ADVECTION-ARIDITY APPROACH TO ESTIMATE ACTUAL REGIONAL EVAPOTRANSPIRATION

Actual regional evapotranspiration is calculated by means of a procedure requiring only meteorological data, which are those commonly used in the various versions of the combination approach for potential evaporation. The approach is based on a conceptual model involving, first, the effect of regional advection on potential evaporation, and second, an assumed symmetry between potential and actual evaporation with respect to the evaporative power of the air in the absence of advection. Thus the degree of nonavailability of water for evapotranspiration, that is the aridity of the region, is deduced from the regional advection of drying power of the air, as implied by the atmospheric conditions. The approach was found to give good agreement with daily data of evapotranspiration obtained by means of an energy budget method for a period of severe drought in a rural watershed in a sandy region. One of the advantages is that no soil moisture data, no stomatal resistance properties of the vegetation, nor any other additional aridity parameters are required to determine actual evapotranspiration. Copyright 1979 by the American Geophysical Union.