Summary of the GEWEX international symposium on global land-surface evaporation and climate

Evaporation provides a significant energy input from land surfaces to the atmosphere and is also a primary factor in the way that incoming precipitation is lost from hydrological catchments worldwide. Therefore correctly modelling the global land–surface evaporation is critically important both for providing improved climate and weather predictions and for interpreting the potential impact of global climate change on water resources systems. Scientists worldwide are working to improve the documentation of land surface evaporation using understanding of the evaporation process in combination with data from in situ measurements, earth satellite systems, and model reanalyses. Consequently, there is an emerging ensemble of estimates of global land surface evaporation. If these are to be of value to benchmark Global Climate Model performance, then there is a need to define the nature and extent of this ensemble. It was therefore decided to bring together international scientists working in this subject area to define the current status and guide the future development of worldwide research into global evaporation measurement and modelling.