A small non-research vessel as a platform for lake surface flux measurements

Abstract

To study the spatial variability of water surface fluxes, turbulence measurements on a moving platform are useful. However, such measurements have only been carried out with large research vessels over the ocean. We tested the feasibility of flux measurements with a small excursion ship over Lake Kasumigaura, the second largest lake in Japan. After the formal application of coordinate rotations to account for the ship’s movements, we derived mean wind velocities as well as latent and sensible heat fluxes. They were compared with spatially interpolated wind velocities from meteorological stations and with fluxes estimated from the bulk method. Equally good agreements were found with those reported in previous studies over the ocean, indicating the feasibility of ship measurements in a lake. Possible error sources were identified for the improvement of the accuracy of flux estimation.