6.6 Modeling of evapotranspiration with observations from two types of atmometers in North Carolina

Wednesday, 22 June 2005: 11:45 AM
South Ballroom (Hilton DeSoto)
Margaret W. P. Puryear, North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC; and S. Raman, A. Sims, and A. Syed

Evapotranspiration is measured at 14 Environmental and Climate Observing Network (ECONet) stations across North Carolina using an ET gage. This allows distilled water to evaporate through a porous cover that acts as an agricultural crop. Evaporation pans are also located at two of the National Weather Service's Cooperative Observer Program (COOP) stations in the state. These measurements were compared with corresponding ET gage observations from May to October of 2003 and 2004. Observations are evaluated for trends in soil type, land use and wind speeds. In general, higher wind speeds correspond with higher evapotranspiration measurements. The highest average evapotranspiration rates have been observed over the sandy soil in the coastal plain. A numerical simulation using Pennsylvania State University's MM5 model was performed for the period of July 18, 2004 to July 24, 2004. A nested domain was used with the outer domain with 12 km grid spacing. The inner domain had a 4-km grid spacing and was centered over North Carolina. Simulations of latest heat flux are compared with observed evaporation and empirically estimated values using Penman-Monteith and Priestley-Taylor relations.
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