Abstract
The standardized form of the well-known FAO Penman-Monteith equation, published by the Environmental and Water Resources Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE-EWRI), is recommended as a standard procedure for calculating reference evapotranspiration (ET ref) and subsequently plant water requirements. Applied and validated under different climatic conditions it generally achieved good results compared to other methods. However, several studies documented deviations between measured and calculated reference evapotranspiration depending on environmental and weather conditions. Therefore, it seems generally advisable to evaluate the model under local environmental conditions. In this study, reference evapotranspiration was determined at a subhumid site in northeastern Austria from 2005 to 2010 using a large weighing lysimeter (ET lys). The measured data were compared with ET ref calculations. Daily values differed slightly during a year, at which ET ref was generally overestimated at small values, whereas it was rather underestimated when ET was large, which is supported also by other studies. In our case, advection of sensible heat proved to have an impact, but it could not explain the differences exclusively. Obviously, there were also other influences, such as seasonal varying surface resistance or albedo. Generally, the ASCE-EWRI equation for daily time steps performed best at average weather conditions. The outcomes should help to correctly interpret ET ref data in the region and in similar environments and improve knowledge on the dynamics of influencing factors causing deviations.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank their colleagues from IHLW and the staff from BOKU experimental farm Groß-Enzersdorf for maintaining the lysimeter facilities. They also thank the Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG), Austria, for providing the weather data and Dr. Herbert Formayer from the Institute of Meteorology (BOKU-Met) for preparing them.
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Nolz, R., Cepuder, P. & Eitzinger, J. Comparison of lysimeter based and calculated ASCE reference evapotranspiration in a subhumid climate. Theor Appl Climatol 124, 315–324 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-015-1417-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-015-1417-y