Evapotranspiration-Atmospheric Boundary Layer Interactions across Scales of Surface Heterogeneity

Summary

Irrigation in drylands creates thermal heterogeneities in the land surface, which have implications for both water resources and the development of regional weather patterns through its influence on the atmospheric boundary layer. I investigated the influence of irrigation-driven surface heterogeneity on evapotranspiration through feedbacks with the lowest layer of the atmosphere: the atmospheric boundary layer. The study centered on data collected during the 2021 LIAISE experiment in the northeastern Iberian Peninsula. The observations were supplemented with both conceptual and turbulence-resolving atmospheric modeling experiments.

The findings from this study are relevant for quantifying and understanding the fate of water in semi-arid regions. By investigating the influence of spatial scale on the processes that govern the bi-directional feedbacks between the surface and the atmosphere, we identify emergent properties that may become relevant as weather and climate models move to higher resolutions.