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Evaporation from fetch-limited water bodies

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Abstract

An analytic model to calculate evaporation from fetch-limited water bodies is described. By modifying the surface boundary condition to an analytic solution to the advection-diffusion equation for specific humidity in the air flow over a water body, we are able to solve for the entire specific humidity field q (x, z) from a single measurement of humidity, surface temperature, and wind speed. Comparisons of model predictions with measurements from Rushy Billabong, a small turbid lake, over a 146 day period show that on average the model underestimates evaporation rates by 12%. We believe that the evaporation shortfall is due to the downwind advection of heat within the billabong when the billabong is highly stratified in temperature. When the thermal stratification is weak, the advection of heat within the water column is less important and the model is an accurate predictor of evaporation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CSIRO Centre for Environmental Mechanics, GPO Box 821, 2601, Canberra, A.C.T., Australia

    Ian T. Webster & Bradford S. Sherman

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  1. Ian T. Webster
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  2. Bradford S. Sherman
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Webster, I.T., Sherman, B.S. Evaporation from fetch-limited water bodies. Irrig Sci 16, 53–64 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00189161

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00189161

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