Medium-Resolution Mapping of Evapotranspiration at the Catchment Scale Based on Thermal Infrared MODIS Data and ERA-Interim Reanalysis over North Africa

Accurate quantification of evapotranspiration (ET) at the watershed scale remains an important research challenge for managing water resources in arid and semiarid areas. In this study, daily latent heat flux (LE) maps kilometer were derived from two-source energy budget (TSEB) model fed by MODIS leaf area index (LAI), land surface temperature (LST) products, meteorological data ERA-Interim reanalysis 2001 to 2015 on Tensift catchment (center Morocco). As a preliminary step, both predicted LE time satellite overpass are evaluated comparison large database situ measurements eddy covariance (EC) observations, respectively. compared reasonably well measurements, but positive bias air was highlighted because stations used evaluation mainly installed irrigated fields while grid point is representative larger areas including bare (and hot) soil. Likewise, good agreement with EC gathered main crops region during 15 agricultural seasons correlation coefficient r = 0.70 reasonable 30 W/m2. After extrapolating instantaneous estimates ET values, monthly then assessed irrigation amounts provided local office added CRU precipitation dataset agreement; relative error more than 89% reached 0.80. Seasonal interannual analyzed relation climate use. Lastly, potential use improving early prediction grain yield, as detecting newly arboriculture, also discussed. The proposed method provides relatively simple way obtaining spatially distributed scale, especially not ungauged catchments.