Estimation of the Influence of Meteorological Factors on the Potential Evapotranspiration of Yanhe River Basin
Potential evapotranspiration (ET) is an important expenditure item in the hydrological cycle. Quantitative estimation of the influence of meteorological factors on ET can provide a scientific basis for the study of the impact mechanism of climate change on the hydrological cycle. In this paper, the Penman-Monteith method was used to calculate ET. The Mann-Kendall statistical test and the Inverse Distance Weighting method were used to analyze the temporal and spatial characteristics of the sensitivity coefficient of ET to meteorological factors and contribution rate of meteorological factors to ET. And the reasons for the change of ET were quantitatively explored in combination with the change trend of meteorological factors. The results showed that the average ET in the Yanhe River Basin from 1978 to 2017 was 935.92mm. Except for Ganquan Station, ET showed an upward trend. Generally, the sensitivity coefficient of air temperature (0.08), wind speed (0.19) and solar radiation (0.42) was positive and the sensitivity coefficient of relative humidity (-0.41) was negative. But there were significant temporal and spatial differences. The upward trend of air temperature and solar radiation contributed 1.09% and 0.55% to ET. Respectively, the downward trend of wind speed contributed -0.63% And the downward trend of relative humidity contributed to -0.85% of ET. Therefore, the decrease of relative humidity did not cause the increase of ET in Yanhe River basin. The dominant factor of the upward trend of ET was air temperature. But the dominant factors of ET had significant temporal and spatial differences. The downward trend of wind speed at Ganquan Station contributed -9.16% to ET, which indicated the dominant factor of “evaporation paradox” in Ganquan area was wind speed. Generally, the increase of ET was related to air temperature, wind speed and solar radiation. And the decrease of ET was related to relative humidity.