Characteristics of modelling hourly water surface evaporation in Lake Taihu and comparison of simulation results by three models

Water surface evaporation on hourly timescale can affect the thermal and dynamic structure of the aloft atmospheric boundary layers. Understanding the main drivers of hourly evaporation and accurate evaporation model can improve weather forecast and air quality prediction in catchment. Based on half⁃hour flux, radiation and micrometeorological observations at the Bifenggang site in Lake Taihu in 2012 and 2013, the main drivers of Lake Taihu hourly evaporation were investigated. Then the performance of three models ( traditional mass transfer model, Granger and Hedstrom model and DYRESM model) was evaluated against latent heat flux measured by eddy covariance. The results showed that the main driver for Taihu hourly evaporation was the product of the water vapor pressure difference at water⁃atmosphere interface and wind speed, rather than the expected net radiation. The Willmott