Vapor plumes in a tropical wet forest

Vapor plumes in a tropical wet forest: Spotting the invisible evaporation

JIMENEZ RODRIGUEZ, C.D. (TU Delft Water Resources; Escuela de Ingeniería Forestal)
Coenders-Gerrits, Miriam (TU Delft Water Resources)
Schilperoort, B. (TU Delft Water Resources)
del Pilar González-Angarita, Adriana (Independent researcher)
Savenije, Hubert (TU Delft Water Resources)

2021

Forest evaporation exports a vast amount of water vapor from land ecosystems into the atmosphere. Meanwhile, evaporation during rain events is neglected or considered of minor importance in dense ecosystems. Air convection moves the water vapor upwards leading to the formation of large invisible vapor plumes, while the identification of visible vapor plumes has not yet been studied. This work describes the formation process of vapor plumes in a tropical wet forest as evidence of evaporation processes happening during rain events. In the dry season of 2018 at La Selva Biological Station (LSBS) in Costa Rica it was possible to spot visible vapor plumes within the forest canopy. The combination of time-lapse videos at the canopy top with conventional meteorological measurements along the canopy profile allowed us to identify the driver conditions required for this process to happen. This phenomenon happened only during rain events. Visible vapor plumes during the daytime occurred when the following three conditions are accomplished: presence of precipitation (P), air convection, and a lifting condensation level value smaller than 100 m at 43 m height (z lcl.43).

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:f33573c9-695b-44ed-b76a-81b81e0b40d2

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-619-2021

1027-5606

Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 25 (2), 619-635

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2021 C.D. JIMENEZ RODRIGUEZ, Miriam Coenders-Gerrits, B. Schilperoort, Adriana del Pilar González-Angarita, Hubert Savenije