Potential evaporation

About: Potential evaporation is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1172 publications have been published within this topic receiving 65836 citations. The topic is also known as: potential evapotranspiration & PE.

Natural evaporation from open water, bare soil and grass

Abstract: Two theoretical approaches to evaporation from saturated surfaces are outlined, the first being on an aerodynamic basis in which evaporation is regarded as due to turbulent transport of vapour by a process of eddy diffusion, and the second being on an energy basis in which evaporation is regarded as one of the ways of degrading incoming radiation. Neither approach is new, but a combination is suggested that eliminates the parameter measured with most difficulty—surface temperature—and provides for the first time an opportunity to make theoretical estimates of evaporation rates from standard meteorological data, estimates that can be retrospective. Experimental work to test these theories shows that the aerodynamic approach is not adequate and an empirical expression, previously obtained in America, is a better description of evaporation from open water. The energy balance is found to be quite successful. Evaporation rates from wet bare soil and from turf with an adequate supply of water are obtained as fractions of that from open water, the fraction for turf showing a seasonal change attributed to the annual cycle of length of daylight. Finally, the experimental results are applied to data published elsewhere and it is shown that a satisfactory account can be given of open water evaporation at four widely spaced sites in America and Europe, the results for bare soil receive a reasonable check in India, and application of the results for turf shows good agreement with estimates of evaporation from catchment areas in the British Isles.

On the Assessment of Surface Heat Flux and Evaporation Using Large-Scale Parameters

Abstract: In an introductory review it is reemphasized that the large-scale parameterization of the surface fluxes of sensible and latent heat is properly expressed in terms of energetic considerations over land while formulas of the bulk aerodynamic type are most suitahle over the sea. A general framework is suggested. Data from a number of saturated land sites and open water sites in the absence of advection suggest a widely applicable formula for the relationship between sensible and latent heat fluxes. For drying land surfaces, we assume that the evaporation rate is given by the same formula for evaporation multiplied by a factor. This factor is found to remain at unity while an amount of water, varying from one site to another, is evaporated. Following this a linear decrease sets in, reducing the evaporation rate to zero after a further 5 cm of evaporation, the same at several sites examined.

Model for predicting evaporation from a row crop with incomplete cover

Abstract: A model is presented for calculating the daily evaporation rate from a crop surface. It applies to a row crop canopy situation in which the soil water supply to the plant roots is not limited and the crop has not come into an advanced stage of maturation or senescence. The crop evaporation rate is calculated by adding the soil surface and plant surface components (each of these requiring daily numbers for the leaf area index), the potential evaporation, the rainfall, and the net radiation above the canopy. The evaporation from the soil surface Es is calculated in two stages: (1) the constant rate stage in which Es is limited only by the supply of energy to the surface and (2) the falling rate stage in which water movement to the evaporating sites near the surface is controlled by the hydraulic properties of the soil. The evaporation from the plant surfaces Ep is predicted by using an empirical relation based on local data, which shows how Ep is related to Eo through the leaf area index. The model was used to obtain the total evaporation rate E = Es + Ep of a developing grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) canopy in central Texas. The results agreed well with values for E measured directly with a weighing lysimeter.

Stomatal Control of Transpiration: Scaling Up from Leaf to Region

Abstract: Publisher Summary The study of leaf anatomy and of the mechanisms of the opening and closing of stomatal guard cells leads one to suppose that the stomata constitute the main or even the sole regulating system in leaf transpiration. Meteorologists have developed a wide variety of formulae for estimating evaporation from vegetation that are based entirely on weather variables and take no account at all of the species composition or stomatal properties of the transpiring vegetation. These “potential evaporation” formulae are widely and, to a large degree, successfully used for estimating evaporation from vegetation that is not water-stressed. Transpiration depends on stomatal conductance, net radiation receipt and upon air saturation deficit, temperature, and wind speed. Saturation deficit and wind speed vary through leaf boundary layers, through canopies, and through the atmosphere above the canopies. The sensitivity of saturation deficit to changes in stomatal conductance depends on where the saturation deficit is measured. If all of the stomata on a single leaf change aperture in unison, there may be a substantial change in saturation deficit measured at the leaf surface but a negligible change in saturation deficit measured a centimetre or two away, outside the leaf boundary layer.

A simple model of the atmospheric boundary layer; sensitivity to surface evaporation

Abstract: A simple formulation of the boundary layer is developed for use in large-scale models and other situations where simplicity is required. The formulation is suited for use in models where some resolution is possible within the boundary layer, but where the resolution is insufficient for resolving the detailed boundary-layer structure and overlying capping inversion. Surface fluxes are represented in terms of similarity theory while turbulent diffusivities above the surface layer are formulated in terms of bulk similarity considerations and matching conditions at the top of the surface layer. The boundary-layer depth is expressed in terms of a bulk Richardson number which is modified to include the influence of thermals. Attention is devoted to the interrelationship between predicted boundary-layer growth, the turbulent diffusivity profile, ‘countergradient’ heat flux and truncation errors. The model predicts growth of the convectively mixed layer reasonably well and is well-behaved in cases of weak surface heat flux and transitions between stable and unstable cases. The evolution of the modelled boundary layer is studied for different ratios of surface evaporation to potential evaporation. Typical variations of surface evaporation result in a much greater variation in boundary-layer depth than that caused by the choice of the boundary-layer depth formulation.