Recent variations and trends in pan evaporation over India

Abstract

Thirty years pan evaporation time series data (1971-2000) recorded from US class-A evaporation pans for twenty well distributed locations in India, have been utilized in the present study. For all the locations, basic statistical parameters of annual evaporation [minimum, maximum, range, mean, standard deviation (S.D.) and coefficient of variation (C.V.)] have been computed. Annual, seasonal and monthly trends have been studied using linear trend analysis technique. Suitable graphs have been plotted to study the variations and changes in pan evaporation trends and to identify the specific periods as and when significant changes occur.

The mean annual pan evaporation was found to be lowest (1107 mm) at Buralikson and highest (3004 mm) at Rajkot. The highest C.V. of nearly 11% was observed at Rajamundry, Jodhpur, Buralikson and Nellore. The lowest C.V. of nearly 2% was observed at Ambikapur. Out of twenty locations, significant decreasing trend in annual pan evaporation was observed at fifteen locations and no significant trend at five locations. The annual dE/dt values varied from -6.27 (Canning) to -29.30 (Jodhpur) mm/year. The average annual dE/dt over India was found to be -14.90 mm/year. Linear relationship was obtained to quantitatively estimate annual dE/dt, at a given location, using pan evaporation range. On an average, over India, the contribution of seasonal dE/dt towards annual dE/dt (mm/year) is highest -5.63 (37.8 %) in Season-2 (March-April-May) and lowest -2.07 (13.9 %) in Season-1(January- February). On an average, over India, the contribution of monthly dE/dt towards annual dE/dt (mm/year) is highest - 2.08 (14.0 %) in May and lowest -0.77 (5.2 %) in August. Non linear relationships were obtained (a) to quantitatively estimate the average monthly dE/dt values over India, in any particular month (b) to quantitatively estimate the average cumulative dE/dt values over India (mm/year) upto any particular month and (c) to quantitatively estimate the contribution (per cent) towards average annual dE/dt over India, upto any particular month.