Can the atmospheric boundary layer-based potential evaporation model increase the accuracy of generalized complementary functions?

ABSTRACT Complementary functions could reliably and effectively estimate actual evaporation and have received wide attention in recent years. However, estimating potential evaporation (Epo) greatly influences the accuracy of complementary functions. In this study, we compare the atmospheric boundary layer model (ABL2021) with the Priestly–Taylor model (P-T) and the maximum evaporation model (YR2019) for estimating Epo. Eighty-six flux sites are utilized to fit parameters for three generalized complementary functions, including the sigmoid function (H2018), the polynomial function (B2015), and the exponential function (G2021) with various potential evaporation models. The results suggest that ABL2021 shows the best agreement with the observations at large lake sites. The uncertainties for estimation of actual evaporation induced by different potential evaporation models are larger than different complementary functions. ABL2021 significantly reduces the differences in performance between different complementary functions. It suggests that ABL2021 improves the accuracy of the generalized complementary functions in most cases and can provide a calibration-free method for Epo estimation. G2021 performs better and shows more flexibility than the other generalized complementary functions. Therefore, G2021 combined with ABL2021 shows potential to develop a robust method for estimating actual evaporation based on the complementary principle.