Air-Water Interactions Along the Dead Sea Rift

Rifts, tectonic depressions, stretches along continents and typically collect a wide variety of waterbodies, including wetlands, lakes, terminal lakes and locked seas. Here we exploit the waterbodies along the Dead Sea Rift, which vary by geo-climatic settings (from humid Mediterranean to hyper-arid), water depth, water salinity, etc., by simultaneously measuring surface heat, gas and momentum fluxes using Eddy Covariance towers. These waterbodies are subjected to similar radiative forcing. We show that in the two desert waterbodies differ significantly by surface heat flux partitioning: In the Gulf of Eilat (extension of the Red Sea), the evaporation rate is three times larger than in the Dead Sea (a hypersaline terminal lake), this is due to the effect of water salinity in reducing water vapor pressure. In the two northern water (Lake Kinneret and Agmon Hula), which resides in the more humid, Mediterranean region, the evaporation rate is suppressed by humidity, in comparison to the Gulf of Eilat. These two waterbodies differ by their depth, which determines the dynamics of evaporation, surface heat fluxes and thermoregulation. We analyze the role of the timing of the Mediterranean Sea Breeze on evaporation rate. This observational setup, of concurrent measurements of air-water interactions along the gradients within the Dead Sea Rift provides a rare opportunity to quantify various aspects of water management policies, the formation of rocks within these waterbodies, the effect of local micrometeorology and synoptic scale circulation on the waterbodies and their surroundings.