Examination of Morton's CRAE model for estimating daily evaporation from field-sized areas

Abstract

Morton's complementary relationship areal evapotranspiration (CRAE) model was originally designed to provide regional estimates of monthly evapotranspiration. Often, however, hydrologists and others require estimates of evapotranspiration for field-sized land units under a specific land use, for shorter intervals of time. This paper examines CRAE with respect to the algorithms used to describe different terms and its applicability to reduced spatial and temporal scales. Daily estimates by CRAE of atmospheric radiation fluxes during the summer months are compared with monitored values. It is shown that errors in estimation of the extra-terrestrial flux, the transmittancy of clouds to short-wave radiation, the surface albedo and the net long-wave flux result in standard deviations of the difference between ‘modelled’ and ‘measured’ net all-wave radiation for 1-, 5- and 10-day periods of 2.58, 1.8 and 1.50 MJm −2 day −1 respectively. The assumption in CRAE that the vapour transfer coefficient is independent of wind speed may lead to appreciable error in computing evapotranspiration. A procedure for incorporating a wind correction factor is described and the improvement in estimating regional evaporation is illustrated. Comparisons of evapotranspiration estimates by CRAE and measurements obtained from soil moisture and precipitation observations in the semi-arid, cold-climate Prairie region of western Canada demonstrate that the assumptions that the soil heat flux and storage terms are negligible, lead to large overestimation by the model during periods of soil thaw.