Glossary
Energy Budget Method
An evaporation estimate based on accounting for all energy entering and leaving a water body — net radiation, heat stored in the water, and heat exchanged with the air — and attributing the remaining energy to the latent heat of evaporation.
The energy budget method is considered one of the most physically rigorous approaches, but it is data-intensive: it requires careful measurement of radiation and of changes in stored heat within the water body, which can be difficult for deep or variable reservoirs.