Seasonal variability of daily evapotranspiration and energy fluxes in the Central Andes of Peru using eddy covariance techniques and empirical methods

Abstract

In this study, we analyze the mechanisms associated to evapotranspiration over the high central Peruvian Andes, a place where evapotranspiration has been poorly characterized. We made use of the eddy covariance system (sonic anemometer and a krypton hygrometer) installed at the Huancayo Observatory (12.04° S, 75.32°, 3330 m.a.s.l.) to document for the first time the hourly, daily and monthly variability of surface energy fluxes from July 2016 to June 2017. The relationship between evapotranspiration and meteorological variables is also examined. Furthermore, we evaluated the performance of three empirical equations that estimate the potential evapotranspiration to explore their adequacy in the central Peruvian Andes. These are the FAO Penman-Monteith (PM), Priestley-Taylor (PT) and Hargreaves. Likewise, the accuracy of the MODIS16A2 evapotranspiration product was also examined...