Variability in cold front activities modulating cool-season evaporation from a southern inland water in the USA

Abstract

Understanding seasonal variations in the evaporation of inland waters (e.g., lakes and reservoirs) is important for water resource management as well as the prediction of the hydrological cycles in response to climate change. We analyzed eddy covariance-based evaporation measurements from the Ross Barnett Reservoir (32°26′N, 90°02′W; which is always ice-free) in central Mississippi during the cool months (i.e., September-March) of 2007 and 2008, and found that the variability in cold front activities (i.e., passages of cold fronts and cold/dry air masses behind cold fronts) played an important role in modulating the exchange of sensible (H) and latent (λE) heat fluxes. Our analysis showed that 2007's warmer cool season had smaller mean H and λE than 2008's cooler cool season. This implies that the warmer cool season did not accelerate evaporation and heat exchange between the water surface and the atmosphere. Instead, more frequent cold fronts and longer periods of cold/dry air masses behind the cold fronts in 2008 resulted in overall larger H and λE as compared with 2007, this primarily taking the form of sporadic short-term rapid 'pulses' of H and λE losses from the water's surface. These results suggest that future climate-induced changes in frequency of cold fronts and the meteorological properties of the air masses behind cold fronts (e.g., wind speeds, temperature, and humidity), rather than other factors of climate change, would produce significant variations in the water surface's energy fluxes and subsequent evaporation rates. © 2011 IOP Publishing Ltd.