Parameterization of the Surface Energy Balance of a Shallow Water Table Grassland

Abstract

Extending instantaneous latent heat flux to daily, monthly, or even yearly evapotranspiration (ET) is a fundamental issue in using remote sensing to estimate ET at local and regional scales. In this study, the extending parameterizations of the surface energy balance of a mid-latitude grassland with shallow water table (SWT) at diurnal and seasonal time scales are examined based on data measured by the eddy covariance system and automated weather station from Wageningen University from June 2014 to October 2018. The results show that the ratio of turbulent heat flux to available surface energy (often called budget closure rate) ranges between 0.86 and 0.93 for warm times (March to October), and between 0.59 and 0.77 for cold times (November to February the following year). The parameterization models used to approximate the surface albedo and evaporative fraction (EF) are also evaluated. Although obvious variation under clear skies during daytime are observed, the constant EF and albedo method provided an acceptable estimation of the daily scale ET with an underestimation of about 6−8% for the grassland with SWT and parameterization of diurnal correction shows little improvement in both the bias and RMSE. The progression of daily ET shows a seasonal cycle, which follows the variation of the net radiation flux. These results will be helpful for estimating ET at daily and long temporal scales based on satellite remote sensing.

Keywords

• evapotranspiration
• evaporative fraction
• remote sensing
• surface energy budget closure
• diurnal variation