A Budyko framework for estimating how spatial heterogeneity and lateral moisture redistribution affect average evapotranspiration rates as seen from the atmosphere

Rouholahnejad Freund, Elham; Kirchner, James W.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-217-2017

Articles | Volume 21, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-217-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-217-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 21, issue 1

Research article

|

11 Jan 2017

Research article |

| 11 Jan 2017

A Budyko framework for estimating how spatial heterogeneity and lateral moisture redistribution affect average evapotranspiration rates as seen from the atmosphere

Elham Rouholahnejad Freund and James W. Kirchner

Download

Final revised paper (published on 11 Jan 2017)
Preprint (discussion started on 31 Aug 2016)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

- Printer-friendly version

- Supplement

RC1: 'Referee comment', Anonymous Referee #1, 27 Sep 2016
- AC1: 'Response to Referee #1', Elham Rouhollahnejad, 28 Sep 2016
RC2: 'Review Comments', Michael Roderick, 30 Sep 2016
- AC2: 'Response to Referee #2', Elham Rouhollahnejad, 01 Oct 2016
RC3: 'Review of Budyko paper by Rouholahnejad and Kirchner', Anonymous Referee #3, 12 Oct 2016
- AC3: 'Response to reviewer #3', Elham Rouhollahnejad, 20 Oct 2016

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (further review by Editor) (01 Nov 2016) by Ross Woods

AR by Elham R. Freund on behalf of the Authors (16 Nov 2016) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (17 Nov 2016) by Ross Woods

AR by Elham R. Freund on behalf of the Authors (21 Nov 2016)

Short summary

Our analysis shows that averaging over sub-grid heterogeneity in precipitation and potential evapotranspiration (ET), as typical earth system models do, overestimates the average of the spatially variable ET. We also show when aridity index increases with altitude, lateral redistribution would transfer water from more humid uplands to more arid lowlands, resulting in a net increase in ET. Therefore, the Earth system models that neglect lateral transfer underestimate ET in those regions.