The influence of heat conduction on evaporation from sunken pans in hot, dry environment

Lateral heat conduction across a large circular sunken pan located in a hot, dry environment is evaluated using a numerical procedure. Heat flow across the sunken pan–adjacent soil boundary is calculated using a two-dimensional soil plane. Calculations show that a large temperature differential across the pan–substrate boundary develops during the entire diurnal cycle during January and July, leading to consistently positive heat flow from the soil towards the sunken pan. Heat conduction across the pan–substrate boundary represents 10 and 34% of net radiation over the sunken pan during July and January, respectively. This additional heat source, which is not available for shallow lakes, increases annual evaporation from the sunken pan by about 5–8% in July and January, respectively. In hot arid environments, a sunken pan will overestimate evaporation from a nearby shallow lake/dam due to a larger surface roughness and consistently positive conduction heat flow across the pan–substrate boundary.