Regional shear stress of broken forest from radiosonde wind profiles in the unstable surface layer

Mean wind speed profiles were measured by tracking radiosondes in the unstable atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) over the forested Landes region in southwestern France. New Monin-Obukhov stability correction functions, recently proposed following an, analysis by Kader and Yaglom, as well as the Businger-Dyer stability formulation were tested, with wind speeds in the surface sublayer to calculate the regional shear stress. These profile-derived shear stresses were compared with eddy correlation measurements gathered above a mature forest stand, at a location roughly, 4.5 km from the radiosonde launch site. The shear stress values obtained by means of the newly proposed stability function were in slightly better agreement with the eddy correlation values than those obtained by means of a Businger-Dyer type stability function. The general robustness of the profile method can be attributed in part to prior knowledge of the regional surface roughness (z₀=1.2 m) and the momentum displacement height (d₀=6.0 m), which were determined from neutral wind profile analysis. The 100 m drag coefficient for the unstable conditions above this broken forest surface was found to be u_*²/V₁₀₀²=0.0173.