GOES Solar Radiation for Evapotranspiration Estimation and Streamflow Prediction
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 14, Issue 3
Abstract
This study explores the value of incoming solar radiation estimates derived from geostationary operational environmental satellites (GOES) as an alternative solar radiation data source to historical solar radiation estimates for use in rainfall–runoff simulations. At 26 sites in the United States, the GOES-based solar radiation and estimates agreed well with the ground-based estimates. There was a slight positive bias for the GOES-based solar radiation (5.4%) and potential evapotranspiration (8.7%) estimates compared to the ground-based estimates, with the strong and significant biases noted during the warm seasons. However, individual stations biases ranged from to 27%. Daily streamflow predictions made using National Weather Service River Forecast System’s Sacramento Soil Moisture Accounting rainfall–runoff model for four NOAA Distributed Model Intercomparison Project watersheds show that although notable peak storm flow differences occurred occasionally during extended drying periods, on average, the GOES-based potential evapotranspiration estimates slightly outperformed the simulations using ground-based data on an annual basis and were relatively insensitive to biases. However, on seasonal time scales, differences in soil water storage are evident and can result in numerous moderate differences in streamflow predictions.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
Research was supported by the National Weather Service Contract No. DG133W-03-CN-0029. The writers are grateful to Mike Smith and Qingyun Duan for their assistance in the early stages of this work. Michael Pierce, River Forecast Center, NWS, Tulsa, Okla., is thanked for providing parameters needed to run daily SAC-SMA simulations. The input from two anonymous reviewers is gratefully acknowledged.
References
Andreassian, V., Perrin, C., and Michel, C. (2004). “Impact of imperfect potential evapotranspiration knowledge on the efficiency and parameters of watershed models.” J. Hydrol., 286(1–4), 19–35.
Bristow, K. L., and Campbell, G. S. (1984). “On the relationship between incoming solar radiation and daily maximum and minimum temperature.” Agric. Forest Meteorol., 31(2), 159–166.
Burnash, R. J. C. (1995). “The NWS river forecast system—Catchment modeling.” Computer models of watershed hydrology, V. P. Singh, ed., Water Resources Publ., Highlands Ranch, Colo., 311–366.
Carpenter, T. M., and Georgakakos, K. P. (2004). “Continuous streamflow simulation with the HRCDHM distributed hydrologic model.” J. Hydrol., 298(1–4), 61–79.
Chow, V. T., Maidment, D. R., and Mays, L. W. (1988). Applied hydrology, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Diak, G. R., Bland, W. L., and Mecikalski, J. (1996). “A note on first estimates of surface insolation from GOES-8 visible satellite data.” Agric. Forest Meteorol., 82(1–4), 219–226.
Fowler, A. (2002). “Assessment of the validity of using mean potential evaporation in computations of the long-term soil water balance. J. Hydrol., 256, 248–263.
Garatuza-Payan, J., Pinker, R. T., Shuttleworth, W. J., and Watts, C. J. (2001). “Solar radiation and evapotranspiration in northern Mexico estimated from remotely sensed measurements of cloudiness.” Hydrol. Sci. J., 46(3), 465–478.
Guo, J., Liang, X., and Leung, L. R. (2004). “Impacts of different precipitation data sources on water budgets.” J. Hydrol., 298(1–4), 311–334.
Helsel, D. R., and Hirsch, R. M. (1992). Statistical methods in water resources, Elsevier, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
International Project Surface Radiation Budget (IPSRB). (2004). “GCIP SRB.” ⟨http://www.atmos.umd.edu/~srb/gcip/gcipsrb.htm⟩. (December 23, 2008)
Ivanov, V. Y., Vivoni, E., Bras, R., and Entekhabi, D. (2004). “Preserving high-resolution surface and rainfall data in operational scale basin hydrology: a fully distributed physically based approach.” J. Hydrol., 298(1–4), 80–111.
Jacobs, J. M., Anderson, M. C., Friess, L. C., and Diak, G. R. (2004). “Solar radiation, longwave radiation and emergent wetland evapotranspiration estimates from satellite data in Florida, USA.” Hydrol. Sci. J., 49(3), 461–476.
Jacobs, J. M., Myers, D. A., Anderson, M. C., and Diak, G. R. (2002). “GOES surface insolation to estimate wetlands evapotranspiration.” J. Hydrol., 266(1–2), 53–65.
Lindsey, S. D., and Farnsworth, R. K. (1997). “Sources of solar radiation estimates and their effect on daily potential evapotranspiration for use in streamflow modeling.” J. Hydrol., 201(1–4), 348–366.
Martinec, J., and Rango, A. (1989). “Merits of statistical criteria for the performance of hydrological models.” Water Resour. Bull., 25(2), 421–432.
Nandakumar, N., and Mein, R. G. (1997). “Uncertainty in rainfall-runoff simulations and the implications for predicting the hydrologic effects of land use change.” J. Hydrol., 192(1–4), 211–232.
Nash, J. E., and Sutcliffe, J. V. (1970). “River flow forecasting through conceptual models. Part 1—A discussion of principles.” J. Hydrol., 10(3), 282–290.
National Weather Service Hydrology Laboratory (NWSHL). (2005). “Distributed Model Intercomparison Project (DMIP).” ⟨http://www.nws.noaa.gov/oh/hrl/dmip/default.html⟩ (December 23, 2008).
National Weather Service-NOAA Hydrologic Data Systems Group (NWS-NHDS). (2004). ⟨http://dipper.nws.noaa.gov/hdsb/data/archived/legacy/syntran.html⟩ (December 23, 2008).
Otkin, J. A., Anderson, M. C., Mecikalski, J. R., and Diak, G. R. (2005). “Validation of GOES-based insolation estimates using data from the US climate reference network.” J. Hydrometeor., 6(4), 460–475.
Oudin, L., Hervieu, F., Michel, C., Perrin, C., Andreassian, V., Anctil, F., and Loumagne, C. (2005a). “Which potential evapotranspiration input for a lumped rainfall-runoff model? Part 2—Towards a simple and efficient potential evapotranspiration model for rainfall-runoff modeling.” J. Hydrol., 303(1–4), 290–306.
Oudin, L., Michel, C., and Anctil, F. (2005b). “Which potential evapotranspiration input for a lumped rainfall-runoff model? Part 1—Can rainfall-runoff models effectively handle detailed potential evapotranspiration inputs?.” J. Hydrol., 303(1–4), 275–289.
Parmele, L. H. (1972). “Errors in output of hydrologic models to errors in input potential ET.” Water Resour. Res., 8(2), 348–359.
Paturel, J. E., Servant, E., and Vassiladis, A. (1995). “Sensitivity of conceptual rainfall-runoff algorithms to errors in input data. Case of the GR2M model.” J. Hydrol., 168(1–4), 111–125.
Penman, H. L. (1948). “Natural evaporation from open water,” Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. A 193, 120–145.
Pinker, R. T., Frouin, R., and Li, Z. (1995). “A review of satellite methods to derive surface shortwave irradiance.” Remote Sens. Environ., 51(1), 105–124.
Pinker, R. T., Kustas, W. P., Laszlo, I., Moran, M. S., and Huete, A. R. (1994). “Basin-scale solar irradiance in semiarid regions using GOES-7.” Water Resour. Res., 30(5), 1375–1386.
Reed, S. M., Koren, V. I., Smith, M. B., Zhang, Z., Moreda, F., Seo, D., and DMIP Participants. (2004). “Overall distributed model intercomparison project results.” J. Hydrol., 298(1–4), 27–60.
Schmetz, J. (1989). “Towards a surface radiation climatology. Retrieval of downward irradiance from satellites.” Atmos. Res., 23(1–4), 287–321.
Smith, M. B., Seo, D., Koren, V., J. Schaake, Q. Duan, M. Smith, and Cong, S. (2004). “The distributed model intercomparison project (DMIP): motivation and experiment design.” J. Hydrol., 298(1–4), 4–26.
Tarpley, J. D., Laszlo, I., and Pinker, R. T. (1996). “Experimental GOES shortwave radiation budget for GCIP.” 2nd. Int. Scientific Conf. on Global Energy and Water Cycle. WCRP-67, 1992, GEWEX Continental Scale International Project. WMO/TD-No. 461.
Thompson, E. S. (1976). “Computation of solar radiation from sky cover.” Water Resour. Res., 12(5), 859–865.
Thornton, P. E., and Running, S. W. (1999). “An improved algorithm for estimating incident daily solar radiation from measurements of temperature, humidity, and precipitation.” Agric. Forest Meteorol., 93(4), 211–228.
Vorosmarty, C. J., Federer, C. A., and Schloss, A. L. (1998). “Potential evaporation functions compared on US watersheds: Possible implications for global-scale water balance and terrestrial ecosystem modeling.” J. Hydrol., 207(3–4), 147–169.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: Jul 31, 2007
Accepted: Jun 23, 2008
Published online: Mar 1, 2009
Published in print: Mar 2009
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.