Evaporation Into the Atmosphere: Theory, History, and Applications

Evaporation is a topic that crosses several disciplines, and comprehensive texts on the subject are rare. Evaporation Into the Atmosphere is, therefore, a welcome addition to the literature. The approach to the determination of evaporation varies significantly depending upon the constraints that control the system of interest. The oceanographer, for example, is concerned with evaporation from large bodies of water and tends to approach the problem from the aerodynamic or turbulent‐diffusion point of view. The hydrologist, on the other hand, is mainly interested in evaporation from the soil and water transpired by plants and may apply the aerodynamic approach to determine evapotranspiration from large homogeneous fields but will be forced to apply the water budget or various degrees of empirism in dealing with long‐term losses from heterogeneous basins. Finally, the water‐resources engineer concerned with water or energy losses from lakes, reservoirs, or streams, will seldomly apply a purely aerodynamic approach having found that the energy budget, semi‐empirical mass transfer, or other approaches best meet his needs.