Evaporation is the conversion of liquid into gaseous form.

Generally, when the atmosphere is calm and

no other agents like wind disturb the water surface, the molecules of water remains stable. As the Sun
rises and the wind starts to blow the energy from the Sun is transferred to the water which agitates the
water molecules. Thus, the water molecules gain momentum and begin to move here and there, once
the water molecules gain enough kinetic energy, they tend to escape into the atmosphere breaking
down the intermolecular forces. Upon constant supply of heat energy this process continuous and the
water molecules get accumulated above the water surface, after reaching the saturation point the
surface medium is no longer able to hold the water molecules at that instant the water vapors exert a
partial pressure call as the saturated vapor pressure which is denoted by “Es”. Similarly, the air in the
atmosphere exerts a pressure called as the vapor pressure of air which is denoted by “ Ea”. When the
vapor pressure of air Ea is equal to the saturated vapor pressure of water Es evaporation stops and this
stage is known as the equilibrium State. However, this state never happens in nature but there is always
a difference in the vapor pressures of L and water in the atmosphere this difference is called as the
vapor pressure deficit. As long as the wind blows continuously the accumulated water molecules are
carried away creating a vapor pressure deficit and thus accelerating the evaporation process this was
clearly described by a scientist named John Dalton in the year 80 not two and the favorable conditions
evaporation is proportional to the vapor pressure deficit that is e is equal to C into es minus e a where P
denotes evaporation and C represents the coefficient of evaporation this law is commonly stated as
Dalton’s law apart from the supply of water the source of heat and the vapor pressure deficit the
evaporation in an area is influenced by several other factors let's discuss those factors in detail basically
the quality of water like turbidity color odor pH affects the rate of evaporation this can be demonstrated
by experimenting with high turbid water and normal water when two containers containing normal
water and turbid water are placed in sunlight for a considerable time you can observe the level of the
normal water to be lesser than the level of the turbid water this is because the suspended particles in
high turbid water like : water blocks the water being evaporated, besides the surface area of water
bodies also affects the rate of evaporation, in case of large water bodies the rate of evaporation is high
due to the exposure of larger area to sunlight moreover it also facilitates easy movement of wind on the
water surface. On the other hand, the rate of evaporation is less for smaller water bodies thus the
surface area of water determines the rate of evaporation based on the surface area.

The wind acceleration differs which in turn alters the evaporation process we already know that wind
can carry away the water molecules from the surface of water. When the velocity of wind is high the
evaporation of water is more thus the wind speed is directly proportional to the rate of evaporation. The
wind speed also affects the temperature of an area which in turn alters the evaporation rate that is
when the temperature increases. The rate of evaporation also increases, and we can say the rate of
evaporation varies with different seasons for instance during winter season the evaporation of water is
less due to low atmospheric temperature while during summer the atmospheric temperature is high
which eventually increases the rate of evaporation. Usually the temperature of an area depends on the
radiation of sun. Radiation is nothing but the heat energy released from the Sun, when radiation
increases the evaporation increases. This can be demonstrated by plotting two different graphs between
evaporation depth against time and solar radiation against time. The two graphs clearly show that
radiation and evaporation are directly proportional to each other whereas atmospheric pressure

is inversely proportional to evaporation. Furthermore, it is a known fact that when altitudes increase the
atmospheric pressure decreases and this affects the rate of evaporation. For instance, in hill stations,
evaporation is nor at the top of the hill operation cause of continuous precipitation in hilly regions. Apart
from other factors salt characteristics such as namely salt capillary characteristics, water depth, soil
color also influences the evaporation rate. Thus, by learning the factors that influence the evaporation
of an area you can analyze the environmental changes that are closely associated with the evaporation
process.

Evaporation occurs in water bodies, saturated soils and unsaturated surface. Evaporation importance in
hydrology problems are water supply design and continuous hydrologic simulation.

Factor impacting evaporation.

Water density

latent het of evaporation (Temperature)

Net radiation flux (radiation absorbed, and radiation emitted)

Sensible heat flux

Ground heat Flux

Relative humidity

Wind velocity.

E=Cp*Ep

E= Estimated evaporation

Cp= Pan coefficient

Ep= Pan Evaporation

Evaporation by energy Method

Evaporation by Aerodynamic Method: Wind

Evaporation by Combined Method

 1. When energy supply is not limiting, use the aerodynamic method.
2. When vapor transport is not limiting, use the energy balance method.
3. Both are typically not limiting, so use combine method.

Evaporation by Combined Method (large areas)

Evapotranspiration (ET)

1. Over water, evaporation is all that occurs, but over ground, if vegetation present, we have
transpiration as well.
2. Hard to separate out evaporation from transpiration, most models use evapotranspiration to
characterize the evaporation and transpiration together.
3. Relative contribution of evaporation and transpiration to ET varies throughout year.
4. Numerous approaches to compute evapotranspiration including those that simply have pan
coefficients to multiply by pan evaporation data.
5. Many models simply apply correction to the evaporation estimate to get ET.
 6. For most applications dealing with flood hydrology on an event basis, ET is minor consideration
and can largely be ignored.

Evaporation is the spontaneous escape of high energy molecules from liquid surface into vapor state. It
happens before the boiling point. Is a surface phenomenon. The molecule will gain so much kinetic
energy that break the force of attraction and scape as gas.

Factor affect that evaporation

Force of attraction: The more of force of attraction result in less evaporation.

Temperature: Heat increase the Kinect energy on the molecules of water. So, with more temperature
molecule can gain the kinetic energy to overcome the force of attraction between area.

Surface area: More the surface area means that there is going to be more evaporation.

Wind: If the wind is blowing the rate of evaporation will be faster. Because the air blown above the
surface of the liquid takes away the skipping molecules and space is made available for the other
molecules. It means that the wind speed increases the result in the greater amount of the water vapor
skipping as a result the rate of evaporation increases.

Humidity: with the increase of the humidity in the atmosphere the amount of the water vapors in the
atmosphere increases so it reserved in lesser rate of evaporation.

Evaporation can be expressed as the rate per unit area.

Factors affecting evaporation

Humidity: When the humidity is 100 %, the air is saturated with water. No more water can evaporate.

Atmospheric pressure: If air pressure is high on the surface of a body of water, then the water will not
evaporate easily. The pressure pushing down on the water makes it difficult for water to escape into the
atmosphere as vapor.

Temperature: Affects how quickly evaporation will happen.

The computation of evaporation in hydrologic analysis and design is important in water supply design,
particularly reservoir design and operation.

The rate of evaporation (E) is the rate at which the molecules move from the saturated surface layer
into the air above.

E is proportional to the difference between the vapor pressure of the surface layer and the vapor
pressure of the overlying air.
Depending of the temperature of the surface ant temperature and humidity of the air, the difference
between the two-vapor pressure can be +,0, or -.

There are two basic mechanisms by which moisture gets into the atmosphere; evaporation and
transpiration. Both evaporation (E) and transpiration (T) require a diffusion mechanism to sustain water
vapor flux that removes vaporized water molecules from the evapotranspirating surface.

The two things that drive this process are howm much energy is available (sunlight), and how much
water is already in the atmosphere. Hence, evapotranspiration (ET) is where the surface water balnce
and surface energy balance meet. The energy is derived from the solar radiation and the water is
typically provided by local precipitation. Because both solar energy and available water are necesarry to
cause evaporation and transpiration, the energy will limit of ET at some times, and water availability will
limit the rate at other times.

Evapotranspiration is the combination of evaporation from the soil surface and transpiration from te
vegetation. The same factors governing open water evaporation also govern evapotranspiration, namely
energy supply and vapor transport. In addition, a third factor enters the picture: the supply of moisture
at the evaporative surface.

As the soil dries out, the rate of evapotranspiration drops below the level it would have maintained in a
well-watered soil.

Direct measurements of evaporation are much more difficult and expensive than for precipitation and
streamflow and is usually impractical.

Thus, in order to analyze Evaporation, hydrologists have developed an array of methods that provide
estimates based on measurements of more readily measured quantities.

To that end, we can in principle use methods based on the water balance, the energy balance or the
diffusion of water vapor (mass-transfer methods). There are other empirical and experimental methods
that are also used.

Methods

1. Water Budget:

2. Energy Balance: This method is widely used for estimating the amount of evaporation from a
large body of water such as lakes and reservoirs.
3. Mass transfer (aerodynamic):
4. Combined (Energy and mass transfer):
The combination method is best for application to small areas with detailed climatological data
including net radiation, air temperature, humidity, wind speed, and air pressure.
 5. Experimental (Evaporation Tank):

Water budget methods have poor accuracy.

Thus, energy and mass-transfer approaches are most used. However, many variables are needed that
are not easy to measure.

To eliminate the dependence on some variables that are difficult to measure, these two methods are
often combined.

Evaporation may be computed by the aerodynamic method when energy supply is not limiting and by
the energy balance method when vapor transport is not limiting. But, normally both of these factors are
limiting, so a combination of the two methods is needed.