Energy balance of irrigated intercropping field in the middle reaches of Heihe River basin

Based on the experiments conducted in an irrigated intercropping field in Zhangye Oasis in the middle reaches of Heihe River basin in 2004, the characteristics of radiation budget are analyzed. Furthermore, energy balance is calculated by using Bowen-Ratio Energy Balance (BREB) method. The results show that the ratio of the absorbed radiation to the incoming short radiation in intercropping crop canopy-soil system is increasing with growing stages, from 0.81 in the initial growing stage (IGS) to 0.86 in the late growing stage (LGS). The net radiation, which is smaller in IGS, increases rapidly in the first period of the middle growing stage (MGS) and reaches the maximum value in the second period of MGS. It then somewhat decreases in LGS. The ratio of net radiation to total radiation has a similar trend with the net radiation. In the whole growing stages, latent heat flux, which takes up 70% or so of the net radiation, is the dominant item in energy balance. Sensible heat flux shares 20% of the net radiation and soil heat flux has a percentage of 10%. The characteristics of heat balance vary distinctly in different growing stages. In IGS, the ratios of latent heat flux, sensible heat flux and soil heat flux to net radiation are 44.5%, 23.8% and 31.7% respectively. In MGS, with the increasing of latent heat flux and the decreasing of sensible heat flux and soil heat flux, the ratios turn into 84.4%, 6.3% and 9.3%. In LGS, the soil heat flux maintains 0W/m2 or so, and latent heat flux and sensible heat flux take up 61.4% and 38.6% respectively. The energy balance also shows an obvious daily variation characteristic.