scholarly journals A simple method to estimate actual evapotranspiration from a combination of net radiation, vegetation index, and temperature

Author(s):  
Kaicun Wang ◽  
Pucai Wang ◽  
Zhanqing Li ◽  
M. Cribb ◽  
Michael Sparrow
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Carlos de Araújo ◽  
Lucas Melo Vellame ◽  
Armin Raabe ◽  
Quirijn de Jong van Lier

<p>The Brazilian semiarid region (one million km²) is densely populated (25 million inhabitants), but its natural water availability is low. Despite the fact that evaporative processes are key to the regional water deficit, the actual evapotranspiration of natural environment has rarely been measured, especially in the native Caatinga dry forest. We hereby propose a simple method that demands the monitoring of five meteorological variables: relative humidity, global radiation, canopy and air temperature, as well as wind speed. These values are used to assess leaf energy balance, yielding net radiation (Rn) and actual evapotranspiration (LE). To estimate the actual Caatinga evapotranspiration under natural conditions and in different seasons, the proposed method was applied <em>in situ</em> during nine months. The application site was the Aiuaba Experimental Basin, situated in an environmental protection area in the North-eastern Brazil. The method provided consistent results when compared with independent measurements, such as atmospheric demand, leaf area, and soil water content variation. Results indicate that the daily average net radiation is 12 MJ m<sup>-</sup>². During the dry season, the actual evapotranspiration is very low, with negligible LE/Rn ratio. Contrastingly, in the rainy season, it raises to 6 mm per day, with average LE/Rn ratio equalling 0.89. The results show that the actual evapotranspiration in the Caatinga long-lasting dry season (up to nine months per year) is controlled by the water availability in the soil.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 1641
Author(s):  
Yunfei Zhang ◽  
Yunhao Chen ◽  
Jing Li ◽  
Xi Chen

Land-surface temperature (LST) plays a key role in the physical processes of surface energy and water balance from local through global scales. The widely used one kilometre resolution daily Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) LST product has missing values due to the influence of clouds. Therefore, a large number of clear-sky LST reconstruction methods have been developed to obtain spatially continuous LST datasets. However, the clear-sky LST is a theoretical value that is often an overestimate of the real value. In fact, the real LST (also known as cloudy-sky LST) is more necessary and more widely used. The existing cloudy-sky LST algorithms are usually somewhat complicated, and the accuracy needs to be improved. It is necessary to convert the clear-sky LST obtained by the currently better-developed methods into cloudy-sky LST. We took the clear-sky LST, cloud-cover duration, downward shortwave radiation, albedo and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) as five independent variables and the real LST at the ground stations as the dependent variable to perform multiple linear regression. The mean absolute error (MAE) of the cloudy-sky LST retrieved by this method ranged from 3.5–3.9 K. We further analyzed different cases of the method, and the results suggested that this method has good flexibility. When we chose fewer independent variables, different clear-sky algorithms, or different regression tools, we also achieved good results. In addition, the method calculation process was relatively simple and can be applied to other research areas. This study preliminarily explored the influencing factors of the real LST and can provide a possible option for researchers who want to obtain cloudy-sky LST through clear-sky LST, that is, a convenient conversion method. This article lays the foundation for subsequent research in various fields that require real LST.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toby N. Carlson ◽  
George Petropoulos

Earth Observation (EO) provides a promising approach towards deriving accurate spatiotemporal estimates of key parameters characterizing land surface interactions, such as latent (LE) and sensible (H) heat fluxes as well as soil moisture content. This paper proposes a very simple method to implement, yet reliable to calculate evapotranspiration fraction (EF) and surface moisture availability (Mo) from remotely sensed imagery of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and surface radiometric temperature (Tir). The method is unique in that it derives all of its information solely from these two images. As such, it does not depend on knowing ancillary surface or atmospheric parameters, nor does it require the use of a land surface model. The procedure for computing spatiotemporal estimates of these important land surface parameters is outlined herein stepwise for practical application by the user. Moreover, as the newly developedscheme is not tied to any particular sensor, it can also beimplemented with technologically advanced EO sensors launched recently or planned to be launched such as Landsat 8 and Sentinel 3. The latter offers a number of key advantages in terms of future implementation of the method and wider use for research and practical applications alike.


2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (13) ◽  
pp. 5111-5118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danlu Cai ◽  
Klaus Fraedrich ◽  
Frank Sielmann ◽  
Yanning Guan ◽  
Shan Guo ◽  
...  

To complement geographical presentation of remote sensing vegetation information, the authors apply Budyko’s physical state space diagram to analyze functional climate relations. As an example, the authors use Interim ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-Interim) global weather data to provide the statistics (1982–2006) of climate states in a two-dimensional state space spanned by water demand (net radiation N) versus water/energy limitation (dryness ratio D of net radiation over precipitation). Embedding remote sensing–based Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies (GIMMS) data [normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) > 0.1] shows the following results: (i) A bimodal frequency distribution of unit areas (pixels) is aligned near D ~ 1 but separated meridionally, associated with higher and lower net radiation. (ii) Vegetation states are represented as (N, D, NDVI) triplets that reveal temperate and tropical forests crossing the border (D ~ 1) separating energy- and water-limited climates but unexpectedly show that they also exist in marginal regions (few pixels) of large dryness. (iii) Interannual variability of dryness is lowest where the largest climate mean NDVI values of greenness (forests) occur. The authors conclude that the combined (N, D, NDVI) analysis based on climate means has shown that tropical and temperate forests (NDVI > 0.6) are (i) not restricted to the energy-limited domain D < 1 (extending into the water-limited surface climate regime) and (ii) associated with low interannual variability of dryness. Thus, measures of interannual variability may be included in Budyko’s classical framework of geobotanic analysis of surface climates.


2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (No. 7) ◽  
pp. 320-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Pivec

Energy exchange above the floodplain forest and spruce monoculture ecosystems was measured in Moravia in 1988 and 1989. The results showed that the floodplain forest ecosystem with better access to groundwater than the spruce monoculture evaporated more rapidly. A higher flux of energy was recorded daily in latent heat (65% of net radiation) above the floodplain forest canopy, in contrast with the spruce plantation where it reached 17% only. The estimation of the floodplain forest actual evapotranspiration during the first half of June reached its maximum 0.17 g/m<sup>2</sup>/s, i.e. 0.6 mm/h. During the same period the actual evapotranspiration of spruce monoculture reached a maximum about 0.28 mm/h, nearly a half of that of the floodplain forest.


2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (24) ◽  
pp. 7369-7382 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Mallick ◽  
A. Jarvis ◽  
G. Wohlfahrt ◽  
G. Kiely ◽  
T. Hirano ◽  
...  

Abstract. This paper introduces a relatively simple method for recovering global fields of latent heat flux. The method focuses on specifying Bowen ratio estimates through exploiting air temperature and vapour pressure measurements obtained from infrared soundings of the AIRS (Atmospheric Infrared Sounder) sensor onboard NASA's Aqua platform. Through combining these Bowen ratio retrievals with satellite surface net available energy data, we have specified estimates of global noontime surface latent heat flux at the 1°×1° scale. These estimates were provisionally evaluated against data from 30 terrestrial tower flux sites covering a broad spectrum of biomes. Taking monthly average 13:30 data for 2003, this revealed promising agreement between the satellite and tower measurements of latent heat flux, with a pooled root-mean-square deviation of 79 W m−2, and no significant bias. However, this success partly arose as a product of the underspecification of the AIRS Bowen ratio compensating for the underspecification of the AIRS net available energy, suggesting further refinement of the approach is required. The error analysis suggested that the landscape level variability in enhanced vegetation index (EVI) and land surface temperature contributed significantly to the statistical metric of the predicted latent heat fluxes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 87 (9) ◽  
pp. 649-660
Author(s):  
Majid Rahimzadegan ◽  
Arash Davari ◽  
Ali Sayadi

Soil moisture content (SMC), product of Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2), is not at an adequate level of accuracy on a regional scale. The aim of this study is to introduce a simple method to estimate SMC while synergistically using AMSR2 and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) measurements with a higher accuracy on a regional scale. Two MODIS products, including daily reflectance (MYD021) and nighttime land surface temperature (LST) products were used. In 2015, 1442 in situ SMC measurements from six stations in Iran were used as ground-truth data. Twenty models were evaluated using combinations of polarization index (PI), index of soil wetness (ISW), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and LST. The model revealed the best results using a quadratic combination of PI and ISW, a linear form of LST, and a constant value. The overall correlation coefficient, root-mean-square error, and mean absolute error were 0.59, 4.62%, and 3.01%, respectively.


2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 1373-1382 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. A. R. de Bruin ◽  
I. F. Trigo ◽  
F. C. Bosveld ◽  
J. F. Meirink

Abstract A thermodynamically based model is presented to estimate daily actual evapotranspiration (ET) of a grass site closely resembling reference grass as defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) under nonadvective conditions, from Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) imagery. The model presented here is derived from the thermodynamic theory by Schmidt combined with an atmospheric boundary layer model. Daily net radiation over the (reference) grass surface is parameterized as a function of global radiation, which can be estimated from MSG observations. It is then shown that ET over the grass area can be estimated using remotely sensed daily global radiation and air temperature as input only. The validation relied on observations gathered in Cabauw, a site closely resembling the reference grass, as defined by the FAO. The comparison with in situ data indicated a bias of 2.8 W m−2 and an RMSE of 7.7 W m−2. The possibility of using the approach developed here to provide reference crop evapotranspiration ETo is discussed. Because of the ambiguousness of ETo definition regarding local advection effects, it should be noted that explicitly advection-free conditions are dealt with. It is pointed out that in semiarid regions local advection cannot be ignored.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document