Evaporation from Irrigated Lands in Arid Regions as Inferred from the Regional Climate Model and Atmospheric Boundary Layer Model Simulations

The applicability is analyzed of the modeling system consisting of the MGO regional climate model and multilevel atmospheric boundary layer model for the mesoscale climate change evaluation in the regions with irrigated land use. Based on these models, the Aral Sea evolution impact on the spatial distribution of temperature and humidity in the vicinity of irrigated land is assessed. Numerical experiments cover climate evolution during 1979–2011. It is shown that in the middle of the 20th century the Aral Sea impact was manifested in the temperature and humidity distributions up to the altitude of 200–300 m at the distance of about 40 km off the seashore. The effect of advection on the calculated values of evapotranspiration in irrigated areas located at different distances from the sea is also investigated. Different methods for the determination of evapotranspiration over the irrigated cotton fields are intercompared. The influence of different resolution of surface temperature distribution on total evapotranspiration estimates is analyzed.