Articles | Volume 26, issue 7
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-1745-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-1745-2022
Research article
 | 
06 Apr 2022
Research article |  | 06 Apr 2022

Testing a maximum evaporation theory over saturated land: implications for potential evaporation estimation

Zhuoyi Tu, Yuting Yang, and Michael L. Roderick

Related authors

Declining runoff sensitivity to precipitation following permafrost degradation: Insights from event-scale runoff response in the Yellow River source region
Zhuoyi Tu, Taihua Wang, Juntai Han, Hansjörg Seybold, Shaozhen Liu, Cansu Culha, Yuting Yang, and James W. Kirchner
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3018,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3018, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (HESS).
Short summary
CAMELE: Collocation-Analyzed Multi-source Ensembled Land Evapotranspiration Data
Changming Li, Ziwei Liu, Wencong Yang, Zhuoyi Tu, Juntai Han, Sien Li, and Hanbo Yang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 1811–1846, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1811-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1811-2024, 2024
Short summary

Cited articles

Allen, R. G., Pereira, L. S., Raes, D., and Smith, M.: Crop Evapotranspiration – Guidelines for computing crop water requirements, FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper No. 56, FAO – Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy, https://www.fao.org/3/X0490E/x0490e00.htm#Contents (last access: 4 April 2022), 1998. 
Aminzadeh, M., Roderick, M. L., and Or, D.: A generalized complementary relationship between actual and potential evaporation defined by a reference surface temperature, Water. Resour. Res., 52, 385–406, https://doi.org/10.1002/2015WR017969, 2016. 
Andreas, E. L., Jordan, R. E., Mahrt, L., and Vickers, D.: Estimating the Bowen ratio over the open and ice-covered ocean, J. Geophys. Res.-Oceans, 118, 4334–4345, https://doi.org/10.1002/jgrc.20295, 2013. 
Bowen, I. S.: The ratio of heat losses by conduction and by evaporation from any water surface, Phys. Rev., 27, 779, https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.27.779, 1926. 
Brutsaert, W.: On a derivable formula for long-wave radiation from clear skies, Water. Resour. Res., 11, 742–744, https://doi.org/10.1029/WR011i005p00742, 1975. 
Download
Short summary
Here we test a maximum evaporation theory that acknowledges the interdependence between radiation, surface temperature, and evaporation over saturated land. We show that the maximum evaporation approach recovers observed evaporation and surface temperature under non-water-limited conditions across a broad range of bio-climates. The implication is that the maximum evaporation concept can be used to predict potential evaporation that has long been a major difficulty for the hydrological community.
Share