Potential Evapotranspiration (PET)
Potential Evapotranspiration (PET), or reference evapotranspiration, is currently estimated using data from sparsely located weather stations around the state. More than 70% of the precipitation falling on the United States is returned to the atmosphere through evapotranspiration. Hence accurate estimation of ET is essential for calculating irrigation water requirements and water balance calculations.
The SSL is developing a means of producing reliable ET estimates at a high spatial resolution (1km X 1km) from remotely sensed data (AVHRR satellites). This work will allow researchers to estimate weekly PET using LST derived from the weekly composite of AVHRR images.
View PET Maps
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