Turbulent transport observed just above the Amazon forest

We present observations of turbulent heat, moisture, and momentum transport made at two levels, approximately 5 and 10 m above the Amazon rain forest canopy. Data acquired at 10 Hz included variances and some mixed third moments of vertical velocity, temperature, and humidity. Two features of the data appear to question the displacement height hypothesis: (1) the characteristic dissipation length scale in the near‐canopy layer varied between 20 m in stable conditions to approximately 150 m during afternoon convective conditions, generally larger scales than would be expected, and (2) no appreciable differences in dissipation scales was seen at the two observed levels. Heat budgets on selected days show that frequent periods with negative heat flux concurrent with continuing positive moisture flux occur in early afternoon, and this is believed to indicate the patchy nature of canopy‐atmosphere coupling. Vertical velocity skewness was observed to be negative on 3 successive days and exhibited a sharp positive gradient. We present time series of some of the terms in the turbulence budgets of vertical velocity variance and kinematic heat flux.