by pioneers to understand the figure of truth using limited data suggested us to examine the data carefully and confront the object in nature.
　Contents were presented at the organized session of the 75 years Anniversary Meeting of SAMJ, on March 13, 2018.