Large aperture scintillometer intercomparison study

Two field studies with six large aperture scintillometers (LASs) were performed using horizontal and slant paths. The accuracy of this novel and increasingly popular technique for measuring sensible heat fluxes was quantified by comparing measurements from different instruments over nearly identical transects. Random errors in LAS measurements were small, since correlation coefficients between adjacent measurements were greater than 0.995. However, for an ideal set-up differences in linear regression slopes of up to 21% were observed with typical inter-instrument differences of 6%. Differences of 10% are typical in more realistic measurement scenarios over homogeneous natural vegetation and different transect heights and locations. Inaccuracies in the optics, which affect the effective aperture diameter, are the most likely explanation for the observed differences.