EVAPORATION

• Definition: Process by which water is changed from the

liquid or solid state into the gaseous state through the
transfer of heat energy (ASCE, 1949).

• It occurs when some water molecules attain sufficient

kinetic energy to break through the water surface and
escape into the atmosphere (~ 600 cal needed to
evaporate 1 gram of water).

• Depends on the supply of heat energy and the vapor

pressure gradient (which, in turn, depends on water and
air temperatures, wind, atmospheric pressure, solar
radiation, etc).
 Factors Affecting Evaporation
(a) Meteorological factors

Solar radiation - changes depend upon latitude, season,

time of day and sky, condition (cloudiness), Air
temperature, vapor pressure, wind velocity and atmospheric
pressure

(b) Nature of evaporating surface:

Vegetation, building, paved streets, soil surface, snow / ice

(c) Water quality

Salinity and dissolved solids.

 TRANSPIRATION (T)
• Transpiration is the evaporation occurring through plant
leaves (stomatal openings).

• Transpiration is affected by plant physiology and

environmental factors, such as:
- Type of vegetation
- Stage and growth of plants
- Soil conditions (type and moisture)
- Climate and weather
 EVAPOTRANSPIRATION (ET)
• Combined “loss” of water vapor from within the
leaves of plants (“transpiration”) and evaporation of
liquid water from water surfaces, bare soil and
vegetative surfaces.

• Globally, about 61% of the precipitation that falls on

the continent is evapotranspired (~72,000 km3/yr);

• Approximately 70% of the mean annual rainfall in the

U.S. is returned to the atmosphere as evaporation or
transpiration.
 EVAPOTRANSPIRATION (ET)
• In practice, the terms E and ET are often used to
mean the same thing - the evaporation from the land
surface.

• Therefore, you must use the context to determine

what the term evaporation means in a specific case
(i.e., is it just from an open water surface or the entire
land surface?).
 POTENTIAL EVAPORATION (PE)
• is the climate controlled evaporation from an open
water surface with unlimited supply (and no thermal
capacity).
POTENTIAL EVAPOTRANSPIRATION
(PET)
• is the ET that would occur from a well vegetated
surface when moisture supply is not limiting
(often calculated as the PE).

• Actual evapotranspiration (AET; ET) drops

below its potential level as the soil dries.
 DESIGN
• Evaporation must be considered in the design of large
water storage reservoirs, large-scale water resources
planning and water supply studies.

• For flood flow studies, urban drainage design

applications it may be neglected.

• Example: during typical storm periods with

intensities of 0.5 in/hr, evaporation is on the order of
0.01 in/hr.
METHODS FOR ESTIMATING EVAPORATION
1. Analytical Methods:
1. Water budget methods,
2. Energy budget methods
3. Mass transfer techniques (e.g., Meyer,
Thornthwaile-Holzman)
2. Empirical Equation:
1. Combination of energy budget and mass transfer
methods (e.g.,Penman)
3. Using Evaporimeter data (Pan Evaporation):
 Energy budget method
Total solar
radiation - Rt

Net energy advected Reflected solar

(net energy content of Net long-wave radiation
radiation - Rr
incoming and Sensible heat loss exchange between the
from the water atmospere and the water
outcoming water - Ea Energy used for
evaporation
body to the body- R1
atmosphere - Hn
(latent heat)- Ee

Energy stored - Es

R1 includes long-wave (LW) radiation from the atmosphere, reflected LW radiation, LW radiation emitted by water
 Energy budget method
 g  cal 
Es  2   Ea  Rt   Rr  Ee  H n  R1 
 cm - day 

Rr R1
Ee Rt Ee Hn

Es

R1 includes long-wave (LW) radiation from the atmosphere, reflected LW radiation, LW radiation emitted by water
 Energy budget method

• Amount of evaporation - E

 mm  Ee
E   10
 day  Hv

 g  cal 
Hv  3 
 596  0.52T - latent heat of vaporization
 cm 

T C  - temperature of the water surface

 Energy budget method
Characteristics:
• Most accurate method (evaporation is a
function of the energy state of the water
system)
• Difficult to evaluate all terms
• Energy balance equation has to be simplified
• Empirical formulas are used (although
radiation measurements are preferable)
 Water budget method
S
 P  Q  Qr  Qs   Q0  Qd  E   E 
t
Precipitation - P

Evaporation- E Inflow- Q

Surface runoff - Qr

Subsurface
runoff - Qs

Subsurface seepage losses- Qd

Outflow- Q0
 Water budget method
 ac - ft 
• Units: E 
 month 
• Depth of evaporation:
 in  12 E
*
E   
 day  nAp
 mm  12(25.4) E
*
E   
 day  nAp

n – number of days
Ap – area of the pond [ac]
 Water budget method

Characteristics:
- Simple
- Difficult to estimate Qd and Qs
- Unreliable, accuracy will increase as Δt
increases
Mass transfer methods - definitions
 17.3T 
es [mb]  6.11exp  ;
 T  237.3 
es mm Hg 
es [mb]
; Table 14.1
1.36
e
Rh 
es
e – actual vapor pressure (difference in the atmospheric pressure with
and without the vapor)

es – saturated vapor pressure (partial pressure of water vapor in

saturated air)

T [ºC] – air temperature

Rh – relative humidity
• Evaporation is a diffusive process (moves from
where its concentration is larger to where its
concentration is smaller at a rate that is
proportional to the gradient of concentration):
E = b0 (es0 – ea)

es0 – vapore pressure of the evaporating surface;

saturation vapor pressure at the water surface
temperature Ts
- ea – vapor pressure of overlying air at the same
height
- b0 – empirical coefficient that has to be
calibrated
• E = b0 (es0 – ea)

• Studies showed that

b0 = function (air turbulence)=fn(v)

• E = b1 fn(v)(es – ea)

• Meyer’s formula:
E = 0.5 (1 + 0.1 v30)(es – ea)
v30 - wind speed [mi/h] at 30 ft height;
es; ea [in Hg]
E [in/day]
• b0 = f(v, es, ea, Ta, Tw)

• Thornthwaite-Holzman equation (no calibration)

b0 = f(v,T,k);
k – Von Karman constant (0.41)

833k (e1  e2 )(v2  v1 )

2
E 2
 z2 
ln   T  459.4
 z1 
 Combination approach – Penman equation

• Combine mass-transfer and energy-balance equations

to derive an evaporation equation that does not
require water surface temperature data.

  En    Eao
(14  24) Hw 
 

 mm 
Hw   - evaporation
 day 
 mm 
En   - net radiation
 day 
 mm 
Eao   - mass transfer
 day 
   En    Eao
Penman equation: Hw 
 

e0  ea* 1 25,083  17.3T 

(14  14)   exp  
T0  T 1.36 T  237.32
 T  237.3 

Δ [mm Hg/ºC] – slope of the saturation vapor pressure curve at mean temperature
T0 [ºC] – temperature of the water surface
T [ºC] – temperature of the air
e0 [mm Hg] - vapor pressure of the water surface
ea* [mm Hg] - saturated vapor pressure at temperature T
   En    Eao
Penman equation: Hw 
 

• En [mm/day] – net radiation

 g - cal 
• Start with energy equation: Rn    RI  R B
 cm  day 
2

Rn – net radiation
RI – amount of energy absorbed (shortwave)
RB – net outward flow of longwave radiation
   En    Eao
Penman equation: Hw 
 

Rn  RI  RB

 n
RI  RA 1  r  a  b 
 D

RI [g-cal/cm2-day] – amount of energy absorbed (shortwave)

RA [g-cal/cm2-day] – total possible radiation for the period of estimation;
it is function of latitude and season; Table 14-3.
r – reflection coef. (0.05-0.12)
a,b – empirical coef. (a=0.2; b=0.5)
n/D – fraction of possible sunshine (from climatic atlas)
Rn  RI  RB

 
 n
RB   T  273 0.47  0.077 e  0.2  0.8 
4

 D
7  cal 
  1.1777 10  2 4 
 cm C day 

• Rn[g-cal/cm2-day] – net radiation

• RI [g-cal/cm2-day] – amount of energy absorbed (shortwave)
• RB [g-cal/cm2-day] – net outward flow of longwave radiation
• e [mm Hg] – actual vapor pressure
• T [ºC] – air temperature
• n/D – fraction of possible sunshine (from climatic atlas)
   En    Eao
Penman equation: Hw 
 

 mm  Rn
En    10  net radiation
 day  Hv
 g - cal 
Rn  2   net radiation
 cm  day 
 g - cal 
Hv  3 
 596  0.52T - latent heat of vaporization
 cm 
   En    Eao
Penman equation: Hw 
 

 g - cal 
Rn  2 
 cm  day 
 mm  Rn
En    10
 day  Hv
 g - cal 
Hv  3 
 596  0.52T
 cm 
• En – net radiation
• Rn – net radiation
•Hv –latent heat of vaporization
   En    Eao
Penman equation: Hw 
 

c p pa
 (14 - 11)
0.62 H v
c p  specific heat of air at constant pressure
pa  atmospheric pressure
 g - cal 
Hv  3 
 596  0.52T - latent heat of vaporization
 cm 

  0.485 (typicalvalue)
   En    Eao
Penman equation: H w (E) 
 

 mm 
Eao   - mass transfer (based on diffusivit y law)
 day 

Ea 0  0.35es  e 0.2  0.55V 

es mm Hg - saturated vapor pressure at air temperature Ta

e mm Hg - actual vapor pressure at air temperature Ta
V [m/sec] - wind spead at 2 m height
 Penman equation:

 mm    En    Eao
Hw    - evaporation
 day   

E acre - ft  - total evaporation

 mm 
E acre - ft   H w   ndays Areaacres  
1 1

 day  12 25.4
Measuring evaporation
U.S. Weather Bureau Class A Pan

4 ft

Wooden
10 in
support
6 in

Galvanized
steel
 Evaporation pan
S
 P  Q  Qr  Qs   Q0  Qd  E 
t
S S
P  Ep   Ep  P 
t t

Surface runoff - Qr Evaporation - E Precipitation - P

Inflow- Q

Subsurface
runoff - Qs

Outflow- Q
Subsurface seepage losses- Qd
 Evaporation Pan

• Historical records of daily pan evaporation

are available from the National Climatic
Data Center (NCDC) for U.S. Weather
Buruau Class A Land pans.
 Evaporation Pan
We are not really interested in what
evaporates from a pan; instead we want to
know the regional evaporation from land
surface or the evaporation from a nearby lake.
Unfortunately, pan evaporation is often a poor
indicator of these variables (due in part to pan
boundary effects and limited heat storage).
 Evaporation Pan

• Evaporation from an open water surface (E) is

usually estimated from the pan evaporation (Ep)
as:
E = K Ep
where K is the pan coefficient (regional coef,
usually around ~0.7). Similar expressions are
also used in practice to estimate potential
evapotranspiration from pan data.
Pan coefficient
FIGURE 2. Source:
Farnsworth,
Richard K., Edwin
S. Thompson, and
Eugene L. Peck.
After Map 4: Pan
Coefficients.

In NOAA Technical
Report NWS 33,
Evaporation Atlas
for the Contiguous
48 United States,
NWS, NOAA, 1982.