Low-altitude atmospheric lenses in arid regions

The paper presents the results of theoretical and experimental studies of low-altitude atmospheric lenses in arid and semi-arid climatic conditions. The calculations of daily, monthly and annual evaporation and evaporability from the soil were made at four points in the period from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021 using weather data (temperature, air humidity, wind speed), obtained from weather stations. The paper also presents the results of measurements in full-scale conditions at 46.3 north latitude, 44.2 east longitude, carried out from July 1, 2021 to October 1, 2021, where measurements of weather data obtained using a professional wireless weather station WS-2800-IT were organized, and evaporation from the soil was studied by the method of water balance of an isolated soil monolith using a soil evaporator GGI-500-50. As a result of processing data from weather stations, low evaporation values with high evaporability were revealed. According to the results of full-scale tests, local increase in evaporation values was observed mainly in areas with an effusion type of soil water regime. Hereinafter, this phenomenon will be referred to as “low-altitude atmospheric lenses”.