Historical developments of models for estimating evaporation using standard meteorological data

Abstract

Evaporation plays a key role in the hydrology of a catchment. World-wide actual terrestrial evaporation is approximately two third of terrestrial precipitation. Evaporation is the focus of this study in which we describe the historical developments of models for estimating evaporation from standard meteorological data. Although Aristotle and Descartes made early contributions to understanding evaporation, Perrault is credited with having made the first experimental measurement of evaporation in about 1674 though in fact what he measured was sublimation by recording the loss of weight of a block of ice through time. In 1686, Halley carried out the first direct measurement of the evaporation o..