A COMPARISON OF SURFACE FLUX MAPS FROM REMOTE SENSING-BASED MODELS

Authors: Kustas, William - Bill; TIMMERMANS, WIM - INT INST FOR GIS AND EO

Submitted to: American Geophysical Union
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/17/2003
Publication Date: 12/5/2003
Citation: Kustas, W.P., Timmermans, W. 2003. A comparison of surface flux maps from remote sensing-based models [abstract]. American Geophysical Union. EOS Transactions 84(56). Paper No. H41B-07.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: A number of energy balance models using remotely sensed boundary conditions for producing spatially distributed maps of surface fluxes have been proposed. Validation typically involves comparing model output to flux tower observations at a handful of sites, and hence there is no way of evaluating the reliability of model output for the remaining pixels comprising a scene. Moreover, there is also the issue of a mismatch between the spatial scale of model output defined by the satellite pixel resolution and the size and location of the flux footprint or source area contributing to the tower-based flux measurements. To gain some insight as to the uncertainty in flux estimation from various models over a remote sensing scene requires one to conduct pixel-by-pixel comparisons of the output. Two models, which have potential for operationally monitoring ET with satellite data will be described. Some preliminary comparisons of the spatially distributed flux maps from the two models with remotely sensed imagery collected over a semiarid rangeland site in Arizona and subhumid grassland site in Oklahoma will be presented and discussed. A framework for conducting future model comparisons will also be discussed.