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Title: The evaporative fraction as a measure of surface energy partitioning

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10121797· OSTI ID:10121797
 [1];  [2]
  1. Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (United States)
  2. Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States)

The evaporative fraction is a ratio that expresses the proportion of turbulent flux energy over land surfaces devoted to evaporation and transpiration (evapotranspiration). It has been used to characterize the energy partition over land surfaces and has potential for inferring daily energy balance information based on mid-day remote sensing measurements. The HAPEX-MOBILHY program`s SAMER system provided surface energy balance data over a range of agricultural crops and soil types. The databases from this large-scale field experiment was analyzed for the purpose of studying the behavior and daylight stability of the evaporative fraction in both ideal and general meteorological conditions. Strong linear relations were found to exist between the mid-day evaporative fraction and the daylight mean evaporative fraction. Statistical tests however rejected the hypothesis that the two quantities were equal. The relations between the evaporative fraction and the surface soil moisture as well as soil moisture in the complete vegetation root zone were also explored.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE, Washington, DC (United States); Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
AC06-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
10121797
Report Number(s):
PNL-SA-18653; ON: DE92003164
Resource Relation:
Other Information: PBD: [1990]
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English