Abstract. Accurate quantification of evaporation (E0) from open water is vital in
arid regions for water resource management and planning, especially for lakes
in the desert. The scintillometers are increasingly recognized by researchers
for their ability to determine sensible (H) and latent heat fluxes (LE)
accurately over distances of hundreds of meters to several kilometers, though
scintillometers are mainly used to monitor the land surface processes. In
this paper, it is installed on both sides of the shore over a lake. Compared
to the data of evaporationpan, the scintillometer was successfully applied to
Sumu Barun Jaran in Badain Jaran Desert using the classical method and the
proposed linearized β method. Due to the difficulty in measuring water
surface temperature and the easiness to monitor the water temperature at
different depths, it is worth thinking that if is feasible to utilize the
shallow water temperature instead of the water surface temperature and how
much errors it will cause. Water temperature at 10 and 20 cm depths were
used to replace the lakewater surface temperature in the two methods to
analyze the changes of sensible and latent heat fluxes in hot and cold
seasons at halfhour time scales. Based on the classical method, the values of
H were almost barely affected, and the average value of LE using water
temperature at 20 cm depth is 0.8–9.5 % smaller than that at 10 cm
depth in cold seasons. In hot seasons, compared to the results at 10 cm
depth, the average value of H increased by 20–30 %, and LE decreased
by about 20 % at 20 cm depth. In the proposed linearized β method
of scintillometer, only the slope of the saturation pressure curve (Δ)
is related to the water surface temperature, which was estimated using
available equations of saturated vapor pressure versus temperature of the
air. Compared to the values of estimated by the air temperature, while the
water surface temperature are replaced by water temperature at 10 and 20 cm
depths, in different seasons, the errors of 2–25 % in Δ were
caused. Thus was calculated by the original equation in the proposed
linearized β method of scintillometer. Interestingly, the water
temperature at 10 and 20 cm depths had little effect on H, LE (E0) in
different seasons. The reason is that the drying power of the air
(EA) accounted for about 85 % of the evaporation (i.e. the
changes of Δ have only about 3 % impact on evaporation), which
indicated that the driving force from unsaturated to saturated vapor pressure
at 2 m height (i.e. the aerodynamic portion) has the main role on
evaporation. Therefore, the proposed linearized β method of
scintillometer is recommended to quantify the H, LE (E0) over open
water, especially when the water surface temperature cannot be accurately
measured.
Observing Water Surface Temperature from Two Different Airborne Platforms over Temporarily Flooded Wadden Areas at the Elbe Estuary—Methods for Corrections and Analysis
