An effective formulation for estimating wetland surface energy fluxes
from weather data
Abstract
In modelling evapotranspiration, the need for land surface variables
including ground heat fluxes (G), surface temperature (Ts), surface
relative humidity (RHs) and surface resistance often present a challenge
due to land heterogeneity and limited measurements. This study
introduces a simple formulation rooted in the shared physical basis of
the maximum entropy model (MaxEnt), the Relative Humidity at Equilibrium
(ETRHEQ) method, and the Surface Flux Equilibrium (SFE) method, and it
estimates sensible (H) and latent fluxes (LE) in wetlands without
requiring land surface variables or site-specific calibration, except
for an assumed vegetation height. Further, it effectively estimates LE
from half-hourly to monthly scales in FLUXNET and AmeriFlux wetland
sites. While its performance in estimating H is less satisfactory due to
loosely constrained boundary conditions, it shows promising potential
for simultaneously and precisely estimating LE, H, G, Ts, and RHs from
weather data in various ecosystems.