Investigating the diurnal radiative, turbulent and biophysical processes in the Amazonian canopy-atmosphere interface by combining LES simulations and observations

We investigate the diurnal variability in and above the Amazonia rainforest for a representative day during the dry season period. We combine high-resolution large-eddy simulations constrained and evaluated against a comprehensive observations gathered during the field experiment GOAMAZON14.

Our findings quantified the large variability of the photosynthesis drivers in the canopy. This leads to a large scatter on the values of the leaf conductance with minimum and maximum values that vary more than 100% from the average value. The impact of turbulence on the fluxes of heat, moisture and carbon dioxide differs: at the canopy top, we found more strike structures related to wind at the canopy-atmosphere interface whereas at the canopy bottom the structure remind the ones of convective cells. In systematically comparing with the observations, we find that the agreement with observations depend very much on the variable. We find the best spatiotemporal agreement with variables related to wind. The heat distribution and fluxes compare also satisfactorily with the observations. The increasing of complexity on the biophysical processes, related to ecophysiology and soil and the atmospheric control, leads to the largest disagreement between observations and simulation results for evaporation, carbon dioxide plant assimilation and soil efflux. Though the model is able to capture the correct dependences, the magnitude still differ.  We discuss here the need to revise and adjust the leaf and soil models as well as to set a more comprehensive observational strategy to advance our understanding at leaf and canopy levels, and their coupling with the atmosphere.