Authors: J P Lhomme L Guilioni
Publish Date: 2009/09/12
Volume: 101, Issue: 1-2, Pages: 143-147
Abstract
The relationship between potential evaporation and actual evaporation was first examined by Bouchet Proc Berkeley Calif Symp IAHS Publ 62134–142 1963 who considered potential evaporation as the consequence of regional evaporation due to atmospheric feedbacks Using a heuristic approach he derived a complementary relationship which despite no real theoretical background has proven to be very useful in interpreting many experimental data under various climatic conditions Here the relationship between actual and potential evaporation is reinterpreted in the context of the development of the convective boundary layer CBL first with a closedbox approach where the CBL has an impermeable lid and then with an open system where air is exchanged between the CBL and its external environment By applying steady forcing to these systems it is shown that an equilibrium state is reached where potential evaporation has a specific equilibrium formulation as a function of two parameters one representing largescale advection and the other the feedback effect of regional evaporation on potential evaporation ie a kind of “mediumscale advection” It is also shown that the original form of Bouchet’s complementary relationship is not verified in the equilibrium state This analysis leads us to propose a new and more rational approach of the relationship between potential and actual evaporation through the effective surface resistance of the region
Keywords: