Schemes for parameterizing evaporation from a non-plant-covered surface and their impact on partitioning the surface energy in land- air exchange parameterization

Abstract

The correct simulation of the sensible and latent heat fluxes from a non-plant-covered surface is very important in designing the surface scheme for modeling the processes in the land-air exchange. However, using different bare soil evaporation schemes in land surface parameterization, an error in partitioning the surface fluxes can be introduced. In parameterization of evaporation from a non-plant-covered surface in resistance representation, the α and β approaches are commonly used in corresponding formulas where the α and β are functions of soil water content. The performance of different schemes within these approaches is briefly discussed. For that purpose six schemes, based on different dependence α or β on volumetric soil moisture content and its saturated value, are used. -from Authors