Estimating evaporation from satellite remote sensing

Evaporation provides the link between the energy and water budgets at the land surface. Accurate measurements of evaporation rates at large spatial scales are central to understanding land and atmosphere feedback. However, with the paucity of available surface observations for many portions of the globe, the use of modeled evaporation using satellite-based remotely sensed inputs is a potentially viable surrogate. The surface energy balance system (SEBS), which estimates atmospheric turbulent heat fluxes and evaporative fraction using satellite derived radiation fluxes and surface temperatures coupled with near-surface meteorological variables, is used to estimate surface energy fluxes over the Oklahoma region of the USA during the warm season. These simulations are assessed by comparison with observations from the ARM-CART energy balance Bowen ratio (EBBR).