scholarly journals Long-term relative decline in evapotranspiration with increasing runoff on fractional land surfaces

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ren Wang ◽  
Pierre Gentine ◽  
Jiabo Yin ◽  
Lijuan Chen ◽  
Jianyao Chen ◽  
...  

Abstract. Evapotranspiration (ET) accompanied by water and heat transport in the hydrological cycle is a key component in regulating surface aridity. Existing studies on changes in surface aridity have typically estimated ET using semi-empirical equations or parameterizations of land surface processes, which are based on the assumption that the parameters in the equation are stationary. However, plant physiological effects and its response to a changing environment are dynamically modifying ET, thereby challenging this assumption and limiting the estimation of long-term ET. In this study, the latent heat flux (ET in energy units) and sensible heat flux were retrieved for recent decades on a global scale using machine learning approach and driven by ground-based observations from flux towers and weather stations. The study resulted in several findings, namely that the evaporative fraction (EF) – the ratio of latent heat flux to available surface energy – exhibited a relatively decreasing trend on fractional land surfaces; In particular, the decrease in EF was accompanied by an increase in long-term runoff as assessed by precipitation (P) minus ET, accounting for 27.06 % of the global land areas. The signs were indicative of reduced surface conductance, which further emphasized that land-surface vegetation has major impacts on regulating the water and energy cycles, as well as aridity variability.

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (Special Issue 2) ◽  
pp. S49-S58 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Brom ◽  
J. Procházka ◽  
A. Rejšková

The dissipation of solar energy and consequently the formation of the hydrological cycle are largely dependent on the structural and optical characteristics of the land surface. In our study, we selected seven units with different types of vegetation in the Mlýnský and Horský catchments (South-Eastern part of the Šumava Mountains, Czech Republic) for the assessment of the differences in their functioning expressed through the surface temperature, humidity, and energy dissipation. For our analyses, we used Landsat 5 TM satellite data from June 25<SUP>th</SUP>, 2008. The results showed that the microclimatic characteristics and energy fluxes varied in different units according to their vegetation characteristics. A cluster analysis of the mean values was used to divide the vegetation units into groups according to their functional characteristics. The mown meadows were characterised by the highest surface temperature and sensible heat flux and the lowest humidity and latent heat flux. On the contrary, the lowest surface temperature and sensible heat flux and the highest humidity and latent heat flux were found in the forest. Our results showed that the climatic and energetic features of the land surface are related to the type of vegetation. We state that the spatial distribution of different vegetation units and the amount of biomass are crucial variables influencing the functioning of the landscape.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (10) ◽  
pp. 2547-2564
Author(s):  
Georg Lackner ◽  
Daniel F. Nadeau ◽  
Florent Domine ◽  
Annie-Claude Parent ◽  
Gonzalo Leonardini ◽  
...  

AbstractRising temperatures in the southern Arctic region are leading to shrub expansion and permafrost degradation. The objective of this study is to analyze the surface energy budget (SEB) of a subarctic shrub tundra site that is subject to these changes, on the east coast of Hudson Bay in eastern Canada. We focus on the turbulent heat fluxes, as they have been poorly quantified in this region. This study is based on data collected by a flux tower using the eddy covariance approach and focused on snow-free periods. Furthermore, we compare our results with those from six Fluxnet sites in the Arctic region and analyze the performance of two land surface models, SVS and ISBA, in simulating soil moisture and turbulent heat fluxes. We found that 23% of the net radiation was converted into latent heat flux at our site, 35% was used for sensible heat flux, and about 15% for ground heat flux. These results were surprising considering our site was by far the wettest site among those studied, and most of the net radiation at the other Arctic sites was consumed by the latent heat flux. We attribute this behavior to the high hydraulic conductivity of the soil (littoral and intertidal sediments), typical of what is found in the coastal regions of the eastern Canadian Arctic. Land surface models overestimated the surface water content of those soils but were able to accurately simulate the turbulent heat flux, particularly the sensible heat flux and, to a lesser extent, the latent heat flux.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zeyong Hu ◽  
Xiaoqiang Yan

&lt;p&gt;Based on multi-level AWS data during 2001 to 2015 and eddy covariance data during 2011 to 2014 at Nagqu Station of Plateau Climate and Environment, the turbulent fluxes were calculated by a surface energy balance combination (CM) and eddy covariance ( EC) method. A long-term heat fluxes and surface heat source were obtained with comparison and correction of EC and CM fluxes. The surface energy closure ratio is close to 1 in spring, summer and autumn. But it reaches to 1.34 in winter due to low net radiation observation value on snow surface. The sensible heat flux shows a ascend trend while latent heat flux shows a descend trend during 2002 to 2015. The surface heat source shows a descend trend. The analysis of the surface heat source indicates that it has a significant relationship with net radiation flux, surface temperature, soil moisture and wind speed. Particularly, the surface heat source has a significant response to net radiation flux throughout the year. There are obvious influences of surface temperature and soil moisture on the surface heat source in spring, autumn and winter. And the influence of wind speeds on surface heat source is strong only in spring. The annual variation of sensible heat flux and latent heat flux are obvious. Sensible heat flux reaches the maximum value of the year in April and the minimum value in July. however, latent heat flux shows the maximum value in July and the minimum value in January.&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;


2008 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Schüttemeyer ◽  
A. F. Moene ◽  
A. A. M. Holtslag ◽  
H. A. R. de Bruin

Abstract In this study different parameterizations for land surface models currently employed in meteorological models at ECMWF [Tiled ECMWF Surface Scheme for Exchange Processes over Land (TESSEL)] and NCEP (Noah) are evaluated for a semiarid region in Ghana, West Africa. Both schemes utilize the Jarvis–Stewart approach to calculate canopy conductance as the critical variable for partitioning the available energy into sensible and latent heat flux. Additionally, an approach within Noah is tested to calculate canopy conductance based on plant physiology (A-gs method), where the photosynthetic assimilation is coupled to the leaf stomatal conductance. All parameterizations were run offline for a seasonal cycle in 2002/03 using observations as forcings at two test sites. The two locations are in the humid tropical southern region and in the drier northern region. For the purpose of forcing and evaluation, a new set of data has been utilized to include surface fluxes obtained by scintillometry. The measurements include the rapid wet-to-dry transition after the wet season at both sites. As a general trend, it has been found that during the wet period of a season net radiation is described well by all parameterizations. During the drying process the errors in modeled net radiation increased at both sites. The models perform poorly in simulating soil heat fluxes with larger errors for TESSEL for both sites. The evolution in time for sensible heat flux and latent heat flux was tackled in different ways by the utilized parameterizations and sites with enhanced model performance for the more southern site. Soil moisture in the upper soil layers is modeled with small errors for the different parameterizations. Key adjustments for reducing net radiation during the dry period of a season are discussed. In particular, the ratio of roughness length of momentum and heat was found to be an important parameter, but will require seasonal adjustments.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (24) ◽  
pp. 2899
Author(s):  
Nan Ge ◽  
Lei Zhong ◽  
Yaoming Ma ◽  
Meilin Cheng ◽  
Xian Wang ◽  
...  

Land surface heat fluxes consist of the net radiation flux, soil heat flux, sensible heat flux, and latent heat flux. The estimation of these fluxes is essential to the study of energy transfer in land–atmosphere systems. In this paper, Landsat 7 ETM+ SLC-on data were applied to estimate the land surface heat fluxes on the northern Tibetan Plateau using the SEBS (surface energy balance system) model, in combination with the calculation of field measurements at CAMP/Tibet (Coordinated Enhanced Observing Period (CEOP) Asia–Australia Monsoon Project on the Tibetan Plateau) automatic weather stations based on the combinatory method (CM) for comparison. The root mean square errors between the satellite estimations and the CM calculations for the net radiation flux, soil heat flux, sensible heat flux, and latent heat flux were 49.2 W/m2, 46.3 W/m2, 68.2 W/m2, and 54.9 W/m2, respectively. The results reveal that land surface heat fluxes all present significant seasonal variability. Apart from the sensible heat flux, the satellite-estimated net radiation flux, soil heat flux, and latent heat flux exhibited a trend of summer > spring > autumn > winter. In summer, spring, autumn, and winter, respectively, the median values of the net radiation flux (631.8 W/m2, 583.0 W/m2, 404.4 W/m2, 314.3 W/m2), soil heat flux (40.9 W/m2, 37.9 W/m2, 26.1 W/m2, 20.5 W/m2), sensible heat flux (252.7 W/m2, 219.5 W/m2, 221.4 W/m2, 204.8 W/m2), and latent heat flux (320.1 W/m2, 298.3 W/m2, 142.3 W/m2, 75.5 W/m2) exhibited distinct seasonal diversity. From November to April, the in situ sensible heat flux is higher than the latent heat flux; the opposite is true between June and September, leaving May and October as transitional months. For water bodies, alpine meadows and other main underlying surface types, sensible and latent heat flux generally present contrasting and complementary spatial distributions. Due to the 15–60 m resolution of the Landsat 7 ETM+ data, the distribution of land surface heat fluxes can be used as an indicator of complex underlying surface types over the northern Tibetan Plateau.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mostaquimur Rahman ◽  
Rafael Rosolem

Abstract. Modelling and monitoring of hydrological processes in the unsaturated zone of the chalk, which is a porous medium with fractures, is important to optimize water resources assessment and management practices in the United Kingdom (UK). However, efficient simulations of water movement through chalk unsaturated zone is difficult mainly due to the fractured nature of chalk, which creates high-velocity preferential flow paths in the subsurface. Complex hydrology in the chalk aquifers may also influence land surface mass and energy fluxes because processes in the hydrological cycle are connected via non-linear feedback mechanisms. In this study, it is hypothesized that explicit representation of chalk hydrology in a land surface model influences land surface processes by affecting water movement through the shallow subsurface. In order to substantiate this hypothesis, a macroporosity parameterization is implemented in the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES), which is applied on a study area encompassing the Kennet catchment in the Southern UK. The simulation results are evaluated using field measurements and satellite remote sensing observations of various fluxes and states in the hydrological cycle (e.g., soil moisture, runoff, latent heat flux) at two distinct spatial scales (i.e., point and catchment). The results reveal the influence of representing chalk hydrology on land surface mass and energy balance components such as surface runoff and latent heat flux via subsurface processes (i.e., soil moisture dynamics) in JULES, which corroborates the proposed hypothesis.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3221-3233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Behrendt ◽  
Volker Wulfmeyer ◽  
Christoph Senff ◽  
Shravan Kumar Muppa ◽  
Florian Späth ◽  
...  

Abstract. We present the first measurement of the sensible heat flux (H) profile in the convective boundary layer (CBL) derived from the covariance of collocated vertical-pointing temperature rotational Raman lidar and Doppler wind lidar measurements. The uncertainties of the H measurements due to instrumental noise and limited sampling are also derived and discussed. Simultaneous measurements of the latent heat flux profile (L) and other turbulent variables were obtained with the combination of water-vapor differential absorption lidar (WVDIAL) and Doppler lidar. The case study uses a measurement example from the HOPE (HD(CP)2 Observational Prototype Experiment) campaign, which took place in western Germany in 2013 and presents a cloud-free well-developed quasi-stationary CBL. The mean boundary layer height zi was at 1230 m above ground level. The results show – as expected – positive values of H in the middle of the CBL. A maximum of (182±32) W m−2, with the second number for the noise uncertainty, is found at 0.5 zi. At about 0.7 zi, H changes sign to negative values above. The entrainment flux was (-62±27) W m−2. The mean sensible heat flux divergence in the observed part of the CBL above 0.3 zi was −0.28 W m−3, which corresponds to a warming of 0.83 K h−1. The L profile shows a slight positive mean flux divergence of 0.12 W m−3 and an entrainment flux of (214±36) W m−2. The combination of H and L profiles in combination with variance and other turbulent parameters is very valuable for the evaluation of large-eddy simulation (LES) results and the further improvement and validation of turbulence parameterization schemes.


1998 ◽  
Vol 55 (11) ◽  
pp. 1909-1927 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weiqing Qu ◽  
A. Henderson-Sellers ◽  
A. J. Pitman ◽  
T. H. Chen ◽  
F. Abramopoulos ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 537-546 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulo Jorge de Oliveira Ponte de Souza ◽  
Juliana Chagas Rodrigues ◽  
Adriano Marlisom Leão de Sousa ◽  
Everaldo Barreiros de Souza

Abstract This study aimed to evaluate the diurnal energy balance during the reproductive stage of two growing seasons of a mango orchard in the northeast of Pará, Brazil. Therefore, a micrometeorological tower was installed and instrumented, in the center of the experimental area, to monitor meteorological variables, besides the phenological evaluation of the mango orchard, which was carried out during growing seasons of 2010-2011 (October 2010 to January 2011) and of 2011-2012 (September 2011 to January 2012). The energy balance was obtained by the bowen ration technique, and the available energy partitioned into heat flux to the ground, sensible heat and latent heat. The amount of rainfall was crucial to the partition of the net radiation in the energy balance components. It provided the variation in the consumption of available energy between 69% and 78% as latent heat flux, and between 23% and 32% as sensible heat flux. The heat flux to the ground was small, representing less than 1% of the net radiation, showing that the mango orchard exhibits good soil cover preventing large variations in soil heating.


2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 5659-5677 ◽  
Author(s):  
Q. Shi ◽  
S. Liang

Abstract. Estimations from meteorological stations over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) indicate that since the 1980s the surface-sensible heat flux has been decreasing continuously, and modeling studies suggest that such changes are likely linked to the weakening of the East Asian Monsoon through exciting Rossby wave trains. However, the spatial and temporal variations in the surface-sensible and latent heat fluxes over the entire TP remain unknown. This study aims to characterize the spatial and seasonal variability of the surface-sensible and latent heat fluxes at 0.5° over the TP from 1984 to 2007 by synthesizing multiple data sources including ground measurements, reanalysis products, and remote-sensing products. The root mean square errors (RMSEs) from cross validation are 14.3 Wm−2 and 10.3 Wm−2 for the monthly fused sensible and latent heat fluxes, respectively. The fused sensible and latent heat-flux anomalies are consistent with those estimated from meteorological stations, and the uncertainties of the fused data are also discussed. The associations among the fused sensible and latent heat fluxes and the related surface anomalies such as mean temperature, temperature range, snow cover, and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in addition to atmospheric anomalies such as cloud cover and water vapor show seasonal dependence, suggest that the land–biosphere–atmosphere interactions over the TP could display nonuniform feedbacks to the climate changes. It would be interesting to disentangle the drivers and responses of the surface-sensible and latent heat-flux anomalies over the TP in future research from evidences of modeling results.


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