Global fields of soil moisture and land surface evapotranspiration derived from observed precipitation and surface air temperature

Journal Article · Sun Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1993 · Journal of Applied Meteorology; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0450(1993)032<1305:GFOSMA>2.0.CO;2· OSTI ID:5705394

Mintz, Y; Walker, G K ^[1]

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1. NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (United States)

The global fields of normal monthly soil moisture and land surface evapotranspiration are derived with a simple water budget model that has precipitation and potential evapotranspiration as inputs. The precipitation is observed and the potential evapotranspiration is derived from the observed surface air temperature with the empirical regression equation of Thornthwaite. It is shown that at locations where the net surface radiation flux has been measured. The potential evapotranspiration given by the Thornthwaite equation is in good agreement with those obtained with the radiation-based formulations of Priestley and Taylor. Penman, and Budyko, and this provides the justification for the use of the Thornthwaite equation. After deriving the global fields of soil moisture and evapotranspiration, the assumption is made that the potential evapotranspiration given by the Thornthwaite equation and by the Priestley-Taylor equation will everywhere be about the same; and the inverse of the Priestley-Taylor equation is used to obtain the normal monthly global fields of net surface radiation flux minus ground heat storage. This and the derived evapotranspiration are then used in the equation for energy conservation at the surface of the earth to obtain the global fields of normal monthly sensible heat flux from the land surface to the atmosphere. 68 refs., 24 figs., 1 tab.

• OSTI ID: 5705394
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Meteorology; (United States), Journal Name: Journal of Applied Meteorology; (United States) Vol. 32:8; ISSN JOAMEZ; ISSN 0894-8763
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540110*
AIR
AIR-BIOSPHERE INTERACTIONS
ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION
ATMOSPHERIC PRECIPITATIONS
CLIMATE MODELS
EVAPORATION
FLUIDS
GASES
HEAT FLUX
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
METEOROLOGY
MOISTURE
MONITORING
MONTHLY VARIATIONS
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
SURFACE AIR
TEMPERATURE MONITORING
VARIATIONS
WEATHER