Evaporation and radiation measurements at Salton Sea, California

Evaporation from the Salton Sea, Calif., was computed for a 539-day period between July 14, 1967, and January 2, 1969, by use of energy-budget, mass-transfer, and water budget methods. The total evaporation computed by the three methods agreed within 5 percent. The values of heat transfer to and from the bed were used in the energy-budget computations. Monthly evaporation computed by the energy-budget method for 1968 showed that the Salton Sea exhibited a double wave evaporation similar to that of oceans in the same latitude. Weekly and montly comparisons were made to determine if radiation measured by the flat-plate radiometer is seasonally biased. These comparisons indicate that the measurements of radiation by the flat-plate radiometer are not seasonally biased, and that the Cummings Radiation Integrator gives reliable measurements of radiation for periods as short as 1 week. An empirical mass-transfer coefficient, N, as determined from energy-budget measurements. The value of this coefficient to give evaporation in inches per day is 0.00245 when the windspeed is expressed in miles per hour and the vapor pressure expressed in millibars. (Woodard-USGS)