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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #308100
Title: Reintroducing radiometric surface temperature into the Penman-Monteith equation

Author
item MALLICK, K. - Collaborator
item BOEGH, E. - Collaborator
item TREBS, I. - Collaborator
item Alfieri, Joseph
item Kustas, William - Bill
item Prueger, John
item NIYOGI, D. - Purdue University
item HOFFMAN, L. - Collaborator
item JARVIS, A. - Lancaster University

Submitted to: Water Resources Research
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/9/2015
Publication Date: 8/8/2015
Citation: Mallick, K., Boegh, E., Trebs, I., Alfieri, J.G., Kustas, W.P., Prueger, J.H., Niyogi, D., Hoffman, L., Jarvis, A. 2015. Reintroducing radiometric surface temperature into the Penman-Monteith equation. Water Resources Research. 51(8):6214-6243. https://doi.org/10.1002/2014WR016106.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/2014WR016106

Interpretive Summary: As the demand for fresh water continues to grow, the need to quantify evaporative water loss on field to regional scales will grow with it. Remote sensing-based measurements of surface temperature provide essential information regarding the state of the land surface controlling evaporative water loss. This study evaluates a novel method, referred to as Surface Temperature Initiated Closure (STIC), for integrating surface temperature information into evaporation models to improve the estimates of evaporative water loss from natural and agricultural ecosystems. The results of the study indicate that the new method yields accurate estimates of evaporation that explicitly accounts for spatial variations in surface conditions.

Technical Abstract: Here we demonstrate a novel method to physically integrate the radiometric surface temperature (TR) into the Penman-Monteith (PM) equation for estimating the terrestrial sensible and latent heat fluxes (H and 'E) in the framework of a modified Surface Temperature Initiated Closure (STIC). It combines TR data with standard energy balance closure models for deriving a hybrid closure that does not require parameterization of the surface (or stomatal) and aerodynamic conductances (gS and gB). STIC is formed by the simultaneous solution of four state equations and it uses TR as an additional data source for retrieving the ‘near surface’ moisture availability (M) within a holistic framework. The performance of STIC is tested using high temporal resolution TR observations collected from different international surface energy flux measurement experiments in conjunction with corresponding net radiation (RN), ground heat flux (G), air temperature (TA), relative humidity (RH) measurements. A comparison of the STIC 41 outputs with the eddy covariance measurements of 'E and H revealed a RMSD of 7% to 16% and 40% to 74% in half-hourly 'E and H estimates. These statistics were 5% to 13% and 10% to 44% in daily 'E and H. The errors and uncertainties in the both the surface fluxes are comparable to the models that typically use land surface parameterizations for determining the unobserved components (gS and gB) of the surface energy balance models. The scheme is simpler, has the operational capabilities for generating spatially explicit surface energy fluxes and independent of modeling the boundary layer developments.