Estimating evaporation: a technique adaptable to remote sensing.

A procedure is presented for calculating 24-hour totals of evaporation from wet and drying soils. Its application requires a knowledge of the daily solar radiation and the maximum and minimum air temperatures (standard Weather Service measurements), moist surface albedo (readily estimated or obtainable from a one-time measurement), and maximum and minimum surface temperatures (obtainable from surface or airborne sensors). Tests of the technique on a bare field of Avondale loam at Phoenix, Arizona, have shown it to be independent of season.