.[1] Accurate quantification of energy and mass transfer during soil water evaporation is critical for improving understanding of the hydrologic cycle and for many environmental, agricultural, and engineering applications. Drying of soil under radiation boundary conditions results in formation of a dry surface layer (DSL), which is accompanied by a shift in the position of the latent heat sink from the surface to the subsurface. Detailed investigation of evaporative dynamics within this active near-surface zone has mostly been limited to modeling, with few measurements available to test models. Soil column studies were conducted to quantify nonisothermal subsurface evaporation profiles using a sensible heat balance (SHB) approach. Eleven-needle heat pulse probes were used to measure soil temperature and thermal property distributions at the millimeter scale in the near-surface soil. Depth-integrated SHB evaporation rates were compared with mass balance evaporation estimates under controlled laboratory conditions. The results show that the SHB method effectively measured total subsurface evaporation rates with only 0.01-0.03 mm h À1 difference from mass balance estimates. The SHB approach also quantified millimeter-scale nonisothermal subsurface evaporation profiles over a drying event, which has not been previously possible. Thickness of the DSL was also examined using measured soil thermal conductivity distributions near the drying surface. Estimates of the DSL thickness were consistent with observed evaporation profile distributions from SHB. Estimated thickness of the DSL was further used to compute diffusive vapor flux. The diffusive vapor flux also closely matched both mass balance evaporation rates and subsurface evaporation rates estimated from SHB.
A dry surface layer (DSL) forms when wet soil is exposed to the sun; development of a DSL coincides with a shift between surface and subsurface evaporation. There remains debate as to when this shift from surface to subsurface evaporation occurs relative to the timing of the shift between potential and falling‐rate evaporation. We performed a field experiment to investigate the onset of subsurface evaporation, development of the DSL, and the extent of the evaporation zone. Our objective was to determine the timing of the onset of subsurface evaporation with respect to decline in evaporation rates. We estimated total (surface plus subsurface) and subsurface soil evaporation rates using microlysimeter (water mass balance) and sensible heat balance (SHB) approaches, respectively, for a bare loamy sand soil under natural wetting and drying cycles. Results showed that the onset of subsurface evaporation coincided with the beginning of falling‐rate evaporation. The evaporation zone extended into the subsurface when evaporation rates fell below the potential rate but were still as high as 50% of potential evaporation. Over a 5‐d drying event, estimated evaporation zones were as deep as 4 to 9 mm, and the estimated DSL had a maximum depth of approximately 6 mm. A low soil water content‐dependent albedo was observed when evaporation occurred at potential rates, but albedo increased as evaporation rates declined. Data from the intensive observation period suggest that this increase in albedo corresponded to formation of a DSL and onset of subsurface evaporation. Overall, surface drying and formation of a DSL appeared to be a dominant process for this coarse‐texture soil exposed to ambient boundary conditions, even as evaporation rates remained relatively high (0.3 mm h−1).
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