Solar radiation, longwave radiation and emergent wetland evapotranspiration estimates from satellite data in Florida, USA / Estimations à partir de données satellitales du rayonnement solaire, du rayonnement de grande longueur d’onde et de l’évapotranspiration d’une zone humide de Floride (EUA)

Abstract

Routine estimates of daily incoming solar radiation from the GOES-8 satellite were compared to locally measured values in Florida. Longwave radiation estimates corrected using GOES-derived cloud amount and cloud top temperature products improved net radiation estimates as compared to a clear sky longwave approach. The Penman-Monteith, Turc, Hargreaves and Makkink models were applied using GOES-derived estimates of solar radiation and net radiation to predict daily evapotranspiration and were compared to evapotranspiration measured with an eddy-correlation system in an emergent wetland experimental site in north-central Florida under unstressed conditions. While the Penman-Monteith model provided the best estimates of evapotranspiration (R 2 = 0.92), the empirical Makkink method demonstrated nearly comparable agreement (R 2 = 0.90) using only the GOES solar radiation and measured temperature. The results show that it is possible to generate spatially distributed daily potential evapotranspiration estimates using GOES-derived solar radiation and net radiation with limited additional surface measurements.