Estimating evaporation from bare or nearly bare soil

A model is presented that uses a daily mean evapotranspiration ETo rate to estimate energy-limited (potential or Stage 1) soil evaporation, and it also uses daily mean ETo and a soil hydraulic β factor to estimate soil hydraulic property-limited (Stage 2) evaporation. The model provides good estimates of cumulative soil evaporation on both hourly and daily bases when compared to observed soil evaporation in three field trials. Crop coefficient Kc values from cumulative hourly and cumulative daily soil evaporation estimates and ETo data were comparable. Using a soil hydraulic factor (β = 2.6) in the model gave a fair approximation for the widely used Kc curves for initial growth of crops presented in the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization's Irrigation and Drainage Paper 24. However, using a site-specific β factor should improve soil evaporation and Kc estimates for site-specific applications.