Potential and visible evaporation and its variations in European Russia over the recent 50 years by experimental data

Abstract

Variations in pan evaporation in European Russia from 1951 to 2010 have been studied, and regions with specific variations of potential evaporation have been identified. It is shown that evaporation decseases all over the territory under consideration, and intensity of its decreasing up to the late 1970s was far in excess of that in the decades that followed. The decrease in the variations in evaporation may be regarded as an indicator of reduction of intensity of heat and moisture exchange between the underlying surface and the atmosphere. A new characteristic of the moisture regime of the territory, i.e., visible evaporation, was introduced to characterize, in this case, the amount of free moisture in the atmosphere that can be involved in the terrestrial water cycle. The humidity of the territory in the European Russia has shown to have increased since 1966. Regions where changes in the moisture regime show common patterns have been identified and the specific features of humidity distribution in different natural zones of European Russia have been assessed.