Modeling for potential evapotranspiration:

Potential Evapotranspiration (PET) is used as a common input to calculate evaporative

demand in hydrological, ecological and biological modeling. Advances in hydrologic
modeling are required for a better understanding of earth surface processes and to
provide improved predictions of water resources under a changing climate Dynamic
and distributed measurement of PET is important for improved hydrologic predictions
at the watershed scale since PET varies with time and space.

In this work, an advanced dynamic PET estimation is proposed by integrating

geostationary satellite products into a currently existing remote sensing-based PET
algorithm and evaluated in the framework of operational hydrologic forecasting
modeling.

At first, a previously developed Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer

(MODIS) based PET (MODIS-PET) product applied over several flux towers and
basins in the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB) to determine its applicability and
predictive ability in comparison to other ground based distributed PET methods.
Results from this primary study indicate the MODIS-PET is an improved PET
estimation method compared to the other two contemporary distributed PET products
that were tested over this geographically complex study region. In addition to
elevation and cloud cover, uncertainties are associated with the MODIS-PET
algorithm pertaining from three model variables; land surface temperature, air
temperature and surface emissivity.

The crude hypothetical sinusoidal curve considered in the conversion of instantaneous

MODIS-PET to the daily PET estimation can potentially be replaced with satellite
data with improved temporal resolution. Hence, integration of Geostationary
Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES), a series of geostationary satellites with
frequent observations, data in the MODIS-PET algorithm is performed in the second
part. The coupling of GOES within the MODIS-PET algorithm shows significant
Improvement over the previously developed stand-alone MODIS-PET product,
especially for cloudy days and high temperature pixels.

Finally, evaluation of these two remote sensing products (merged GOES-MODIS and
stand-alone MODIS) is undertaken as lumped input in the National Weather Service
(NWS) River Forecasting Centers (RFC) operational forecasting models in two
mountainous watersheds from the UCRB. The preliminary results show that PETs
estimated using the satellite data is a suitable replacement of the static PET in the
snow-dominated basins of the UCRB region. The new remote-sensing PET available
in nearreal-time which we advocate will ultimately provide more reasonable
representation of current climatological conditions for streamflow forecasting, drought
monitoring and crop water demand.