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Hydrologic cycle explains the evaporation paradox

Author

Listed:
  • W. Brutsaert

    (School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University)

  • M. B. Parlange

    (Johns Hopkins University)

Abstract

The evaporation of water, measured using evaporation pans, has been decreasing in the past few decades over large areas with different climates. The common interpretation is that the trend is related to increasing cloudiness, and that it provides an indication of decreasing potential evaporation and a decreasing terrestrial evaporation component in the hydrologic cycle. Here we show that, although these studies are valuable, pan evaporation has not been used correctly as an indicator of climate change.

Suggested Citation

  • W. Brutsaert & M. B. Parlange, 1998. "Hydrologic cycle explains the evaporation paradox," Nature, Nature, vol. 396(6706), pages 30-30, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:396:y:1998:i:6706:d:10.1038_23845
    DOI: 10.1038/23845
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    Cited by:

    1. Yuliya Vystavna & Astrid Harjung & Lucilena R. Monteiro & Ioannis Matiatos & Leonard I. Wassenaar, 2021. "Stable isotopes in global lakes integrate catchment and climatic controls on evaporation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-7, December.
    2. Meng Li & Ronghao Chu & Abu Reza Md. Towfiqul Islam & Yuelin Jiang & Shuanghe Shen, 2020. "Attribution Analysis of Long-Term Trends of Aridity Index in the Huai River Basin, Eastern China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-25, February.
    3. Geng, Qingling & Zhao, Yongkun & Sun, Shikun & He, Xiaohui & Wang, Dong & Wu, Dingrong & Tian, Zhihui, 2023. "Spatio-temporal changes and its driving forces of irrigation water requirements for cotton in Xinjiang, China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 280(C).
    4. Monika Punia & Suman Nain & Amit Kumar & Bhupendra Singh & Amit Prakash & Krishan Kumar & V. Jain, 2015. "Analysis of temperature variability over north-west part of India for the period 1970–2000," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 75(1), pages 935-952, January.
    5. Quanchong Su & Changlei Dai & Qingsong Zhang & Yang Zhou, 2023. "Analysis of Potential Evapotranspiration in Heilongjiang Province," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-15, October.
    6. Amir AghaKouchak & Nasrin Nasrollahi, 2010. "Semi-parametric and Parametric Inference of Extreme Value Models for Rainfall Data," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 24(6), pages 1229-1249, April.
    7. Zhuangzhi Sun & Chuanlong Han & Shouwei Gao & Zhaoxin Li & Mingxing Jing & Haipeng Yu & Zuankai Wang, 2022. "Achieving efficient power generation by designing bioinspired and multi-layered interfacial evaporator," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    8. Yongshan Jiang & Zhaofei Liu, 2022. "Simulation of Actual Evapotranspiration and Evaluation of Three Complementary Relationships in Three Parallel River Basins," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 36(13), pages 5107-5126, October.
    9. Chenchen Ren & Guoyu Ren & Panfeng Zhang & Suonam Kealdrup Tysa & Yun Qin, 2021. "Urbanization Significantly Affects Pan-Evaporation Trends in Large River Basins of China Mainland," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-11, April.
    10. Gianna Kitsara & Georgia Papaioannou & Athanasios Papathanasiou & Adrianos Retalis, 2013. "Dimming/brightening in Athens: Trends in Sunshine Duration, Cloud Cover and Reference Evapotranspiration," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 27(6), pages 1623-1633, April.
    11. Zhang, Lei & Traore, Seydou & Cui, Yuanlai & Luo, Yufeng & Zhu, Ge & Liu, Bo & Fipps, Guy & Karthikeyan, R. & Singh, Vijay, 2019. "Assessment of spatiotemporal variability of reference evapotranspiration and controlling climate factors over decades in China using geospatial techniques," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 499-511.
    12. Zhao, Ziyang & Wang, Hongrui & Wang, Cheng & Li, Wangcheng & Chen, Hao & Deng, Caiyun, 2020. "Changes in reference evapotranspiration over Northwest China from 1957 to 2018: Variation characteristics, cause analysis and relationships with atmospheric circulation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    13. Kun Yang & Baisheng Ye & Degang Zhou & Bingyi Wu & Thomas Foken & Jun Qin & Zhaoye Zhou, 2011. "Response of hydrological cycle to recent climate changes in the Tibetan Plateau," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 109(3), pages 517-534, December.
    14. Fu, Chong & Song, Xiaoyu & Li, Lanjun & Zhao, Xinkai & Meng, Pengfei & Wang, Long & Wei, Wanyin & Guo, Songle & Zhu, Deming & He, Xi & Yang, Dongdan & Li, Huaiyou, 2024. "Combining the FAO-56 method and the complementary principle to partition the evapotranspiration of typical plantations and grasslands in the Chinese Loess Plateau," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 295(C).
    15. Fu, Chong & Song, Xiaoyu & Li, Lanjun & Zhao, Xinkai & Meng, Pengfei & Wang, Long & Wei, Wanyin & Yang, Nan & Li, Huaiyou, 2023. "Combining the Generalized Complementary Relationship and the Modified Priestley-Taylor Equation to estimate and partition the evapotranspiration of typical plantations and grasslands in the Loess Plat," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 287(C).
    16. Elham Forootan, 2019. "Analysis of trends of hydrologic and climatic variables," Soil and Water Research, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 14(3), pages 163-171.
    17. Sun, Juying & Wang, Genxu & Sun, Xiangyang & Hu, Zhaoyong & Lin, Shan & Wang, Fei & Yang, Yi, 2022. "New cognition on the response of reference evapotranspiration to climate change in China using an independent climatic driver system," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    18. Wang, Hong & Sun, Fubao & Liu, Fa & Wang, Tingting & Liu, Wenbin & Feng, Yao, 2023. "Reconstruction of the pan evaporation based on meteorological factors with machine learning method over China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 287(C).
    19. Sergio M. Vicente‐Serrano & Tim R. McVicar & Diego G. Miralles & Yuting Yang & Miquel Tomas‐Burguera, 2020. "Unraveling the influence of atmospheric evaporative demand on drought and its response to climate change," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(2), March.

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