Wp. Kustas et al., USING SATELLITE REMOTE-SENSING TO EXTRAPOLATE EVAPOTRANSPIRATION ESTIMATES IN TIME AND SPACE OVER A SEMIARID RANGELAND BASIN, Remote sensing of environment, 49(3), 1994, pp. 275-286
Remote sensing data from the NOAA-11 AVHRR satellite were collected ov
er the USDA-Agricultural Research Service Walnut Gulch Experimental Wa
tershed in southeastern Arizona during the MONSOON 90 field campaigns.
An energy balance model which relies primarily on remotely sensed inp
uts was used to extrapolate evapotranspiration (ET) estimates from one
location containing near-surface meteorological data to other areas i
n the basin. Satisfactory results were obtained under a wide range of
environmental conditions. However, the ET values are essentially insta
ntaneous and therefore do not necessarily provide reliable estimates o
f daytime or daily ET fluxes required for many hydrological and resour
ce management applications. An operational technique was developed to
extrapolate one time of day ET estimates to daytime averages using the
evaporative fraction concept and empirical methods for converting mid
day available energy to daytime average values. Model derived daytime
average ET fluxes were in reasonable agreement with local ground-based
measurements. The technique also was used to estimate daily ET at the
basin scale.