Connecting the failure of K-theory inside and above vegetation canopies and ejection-sweep cycles by a large eddy simulation
Parameterizations of biosphere-atmosphere interaction processes in climate models and other hydrological applications require characterization of turbulent transport of momentum and scalars between vegetation canopies and the atmosphere, which is often modeled using a turbulent analogy to molecular diffusion processes. However, simple flux-gradient approaches (K-theory) fail for canopy turbulence. One cause is turbulent transport by large coherent eddies at the canopy scale, which can be linked to sweep-ejection events, and bear signatures of non-local organized eddy motions. K-theory, that parameterizes the turbulent flux or stress proportional to the local concentration or velocity gradient, fails to account for these non-local organized motions. The connection to sweep-ejection cycles and the local turbulent flux can be traced back to the turbulence triple moment $\overline{C'W'W'}$. In this work, we use large-eddy simulation to investigate the diagnostic connection between the failure of K-theory and sweep-ejection motions. Analyzed schemes are quadrant analysis (QA) and a complete and incomplete cumulant expansion (CEM and ICEM) method. The latter approaches introduce a turbulence timescale in the modeling. Furthermore, we find that the momentum flux needs a different formulation for the turbulence timescale than the sensible heat flux. In conclusion, accounting for buoyancy in stratified conditions is also deemed to be important in addition to accounting for non-local events to predict the correct momentum or scalar fluxes.