Land-atmosphere feedback observatory (LAFO)

Objective of LAFO

Scientific objective

LAFO aims to investigate land-atmosphere feedback - with a novel synergy of energy balance/eddy covariance stations, vegetation measurements, and scanning lidar systems. The measurement data are comprehensive, highly resolved and very precise, so that new parameterizations of land-atmosphere exchange processes between soil/vegetation and the lower troposphere for model systems can be developed, implemented, and tested.

LAFO has three scientific sub-objectives:

  • Determine the water and energy balances, and the land-atmosphere feedback as a function of the conditions of the soil, vegetation, and atmosphere in a study region with an agricultural landscape.
  • Investigate the heterogeneity of the fluxes at the land surface and in the boundary layer.
  • Develop new parameterizations of the fluxes at the land surface taking into account the vegetation dynamics and the turbulence in the atmospheric boundary layer.
LAFO concept and sensor synergy for flux measurements at the ground and in the atmospheric boundary layer. UAV: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, ABL: Atmospheric Boundary Layer. Turbulent variables that are measured by a combiantion of scans with the Lidar‐systems are shown. These measurements are combined with investigations of soil and plant conditions, e.g. by passive hyperspectral remote sensing.