Open AccessRainwater storage on plant canopies
Author(s) -
De Ridder Koen
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: atmospheres
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/2001jd900128
Subject(s) - interception , rainwater harvesting , canopy , drainage , environmental science , hydrology (agriculture) , water storage , meteorology , geology , physics , inlet , geotechnical engineering , geography , ecology , archaeology , geomorphology , biology
A physically based model is presented that describes the storage of rainwater on plant canopies. Founded on a microscopic treatment of interception and drainage, it accounts for the vertical dependence of these processes and reproduces the fact that drainage starts before the canopy is saturated. On the basis of theoretical results, a new equation for canopy water storage is proposed for use within land surface schemes as an alternative to the single‐store model, combining the advantage of a physically sounder description with a negligible additional numerical cost. A sensitivity study performed with a land surface scheme hosting the two different models shows that the difference in latent heat flux simulated with the new approach and the single‐store model can amount to several tens of watts per square meter. Finally, it is shown that the theoretical model reproduces the exact functional form of the empirical canopy drainage formula proposed by Rutter et al . [1971]. Not only does this fact inspire confidence in our model, it also opens perspectives for the measurement of certain parameters used in the new interception model.