This study aims to validate and improve the universal evaporation duct (UED) model through a further analysis of the stability function (ψ). A large number of hydrometeorological observations obtained from a tower platform near Xisha Island of the South China Sea are employed, together with the latest variations in ψ function. Applicability of different ψ functions for specific sea areas and stratification conditions is investigated based on three objective criteria. The results show that, under unstable conditions, ψ function of Fairall et al. (1996) (i.e., Fairall96, similar for abbreviations of other function names) in general offers the best performance. However, strictly speaking, this holds true only for the stability (represented by bulk Richardson number RiB) range ?2.6 ? RiB < ?0.1; when conditions become weakly unstable (?0.1 ? RiB < ?0.01), Fairall96 offers the second best performance after Hu and Zhang (1992) (HYQ92). Conversely, for near-neutral but slightly unstable conditions (?0.01 ? RiB < 0.0), the effects of Edson04, Fairall03, Grachev00, and Fairall96 are similar, with Edson04 being the best function but offering only a weak advantage. Under stable conditions, HYQ92 is the optimal and offers a pronounced advantage, followed by the newly introduced SHEBA07 (by Grachev et al., 2007) function. Accordingly, the most favorable functions, i.e., Fairall96 and HYQ92, are incorporated into the UED model to obtain an improved version of the model. With the new functions, the mean root-mean-square (rms) errors of the modified refractivity (M), 0–5-m M slope, 5–40-m M slope, and the rms errors of evaporation duct height (EDH) are reduced by 21.65%, 9.12%, 38.79%, and 59.06%, respectively, compared to the classical Naval Postgraduate School model.
