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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #316893

Title: Applications of a thermal-based two-source energy balance model using Priestley-Taylor approach for surface temperature partitioning (TSEB_PTT) under advective conditions

Author
item SONG, L. - Collaborator
item Kustas, William - Bill
item LIU, S. - Collaborator

Submitted to: BARC Poster Day
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/15/2015
Publication Date: 5/29/2015
Citation: Song, L., Kustas, W.P., Liu, S. 2015. Applications of a thermal-based two-source energy balance model using Priestley-Taylor approach for surface temperature partitioning (TSEB_PTT) under advective conditions. BARC Poster Day.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Operational application of the two source energy balance model (TSEB) which can estimate evaportranspiration (ET) and the components evaporation (E), transpiration (T) of the land surface in different climates is very useful for many applications in hydrology and agriculture. The TSEB model uses an iterative process to partition the composite temperature into soil and vegetation component temperatures, and subsequent component energy fluxes. The energy flux partitioning process in TSEB has not been evaluated under a wide range of environmental conditions due to a dearth of reliable component temperature and E and T measurements. In this study ground measured soil and vegetation component temperatures from a high spatial resolution thermal camera collected in an irrigated maize field are used to assess and refine the component temperature partitioning approach in TSEB. A refinement to TSEB using a non-iterative approach based on application of the Priestley-Taylor formulation for surface temperature partitioning (TSEB_PTT) was developed that improved the agreement between observed and modeled soil and vegetation temperatures under high canopy cover combined with advective conditions. In addition, the TSEB_PTT model output of E, T and ET are compared to E, T and ET from ground observations using the stable isotopic method and eddy covariance (EC) technique over a growing season. There is good agreement between the model and EC observations of ET, yielding errors of less than 12% on a daily basis. In summary, the TSEBPTT model was found to accurately reproduce the E, T and ET temporal dynamics over a growing season under the advective conditions existing for this irrigated maize field located in a semi-arid climate, and thus could potentially be used as a tool for improving water use efficiency and conservation practices in water limited semi-arid regions.