ACCURACY OF EVAPOTRANSPIRATION DETERMINATIONS BY THE BOWEN RATIO METHOD

Open Access

1 June 1965

journal article
research article
Published by Taylor & Francis in International Association of Scientific Hydrology. Bulletin

Vol. 10 (2) , 38-48
https://doi.org/10.1080/02626666509493388

Abstract

Evapotranspiration rates determined from meteorological data by the Bowen ratio method were tested against rates obtained from weighing lysimeters. The tests were conducted on an irrigated field (73 by 92 meters), where the minimum fetch was 27 m. Air-temperature and vapor-pressure differences obtained as 15-minute averages at heights of from 5 to 40 cm above the crop surface were used to calculate evapotranspiration. The results indicate that the Bowen ratio method can be used successfully to determine the evaporative flux for short periods, which can be summed for longer periods. During daylight periods, the absolute errors were less that. 0.02 cal cm⁻² min⁻¹ (or ly min⁻¹), while the relative errors were less than 5 percent.

Keywords

This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit:

Micrometeorological Data Handling System
Journal of Applied Meteorology, 1963
Energy Balance Approach to Evapotranspiration from Crops
Soil Science Society of America Journal, 1960
The Ratio of Heat Losses by Conduction and by Evaporation from any Water Surface
Physical Review B, 1926