Abstract :
Many applications in diverse disciplines require estimates of evapotranspiration (ET) at hourly or smaller time steps. The primary objectives of this study were to compare the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and FAO-56 Penman–Monteith equations for 15-min ET0 (ET0,15-min,ASCE and ET0,15-min,FAO) estimations for humid climate conditions and to compare the 24 h sum of ASCE (ET0,24 h,ASCE) and FAO-56 15-min ET0 (ET0,24 h,FAO) with the daily ET0 (ET0,d,FAO) computed from the daily FAO-56 equation, which is identical to ASCE daily ET0 equation. Ten-year, i.e., 1997–2006 continuous 15-min and daily weather data for 11 representative and well-distributed sites throughout Georgia, USA were used. It was evident that during the day, ET0,15-min,ASCE was higher than ET0,15-min,FAO due to a lower surface resistance parameter value, while at night ET0,15-min,ASCE was lower than ET0,15-min,FAO due to a higher surface resistance parameter value. The ET0,15-min,FAO was about 5% less than ET0,15-min,ASCE and ET0,24 h,FAO was about 5% lower than ET0,24 h,ASCE. The difference between ET0,15-min,ASCE and ET0,15-min,FAO during the day and night was highly dependent on wind speed. During the three summer months, i.e., June, July and August, on average, ET0,24 h,FAO was only 1% higher than ET0,d,FAO while ET0,24 h,ASCE was 5% higher than ET0,d,FAO. For the entire year, ET0,24 h,FAO was 8% higher than ET0,d,FAO while ET0,24 h,ASCE was 13% higher than ET0,d,FAO. The ET0,24 h,FAO and ET0,d,FAO had a better agreement than ET0,24 h,ASCE and ET0,d,FAO throughout the year and during the summer months. It is also worth noting that the daily calculations for FAO-56 and ASCE were identical. These results demonstrated that for applications that require 15-min time steps or daily ET0 for the entire year, the use of ET0,15-min,FAO and ET0,24 h,FAO, respectively, will yield more consistent outcomes. The use of ET0,d,FAO during the summer months can be as accurate as the use of ET0,24 h,FAO for applications that require daily time steps, such as irrigation scheduling.
