Ratio Of Latent Heat Flux Research Articles

Water fluxes and energy partitioning over a Larix principis-rupprechtii plantation forest in a dryland mountain ecosystem, Northwest China

Plantations make up a sizable component of forest ecosystems in China's drylands and play an important role controlling the energy balance and water cycle. However, there is limited knowledge regarding the exchange of water and energy in dryland plantations, particularly those located within the intricate and unique environments of dryland mountain regions. The focus of this study was the investigation of a Larix principis−rupprechtii plantation within a dryland mountain ecosystem located in Northwest China. The eddy covariance method was employed to calculate the water and energy fluxes, while the thermal dissipation probe (TDP) method was utilized to measure forest overstory transpiration (T) from 2018 to 2021. The links between energy allocation and various components in water flux were investigated, as well as the variable dynamics of water and energy flux and their relationship with environmental conditions. The findings demonstrated that the annual mean cumulative evapotranspiration (ET) was about 510 mm, accounting for over 82.8 % of the precipitation, which was mainly from soil evaporation and understory transpiration, rather than overstory transpiration (T). The average value of T/ET was 0.25 for the growing season, and surface conductance (Gs) was always higher than canopy conductance (Gc) on both daily and monthly scales. The evaporative fraction (EF) and Priestley-Taylor model coefficient (α) in the growing season were significantly higher than those in the non-growing season, and α>1 from June to September, indicating that the ecosystem in the study area had sufficient water supply. Furthermore, during the growing season, the ratio of latent heat flux (LE) to net radiation (Rn) was larger than that in the non-growing season, while the proportion of sensible heat flux (H) was opposite, and soil heat flux (G) accounted for the smallest proportion of net radiation. This study provides valuable insights into the energy fluxes and water fluxes within the ecosystem of dryland mountain plantations, and it serves as a guide for choosing afforestation tree species in the future.

Observational evidence of regional increasing hot extreme accelerated by surface energy partitioning

AbstractLand-atmosphere interactions play an important role in the changes of extreme climates, especially in hot spots of land-atmosphere coupling. One of the linkages in land-atmosphere interactions is the coupling between air temperature and surface energy fluxes associated with soil moisture variability, vegetation change, and human water/land management. However, existing studies on the coupling between hot extreme and surface energy fluxes are mainly based on the parameterized solution of climate model, which might not dynamically reflect all changes in the surface energy partitioning due to the effects of vegetation physiological control and human water/land management. In this study, for the first time, we used daily weather observations to identify hot spots where the daily hot extreme (i.e., the 99th percentile of maximum temperature, Tq99th) rises faster than local mean temperature (Tmean) during 1975–2017. Furthermore, we analyzed the relationship between the trends in temperature hot extreme relative to local average (ΔTq99th/ΔTmean) and the trends in evaporative fraction (ΔEF), i.e., the ratio of latent heat flux to surface available energy, using long-term latent and sensible heat fluxes which are informed by atmospheric boundary layer theory, machine learning, and ground-based observations of flux towers and weather stations. Hot spots of increase in ΔTq99th/ΔTmean are identified to be Europe, southwestern North America, Northeast Asia, and Southern Africa. The detected significant negative correlations between ΔEF and ΔTq99th/ΔTmean suggested that the hotspot regions are typically affected by annual/summer surface dryness. Our observation-driven findings have great implications in providing realistic observational evidences for the extreme climate change accelerated by surface energy partitioning.

Temporal and spatial variations of energy balance closure across FLUXNET research sites

There is always a discrepancy between available energy and output energy in the surface energy budget of FLUXNET research sites. Using the daily data retrieved from the FLUXNET database, the energy balance closure (EBC) of around 150 sites covering nine land covers and five Köppen climate zones [i.e. tropical area (A), dry area (B), mild temperate area (C), snow area (D) and polar area (E)] was analyzed. The temporal and spatial variations of EBC in different land covers and climate zones were summarized, and the relationships between EBC and environmental variables were explored. The possible differences in the EBCs of sites with open path (OP) and closed path (CP) gas analyzers were also examined at different precipitation levels in various climate zones. The results showed that EBC was positively related to air temperature (Ta) and vapor pressure deficit (VPD) below certain thresholds. Better EBCs were observed in land covers with stable evaporative fraction (i.e. the ratio of latent heat flux to the sum of latent and sensible heat fluxes). For land covers with seasonal varying evaporative fraction, the larger evaporative fraction in summer corresponded with better EBCs. OP systems resulted in better EBCs at various precipitation levels, and EBCs decreased with increasing precipitation for both OP and CP systems. In addition, the relationship between EBC and CO2 fluxes was different among the different land covers. There was a positive relationship for most land covers but not for savannah, shrub land, and evergreen broadleaf forest. The relationships between EBC and CO2 as well as EBC and other environmental variables are cross-influenced, which could be related to the stomata aperture and metabolism of the vegetation. Overall, this study summarized patterns of EBCs that could be used to correct eddy covariance data and energy balance closure related models. It further enhanced our understanding of the potential link between EBC and vegetation physiology that could facilitate the modeling and prediction of biophysical processes related to water, energy, and carbon fluxes from the leaf to ecosystem levels.

Surface Energy Partitioning and Evaporative Fraction in a Water-Saving Irrigated Rice Field

Surface energy distribution in paddy fields and the ratio of latent heat flux (LE) to available energy, termed as the evaporative fraction (EF), are essential for an understanding of water and energy processes. They are expected to vary in different ways in response to changes in the soil moisture condition under water-saving irrigation practice. In this study, the diurnal and seasonal variations in energy distribution were examined based on the data measured by the eddy covariance system and corrected with enforcing energy balance closure by the EF method in water-saving irrigated rice paddies in 2015 and 2016. Soil heat flux (G) values were similar in magnitude to sensible heat flux (Hs) values, with both accounting for approximately 5% of the energy input. Both magnitudes of G and Hs were significantly lower than that of LE. Generally, EF in water-saving irrigated rice paddies was larger than that of other ecosystems, and varied within a narrow range from 0.7 to 1.0. Diurnally, EF decreased till noon and then increased slowly in the afternoon till sunset. It was found be less varied between 10:00 and 14:00. Seasonally, the alternative drying-wetting soil water conditions in water-saving irrigated rice paddies resulted in a change in the variation of the EF. The LE flux is the largest component of available energy, with EF being mostly higher than 0.9. EF, increasing consistently till the tillering stage, remaining high from the late tillering to milk stage, and then following a declining trend. The maximum EF (approaching 1.0) was found in the milk stage. The results of EF in water-saving irrigated rice paddies will be helpful for estimating daily or long temporal scale evapotranspiration (ET) by the EF method based on satellite-derived ET.

A theoretical approach to assess soil moisture–climate coupling across CMIP5 and GLACE-CMIP5 experiments

Abstract. Terrestrial climate is influenced by various land–atmosphere interactions that involve numerous land surface state variables. In several regions on Earth, soil moisture plays an important role for climate via its control on the partitioning of net radiation into sensible and latent heat fluxes; consequently, soil moisture also impacts on temperature and precipitation. The Global Land–Atmosphere Coupling Experiment–Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (GLACE-CMIP5) aims to quantify the impact of soil moisture on these important climate variables and to trace the individual coupling mechanisms. GLACE-CMIP5 provides experiments with different soil moisture prescriptions that can be used to isolate the effect of soil moisture on climate. Using a theoretical framework that relies on the distinct relation of soil moisture with evaporative fraction (the ratio of latent heat flux over net radiation) in different soil moisture regimes, the climate impact of the soil moisture prescriptions in the GLACE-CMIP5 experiments can be emulated and quantified. The framework-based estimation of the soil moisture effect on the evaporative fraction agrees very well with estimations obtained directly from the GLACE-CMIP5 experiments (pattern correlation of 0.85). Moreover, the soil moisture effect on the daily maximum temperature is well captured in regions where soil moisture exerts a strong control on latent heat fluxes. The theoretical approach is further applied to quantify the soil moisture contribution to the projected change of the temperature on the hottest day of the year, confirming recent estimations by other studies. Finally, GLACE-style soil moisture prescriptions are emulated in an extended set of CMIP5 models. The results indicate consistency between the soil moisture–climate coupling strength estimated with the GLACE-CMIP5 and the CMIP5 models. Although the theoretical approach is only designed to capture the local soil moisture–climate coupling strength, it can also help to distinguish non-local from local soil moisture–atmosphere feedbacks where sensitivity experiments (such as GLACE-CMIP5) are available. Overall, the theoretical framework-based approach presented here constitutes a simple and powerful tool to quantify local soil moisture–climate coupling in both the GLACE-CMIP5 and CMIP5 models that can be applied in the absence of dedicated sensitivity experiments.

Quantifying Spatiotemporal Variations of Soil Moisture Control on Surface Energy Balance and Near-Surface Air Temperature

Abstract Soil moisture plays a crucial role for the energy partitioning at Earth’s surface. Changing fractions of latent and sensible heat fluxes caused by soil moisture variations can affect both near-surface air temperature and precipitation. In this study, a simple framework for the dependence of evaporative fraction (the ratio of latent heat flux over net radiation) on soil moisture is used to analyze spatial and temporal variations of land–atmosphere coupling and its effect on near-surface air temperature. Using three different data sources (two reanalysis datasets and one combination of different datasets), three key parameters for the relation between soil moisture and evaporative fraction are estimated: 1) the frequency of occurrence of different soil moisture regimes, 2) the sensitivity of evaporative fraction to soil moisture in the transitional soil moisture regime, and 3) the critical soil moisture value that separates soil moisture- and energy-limited evapotranspiration regimes. The results show that about 30%–60% (depending on the dataset) of the global land area is in the transitional regime during at least half of the year. Based on the identification of transitional regimes, the effect of changes in soil moisture on near-surface air temperature is analyzed. Typical soil moisture variations (standard deviation) can impact air temperature by up to 1.1–1.3 K, while changing soil moisture over its full range in the transitional regime can alter air temperature by up to 6–7 K. The results emphasize the role of soil moisture for atmosphere and climate and constitute a useful benchmark for the evaluation of the respective relationships in Earth system models.

Effects of forest evapotranspiration on soil water budget and energy flux partitioning in a subalpine valley of China

Jiuzhaigou Valley (JZG) has been rated as World Heritage, National Nature Reserves and world-class places of interests, due to its fantastic beauty of water. In recent years, however, JZG is losing its beauty with runoff decreasing and stream drying up. An increase of evapotranspiration (ET) over the rehabilitating forest is assumed to be the main reason for runoff decreasing, however, this assumption remained untested for lack of long-term observing data. To test this assumption, a long-term field experiment was carried out from August 2013 to December 2015 in JZG over a typical secondary forest. Meteorological parameters and energy fluxes were measured by eddy covariance system, soil moisture by time-domain reflectometry probes, and ET by eddy covariance method and soil water budget. Results showed that (1) despite the limitation of high elevation, high atmospheric humidity and low annual air temperature, annual ET was quite large. It was 700mm and 739mm, respectively for 2014 and 2015, while the corresponding precipitation (P) was 1003mm and 782mm. ET/P was close or over 1, which meant that P was mostly used for forest ET and only a very small proportion of P contributed to runoff. (2) The ratio of latent heat flux (LE) to net radiation (Rn) was 0.69 and 0.75 in the growing season of 2014 and 2015, respectively. These high LE/Rn ratio values were considerably higher in JZG than in other areas of the Tibetan Plateau, which could be attributed to better forest rehabilitation in JZG. Our results also showed that ET at the forest site was limited by available energy. We conclude that ET in JZG was energy-limited, whereas forest ET consumed most precipitation. (3) The above assumption is verified to be true. The high ET rate after forest rehabilitation in JZG comes at a cost of decreasing runoff and leads to streams drying up. These results will be useful for sustainable managements of water and forest in JZG.

Evaporation estimates using weather station data and boundary layer theory

AbstractGlobal estimates of evapotranspiration remain a challenge. In this study, we show that the daily course of air temperature and specific humidity available at routine weather stations can be used to estimate evapotranspiration and the evaporative fraction, the ratio of latent heat flux to available energy at the surface. Indeed, the diurnal increase in air temperature reflects the magnitude of the sensible heat flux and the increase of specific humidity after sunrise reflects the amplitude of evapotranspiration. The method is physically constrained and based on the budget of heat and moisture in the boundary layer. Unlike land surface‐based estimates, the proposed boundary layer estimate does not rely on ad hoc surface resistance parameterizations (e.g., Penman‐Monteith). The proposed methodology can be applied to data collected at weather stations to estimate evapotranspiration and evaporative fraction under cloudy conditions and in the pre–remote sensing era.

Biological and Environmental Controls on Evaporative Fractions at AmeriFlux Sites

AbstractKnowledge of the evaporative fraction (EF: the ratio of latent heat flux to the sum of sensible and latent heat fluxes) and its controls is particularly important for accurate estimates of water flux, heat exchange, and ecosystem response to climatic changes. In this study, the biological and environmental controls on monthly EF were evaluated across 81 AmeriFlux sites, mainly in North America, for 2000–12. The land-cover types of these sites include forest, shrubland, grassland, and cropland, and the local climates vary from humid to arid. The results show that vegetation coverage, indicated by the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), has the best agreement with EF (site-averaged partial correlation coefficient ρ = 0.53; significance level p < 0.05) because of vegetation transpiration demand. The minimum air temperature is closely related to EF (site-averaged ρ = 0.51; p < 0.05) because of the inhibition of respiratory enzyme activity. Relative humidity, an indicator of surface aridity, shows a significant positive correlation with EF (site-averaged ρ = 0.46; p < 0.05). The impacts of wind speed and diurnal air temperature range on EF depend on land-cover types and are strong over grasslands and cropland. From these findings, empirical methods were established to predict monthly EF using meteorological data and NDVI. Correlation coefficients between EF estimates and observations range from 0.80 to 0.93, with root-mean-square errors varying from 0.09 to 0.12. This study demonstrates the varying controls on EF across different landscapes and enhances understanding of EF and its dynamics under changing climates.

Validation and scale dependencies of the triangle method for the evaporative fraction estimation over heterogeneous areas

Remote sensing has proved to be a consistent tool for monitoring water fluxes at regional scales. The triangle method, in particular, estimates the evaporative fraction (EF), defined as the ratio of latent heat flux (LE) to available energy, based on the relationship between satellite observations of land surface temperature and a vegetation index. Among other methodologies, this approach has been commonly used as an approximation to estimate LE, mainly over large semi-arid areas with uniform landscape features. In this study, an interpretation of the triangular space has been applied over a heterogeneous area in central Spain, using Landsat5-TM, Envisat-AATSR/MERIS and MSG-SEVIRI images. Some aspects affecting the model performance such as spatial resolution, terrain conditions, vegetation index applied and method for deriving the triangle edges have been assessed. The derived EF estimations have been validated against ground measurements obtained with scintillometer on a winter crop field during 2010–2011. When working with large spatial windows, removing areas with different topographic characteristics (altitude and slope) improved the performance of the methods. In addition, replacing the typically used NDVI with Leaf Area Index enhances the performance of the triangle method allowing a better characterization of the wet edge. Finally, results showed a relatively good performance for the EF estimates, with an RMSE of 0.11, 0.15 and 0.23 and R2 of 0.77, 0.41, and 0.24 for Landsat, Envisat and MSG satellites respectively, showing a scale dependency on the accuracy.

Evaluation of Daytime Evaporative Fraction from MODIS TOA Radiances Using FLUXNET Observations

In recent decades, the land surface temperature/vegetation index (LST/NDVI) feature space has been widely used to estimate actual evapotranspiration (ETa) or evaporative fraction (EF, defined as the ratio of latent heat flux to surface available energy). Traditionally, it is essential to pre-process satellite top of atmosphere (TOA) radiances to obtain LST before estimating EF. However, pre-processing TOA radiances is a cumbersome task including corrections for atmospheric, adjacency and directional effects. Based on the contextual relationship between LST and NDVI, some studies proposed the direct use of TOA radiances instead of satellite retrieved LST products to estimate EF, and found that use of TOA radiances is applicable in some regional studies. The purpose of the present study is to test the robustness of the TOA radiances based EF estimation scheme over different climatic and surface conditions. Flux measurements from 16 FLUXNET (a global network of eddy covariance towers) sites were used to validate the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro radiometer (MODIS) TOA radiances estimated daytime EF. It is found that the EF estimates perform well across a wide variety of climate and biome types—Grasslands, crops, cropland/natural vegetation mosaic, closed shrublands, mixed forest, deciduous broadleaf forest, and savannas. The overall mean bias error (BIAS), mean absolute difference (MAD), root mean square difference (RMSD) and correlation coefficient (R) values for all the sites are 0.018, 0.147, 0.178 and 0.590, respectively, which are comparable with published results in the literature. We conclude that the direct use of measured TOA radiances instead of LST to estimate daytime EF can avoid complex atmospheric corrections associated with the satellite derived products, and would facilitate the relevant applications where minimum pre-processing is important.

How representative are instantaneous evaporative fraction measurements of daytime fluxes?

Abstract. Sun-synchronous optical and thermal remote sensing is a promising technique to provide instantaneous ET (evapotranspiration) estimates during satellite overpass. The common approach to extrapolate the instantaneous estimates to values for daily or longer periods relies on the assumption that the EF (evaporative fraction, defined as the ratio of latent heat flux to surface available energy) remains nearly constant during daytime. However, there is still no consensus on the validity of the self-preservation of the EF. We use FLUXNET (a global network of eddy covariance stations) measurements to examine this self-preservation, and the conditions under which it can hold. It is found that the instantaneous EF could represent daytime EF under clear sky conditions, especially between 11:00 and 14:00 LT (local time) for all stations. However, the results show that the EF is more variable during cloudy sky conditions, so that an increase in cloud cover results in an increase in the variability of the EF during daytime.

Estimation of evapotranspiration from MODIS TOA radiances in the Poyang Lake basin, China

Abstract. Routine and rapid estimation of ET (evapotranspiration) at regional scale is of great significance for agricultural, hydrological and climatic studies. A simplified single-source energy balance parameterization scheme, known as the LST/NDVI (land surface temperature/normalized difference vegetation index) triangle method, has been applied successfully to estimate regional clear sky ET in many studies. Based on the triangle method, we proposed a new method in this study to estimate daily ET directly using the TOA (top of atmosphere) radiances without performing atmospheric correction and other complicated processes. Firstly, the EF (evaporative fraction, defined as the ratio of latent heat flux to surface available energy) was estimated by interpolation in the LST/NDVI triangular-shaped scatter space, which was constructed using the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) TOA radiances over a heterogeneous area of the Poyang Lake basin in China. Then the net radiation over the same study area was derived based entirely on MODIS TOA radiances as well. Finally, daily ET maps were estimated from these EF maps and net radiation maps by using a sinusoidal temporal interpolation model. The estimated EF, net radiation and ET have been validated against field observations collected for the period October 2007–July 2008. The results indicate comparable accuracy to results of other current widely used satellite-based methods. In addition, intercomparisons between the proposed method-based estimates and MODIS products-based estimates were also carried out over the validation site. The results suggest that the proposed method could reach similar level of accuracy as the MODIS products-based triangle method. Overall, the proposed algorithm requires fewer assumptions and can avoid complex atmospheric corrections associated with the satellite derived products. It should facilitate direct use of satellite data for determining ET and relevant applications as well. Nonetheless, more validation work needs to be carried out with more integration of satellite data and ground-based measurements over various climatic regions and under different surface conditions in the future.

기상 조건에 따른 도시 캐노피 모형의 성능 비교

The performances of the Seoul National University Urban Canopy Model (SNUUCM) under different meteorological conditions (clear, cloudy, and rainy conditions) in summertime are compared using observation dataset obtained at an urban site. The daily-averaged net radiation, sensible heat flux, and storage heat flux are largest in clear days and smallest in rainy days, but the daily-averaged latent heat flux is similar among clear, cloudy, and rainy days. That is, the ratio of latent heat flux to net radiation increases in order of clear, cloudy, and rainy conditions. In general, the performance of the SNUUCM is better in clear days than in cloudy or rainy days. However, the performance in simulating sensible heat flux in clear days is as poor as that in rainy days. For all the meteorological conditions, the performance in simulating latent heat flux is worst among the performances in simulating net radiation, sensible heat flux, and latent heat flux. The normalized mean error for latent heat flux is largest in rainy days in which the relative importance of latent heat flux in the surface energy balance becomes greatest among the three conditions. This study suggests that improvements to the parameterization of processes that are related to latent heat flux are particularly needed.

Validating MODIS-derived land surface evapotranspiration with in situ measurements at two AmeriFlux sites in a semiarid region

Reducing uncertainties in the estimation of land surface evapotranspiration (ET) from remote-sensing data is essential to better understand earth-atmosphere interactions. This paper demonstrates the applicability of temperature-vegetation index triangle (T-s-VI) method in estimating regional ET and evaporative fraction (EF, defined as the ratio of latent heat flux to surface available energy) from MODIS/Terra and MODIS/Aqua products in a semiarid region. We have compared the satellite-based estimates of ET and EF with eddy covariance measurements made over 4 years at two semiarid grassland sites: Audubon Ranch (AR) and Kendall Grassland (KG). The lack of closure in the eddy covariance measured surface energy components is shown to be more serious at MODIS/Aqua overpass time than that at MODIS/Terra overpass time for both AR and KG sites. The T-s-VI-derived EF could reproduce in situ EF reasonably well with BIAS and root-mean-square difference (RMSD) of less than 0.07 and 0.13, respectively. Surface net radiation has been shown to be systematically overestimated by as large as about 60 W/m(2). Satisfactory validation results of the T-s-VI-derived sensible and latent heat fluxes have been obtained with RMSD within 54 W/m(2). The simplicity and yet easy use of the T-s-VI triangle method show a great potential in estimating regional ET with highly acceptable accuracy that is of critical significance in better understanding water and energy budgets on the Earth. Nevertheless, more validation work should be carried out over various climatic regions and under other different land use/land cover conditions in the future.

Detectability of day‐to‐day variability in the evaporative flux ratio: A field examination in the Loess Plateau of China

The ratio of latent heat flux to available energy, termed the evaporative fraction (EF), and the ratio of latent heat flux to downward shortwave radiation (ES), are two useful evaporative flux ratios (EFR) for estimating daily evaporation. Both EF and ES remain relatively constant during daytime, but their value varies from day to day. It is yet unclear if long‐term change signals are detectable given the uncertainty associated with the diurnal variations. Using EF and ES data obtained during the major rainy seasons on a tableland of the Loess Plateau of China, we showed that day‐to‐day variability in the EF or ES was detectable given diurnal variation. The EF and ES showed slight increasing trends from midmorning to afternoon, but the ES was superior to the EF for satellite‐based monitoring of long‐term evaporation trends.

Estimation of Surface Turbulent Fluxes through Assimilation of Radiometric Surface Temperature Sequences

Abstract A model of land surface energy balance is used as a constraint on the estimation of factors characterizing land surface influences on evaporation and turbulent heat transfer from sequences of radiometric surface temperature measurements. The surface moisture control on evaporation is captured by the dimensionless evaporative fraction (ratio of latent heat flux to the sum of the turbulent fluxes), which is nearly constant for near-peak radiation hours on days without precipitation. The dimensionless parameter capturing the turbulent transfer characteristics (bulk heat transfer coefficient) includes the impacts of both forced and free convection. The mean diurnal pattern and seasonal trends are interpreted in the context of expected surface air layer static stability variations. The approach is tested over the First International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project (ISLSCP) Field Experiment (FIFE) site (Kansas) where verification data on surface fluxes are available. It is shown that sequent...

Mapping Root Zone Soil Moisture Using Remotely Sensed Optical Imagery

Field-based soil moisture measurements are cumbersome. Remote sensing techniques based on active or passive microwave data have limitations. This paper presents and validates a new method based on land surface energy balances using remotely sensed optical data ~including thermal infrared!, which allows field and landscape-scale mapping of soil moisture depth-averaged through the root zone of existing vegetation. Root zone depth can be variable when crops are emerging. The pixel-wise ''evaporative fraction'' ~ratio of latent heat flux to net available energy ! is related to volumetric soil moisture through a standard regression curve that is independent of soil and vegetation type. Validation with measured root zone soil moisture in cropped soils in Mexico and Pakistan has a root mean square error of 0.05 cm 3 cm 23 ; the error is less than 0.07 cm 3 cm 23 in 90% of cases. Consequently, soil moisture data should be presented in class intervals of 0.05 cm 3 cm 23 . The utility of this method is demonstrated at the field scale using multitemporal thematic mapper imagery for irrigated areas near Cortazar in Mexico, and for river basin-scale water resources distribution in Pakistan. The potential limitation is the presence of clouds and the time lag between consecutive images with field-scale resolution. With the falling price of optical satellite imagery, this technique should gain wider acceptance with river basin planners, watershed managers, and irrigation and drainage engineers.

Variation of fluxes of water vapor, sensible heat and carbon dioxide above winter wheat and maize canopies

Surface energy fluxes were measured using Bowen-Ratio Energy Balance technique (BREB) and eddy correlation system at Luancheng of Hebei Province, on the North China Plain from 1999 to 2001. Average diurnal variation of surface energy fluxes and CO2 flux for maize showed the inverse “U” type. The average peak fluxes did not appear at noon, but after noon. The average peak CO2 flux was about 1.65 mg m-2 s-1. Crop water use efficiency (WUE) increased quickly in the morning, stabilized after 10:00 and decreased quickly after 15:00 with no evident peak value. The ratio of latent heat flux (λE) to net solar radiation (Rn) was always higher than 70% during winter wheat and maize seasons. The seasonal average ratio of sensible heat flux (H) divided byR n stayed at about 15% above the field surface; the seasonal average ratio of conductive heat flux (G) divided by Rn varied between 5% and 13%, and the averageG/R> n from the wheat canopy was evidently higher than that from the maize canopy. The evaporative fraction (EF) is correlated to the Bowen ratio in a reverse function.EF for winter wheat increased quickly during that revival stage, after the stage, it gradually stabilized to 1.0, and fluctuated around 1.0. EF for maize also fluctuated around 1.0 before the later grain filling stage, and decreased after that stage.

The Sensitivity of Surface Fluxes to Soil Water Content in Three Land Surface Schemes

Abstract Evaporative fraction (EF; the ratio of latent heat flux to the sum of the latent plus sensible heat fluxes) can be measured in the field to an accuracy of about 10%. In this modeling study, the authors try to determine to what accuracy soil moisture must be known in order to simulate surface energy fluxes within this observational uncertainty and whether there is a firm relationship between the variabilities of soil moisture and surface turbulent energy fluxes. A relationship would provide information for planning the future measurement of soil moisture, the design of field experiments, and points of focus for soil model development. The authors look for relationships in three different land surface schemes using results and ancillary integrations in the Global Soil Wetness Project. It is found that the variation of evaporative fraction as a function of soil moisture is consistent among the models and within subsets of vegetation type. In forested areas, there is high sensitivity of EF to soil mo...