Remote Sensing of Actual Evapotranspiration (ETc)

ITRC-METRIC
The ITRC-modified Mapping of EvapoTranspiration with Internal Calibration
at high resolution (ITRC-METRIC) procedure uses a surface energy balance
to compute actual evapotranspiration spacially using LandSAT imagery.

Spatial distribution of evapotranspiration accounting for actual crop stress at the

time of image acquisition at 30 meter by 30 meter resolution.
No need to know crop type, planting or harvest dates, crop development timing,
irrigation schedules or irrigation methods, etc.
Benefits Actual ETc is computed rather than potential ETc. Actual ETc is needed for most
hydrologic investigations.
Evapotranspiration from non-cropped areas is also determined. This would include
vegetation along roads, canals, and drains and areas that might be supported by
variable rainfall (e.g., foothills along the valley floor).

Coupling remotely sensed data (LandSAT) with ground-based weather data to generate crop coefficients on a
pixel-by-pixel basis, Kc’s are interpolated between image acquisition dates and grass reference ETo (based on weather
data collected at CIMIS stations) is used to compute the daily pixel ETc.

Uses

Field-level evaluations of uniformity in

Field to-field comparisons of ETc to evaluate: evapotranspiration tied to uniformity of irrigation
New crop coefficients for crops under varying and fertilizer applications
management strategies
Potential yield improvements through better
management

Water rights and water use for regulatory and

Surface and groundwater hydrologic investigation water transfer evaluations
(Computing accurate actual ETc has been a major Large-scale water balance investigations
limiting factor in these investigations)

February July

March 2017