Estimation Accuracy for Reciprocal Analysis of Sensible and Latent Heat Flux Focusing on Radiometric Temperature and Lag-Time

There is no word to describe the importance of evapotranspiration research for water resource utilization. We have already proposed a new method for the reciprocal estimation of the sensible (H) and latent heat fluxes (lE) by using a single height temperature (Tz) and humidity (rehz) based on the observed net radiation (Rn) and ground heat flux (G). This research is more advanced than the previous research because it uses a Ts observed by a radiometer and identifies the observed data satisfactorily heat balance relationship in every hour at nine sites. First, we confirmed that the estimated H and lE are very close reproductions of the identified H and lE. Second, by analyzing the relative ground surface temperature (Ts - T0) [Ts: ground surface temperature, T0: observed temperature near the soil surface], the hourly and seasonal changes of (Ts - T0) were clarified, resulting in a marked difference in the (Ts - T0) from previous research in arid and semi-arid regions. Next, the estimation accuracy of H, lE and rehs (the humidity of the soil surface) was determined by observing the slope of the estimated and observed relationship, resulting in the reasonable accuracy (0.85 - 1.15 times) of rehs at seven of the nine sites. Furthermore, the annual evapotranspiration was estimated by comparing the identified and estimated H and lE, resulting in a reasonable accuracy (0.85 - 1.15) at five of the nine sites in the case of the application of constraint b. Moreover, the effect of the lag-time between the net radiation Rn and both Tz and Ts for the estimation accuracy on H and lE was tested, and no remarkable difference was found because the effect was included already in the original data. The above results will contribute greatly to the advance of water resource planning and hydrometeorology. This research was conducted using FLUXNET data.