Fourth Study Conference on BALTEX Scala Cinema Gudhjem

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CEOP Reference Site Data from Lindenberg:
Be Aware of Terrain Heterogeneity !
Frank Beyrich and Wolfgang K. Adam
Meteorologisches Observatorium Lindenberg, Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD), Am Observatorium 12, D-15848 Tauche / OT
Lindenberg, Germany, frank.beyrich@dwd.de
1. Background and Objective
The Coordinated Enhanced Observing Period (CEOP) is
being developed and implemented within the Global Energy
and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) of the World
Climate Research Programme (WCRP). The fundamental
issue for CEOP is to improve both our understanding of
water and energy fluxes and reservoirs over land areas and
our ability to properly describe and predict the overall cycles
and budgets of water and energy over these regions at time
scales from diurnal to annual. The CEOP implementation
strategy includes the collection, central archiving and
management of
• data from the full spectrum of available experimental
and operational satellites,
• comprehensive land surface / atmosphere data sets
collected at a number of world-wide distributed
reference sites, and
• model output products from leading NWP and climate
modeling centers around the world
over a time period of at least two consecutive full-year
cycles (October 2002 to December 2004). In this way,
CEOP might be considered as a prototype project for a
future global earth observing system.
2. CEOP Reference Sites
36 sites have been presently nominated as CEOP reference
sites. They represent the different geographical and climate
conditions around the globe. Main contributions come from
the various Continental Scale Experiments (CSEs) within
GEWEX (e.g., GAPP, MAGS, LBA, and BALTEX). Four
European sites have agreed to act as European reference
sites and to provide data for CEOP, all of which are also
reference sites in BALTEX: Sodankylä, Norunda, Cabauw,
and Lindenberg.
A standard data set has been defined which should be made
available from all the reference sites in order to be converted
into a common data format at the CEOP Central Data
Archive (CDA). This includes:
• standard surface meteorology data (pressure, wind,
temperature, humidity, precipitation),
• high-resolution radiosonde data,
• short- and longwave radiation fluxes (both downward
and upward),
• soil parameters (soil temperature, soil moisture),
• energy fluxes (soil heat flux, turbulent fluxes of
momentum, sensible and latent heat),
• tower data of wind, temperature and moisture.
These data have to be provided from each of the reference
sites
• within a certain time frame,
• in a well-defined data format,
• with quality flags assigned to each measured value, and
• with a time resolution of 30 minutes (except for the
radiosoundings).
In addition to these standard data, each site can offer to
provide additional data upon users request.
3. CEOP data from Lindenberg
The Meteorological Observatory Lindenberg (MOL) of
the German Meteorological Service (DWD) performs a
comprehensive operational monitoring program of the
physical structure of the atmosphere including in-situ and
remote sensing vertical soundings and the operation of a
boundary layer field site (in German: "Grenzschicht-
Messfeld" - GM) near Falkenberg, 5 km to the South of
the observatory site (e.g. Neisser et al., 2002).
Lindenberg represents moderate mid-latitude climate
conditions at the transition between marine and
continental influences. Monthly mean temperatures vary
between -1.2 °C (January) and 17.9 °C (July), and the
mean annual precipitation sum (1961-1990) is 563 mm.
The full set of measurements defined to form the standard
reference site data set for CEOP is available from MOL.
In addition, the following data are offered upon request:
• vertical wind and temperature profiles across the
(lower) troposphere from the operation of a wind
profiler radar / RASS system,
• vertical profiles of absolute humidity from the
operation of a microwave radiometer profiler,
• cloud heights measured by a laser ceilometer.
4. Heterogeneous terrain conditions
The topography around Lindenberg exhibits a slightly
undulating surface with height differences between about
40 m and 130 m above sea level. The land use (see
Figure 1) is dominated by a mixture of forest (43 %) and
agricultural farmland (45 %) with a number of small and
medium-sized lakes embedded (7 %). This type of
landscape is rather typical for large parts of northern
Central Europe south of the Baltic Sea.
Figure 1. Aerial View across the heterogeneous
landscape around Lindenberg (with GM Falkenberg
indicated by an arrow)