On the importance of plant phenology in the evaporative process of a semi-arid woodland: could it be why satellite-based evaporation estimates in the miombo differ?

Zimba, Henry M.; Coenders-Gerrits, Miriam; Banda, Kawawa E.; Hulsman, Petra; van de Giesen, Nick; Nyambe, Imasiku A.; Savenije, Hubert H. G.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-3633-2024

Articles | Volume 28, issue 15

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-3633-2024

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-3633-2024

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 28, issue 15

Research article

|

12 Aug 2024

Research article |

| 12 Aug 2024

On the importance of plant phenology in the evaporative process of a semi-arid woodland: could it be why satellite-based evaporation estimates in the miombo differ?

Henry M. Zimba, Miriam Coenders-Gerrits, Kawawa E. Banda, Petra Hulsman, Nick van de Giesen, Imasiku A. Nyambe, and Hubert H. G. Savenije

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-3633-2024-supplement

Data sets

ZAMSECUR Project Field Data Mpika H. Zimba et al. https://doi.org/10.4121/19372352.V2

ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003 NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems and US/Japan ASTER Science Team https://doi.org/10.5067/ASTER/ASTGTM.003

European Commission Directorate-General Joint Research Centre M. Buchhorn et al. https://land.copernicus.vgt.vito.be/geonetwork/srv/api/records/clms_global_lcc_100m_v3_yearly

Climate Hazards Group. The climate hazards infrared precipitation with stations C. Funk et al. https://doi.org/10.15780/G2RP4Q

NCEP Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) Monthly Products S. Saha et al. https://doi.org/10.5065/D6DN438J

ERA5-Land hourly data from 1950 to present J. Muñoz Sabater https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.e2161bac

MODIS and VIIRS Land Products Global Subsetting and Visualization Tool ORNL DAAC https://modis.ornl.gov/globalsubset/

Operational Global Actual Evapotranspiration using the SSEBop model G. Senay et al. https://doi.org/10.5066/P9OUVUUI

TerraClimate J. T. Abatzoglou et al. https://doi.org/10.7923/G43J3B0R

WaPOR data FAO https://data.apps.fao.org/

Short summary

The fall and flushing of new leaves in the miombo woodlands co-occur in the dry season before the commencement of seasonal rainfall. The miombo species are also said to have access to soil moisture in deep soils, including groundwater in the dry season. Satellite-based evaporation estimates, temporal trends, and magnitudes differ the most in the dry season, most likely due to inadequate understanding and representation of the highlighted miombo species attributes in simulations.