Application of SEBAL Model for Mapping Evapotranspiration and Estimating Surface Energy Fluxes in South-Central Nebraska
This article has a reply.
VIEW THE REPLYPublication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 134, Issue 3
Abstract
Knowledge of spatiotemporal distribution of evapotranspiration (ET) on large scales, as quantified by satellite remote sensing techniques, can provide important information on a variety of water resources issues such as evaluating water distributions, water use by different land surfaces, water allocations, water rights, consumptive water use and planning, and better management of ground and surface water resources. The objective of this study was to assess the operational characteristics and performance of the surface energy balance algorithm for land (SEBAL) model for estimating crop ET and other energy balance components, and mapping spatial distribution and seasonal variation of on a large scale in south-central Nebraska climatic conditions. A total of seven cloud free Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM)/Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM) satellite images (May 19, June 20, July 22, August 7, September 8, September 16, and October 18, 2005) were processed to generate maps and estimate surface energy fluxes. Predictions from the SEBAL model were compared with the Bowen ratio energy balance system (BREBS)-measured fluxes on an instantaneous and daily basis. The maps generated by the model for seven Landsat overpass days showed a very good progression of with time during the growing season in 2005 as the surface conditions continuously changed. The predictions for some surface energy fluxes were very good. Overall, a very good correlation was found between the BREBS-measured and SEBAL-estimated with a good of 0.73 and a root-mean-square difference (RMSD) of . The estimated was within 5% of the measured . The model was able to predict growing season (from emergence to physiological maturity) cumulative daily corn ET reasonable well within 5% of the BREBS-measured values. The model overestimated the surface albedo by about 26% with a RMSD of 0.05. The difference between the measured and predicted albedo was the greatest on May 19, early in the growing season before the full canopy cover. The second largest difference between the two albedo values was on October 18, a day after harvest. The model significantly under predicted soil heat flux with a large RMSD of and most of the underestimation occurred in the late growing season. Local calibration of soil heat flux significantly improved the agreement between the measured and predicted values. Furthermore, the sensible heat flux was underestimated between September 20 (after physiological maturity) and October 18 (a day after harvest). While our results showed that SEBAL can be a viable tool for generating maps to assess and quantify spatiotemporal distribution of ET on large scales as well as estimating surface energy fluxes, its operational assessment for estimating sensible heat flux and , especially during the drier periods for different surfaces, needs further development.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This work is a contribution of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Agricultural Research Division, Lincoln, Neb. The mention of trade names or commercial products is solely for the information of the reader and does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation for use by the writers and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The writers would like to thank Milda Vaitkus of Center for Advanced Land Management Information Technologies (CALMIT) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for providing Landsat images of June 20, July 22, and September 8, 2005 used in this study. They are also grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions. This research was made possible from funding through the USGS, Section 104b program administered by the Water Center, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
References
Allen, R. G., Pereira, L. S., Raes, D., and Smith, M. (1998). “Crop evapotranspiration: Guidelines for computing crop water requirements.” FAO Irrig. and Drain. Paper No. 56, Rome.
Allen, R. G., Tasumi, M., and Morse, A. T. (2005a). “Satellite-based evapotranspiration by METRIC and LANDSAT for Western states water management.” Proc., 2005 USBR Evapotranspiration Workshop, Ft. Collins, Colo.
Allen, R. G., Tasumi, M., Morse, A. T., and Trezza, R. (2005b). “A Landsat-based energy balance and evapotranspiration model in western US water rights regulation and planning.” Irrig. Drain. Syst., 19, 251–268.
Allen, R. G., Tasumi, M., Morse, A. T., Trezza, R., Wright, J. L., Bastiaanssen, W., Kramber, W., Lorite, I., and Robison, C. W. (2007a). “Satellite-based energy balance for mapping evapotranspiration with internalized calibration (METRIC)-Applications.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 133(4), 395–406.
Allen, R. G., Tasumi, M., and Trezza, R. (2007b). “Satellite-based energy balance for mapping evapotranspiration with internalized calibration (METRIC)—Model.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 133(4), 380–394.
Anderson, M., Norman, J., Diak, G., Kustas, W., and Mecikalski, J. R. (1997). “A two-source time integrated model for estimating surface fluxes using thermal infrared remote sensing.” Remote Sens. Environ., 60, 195–216.
ASCE—Environmental and Water Resources Institute (EWRI). (2005). “The ASCE standardized reference evapotranspiration equation.” ASCE Standardization of Reference Evapotranspiration Task Committee Final Rep., R. G. Allen, I. A. Walter, R. L. Elliot, T. A. Howell, D. Itenfisu, M. E. Jensen, and R. L. Snyder, eds., Reston, Va.
Bastiaanssen, W. G. M. (2000). ‘SEBAL based sensible and latent heat fluxes in the irrigated Gediz Basin, Turkey.” J. Hydrol., 229, 87–100.
Bastiaanssen, W. G. M., Ahmad, M. D., and Chemin, Y. (2002). “Satellite surveillance of evaporative depletion across the Indus Basin.” Water Resour. Res., 38(12), 1273.
Bastiaanssen, W. G. M., and Bandara, K. M. P. S. (2001). “Evaporative depletion assessments for irrigated watersheds in Sri Lanka.” Irrig. Sci., 21, 1–15.
Bastiaanssen, W. G. M., and Bos, M. G. (1999). “Irrigation performance indicators based on remotely sensed data: A review of literature.” Irrig. Drain. Syst., 13, 291–311.
Bastiaanssen, W. G. M., and Chandrapala, L. (2003). “Water balance variability across Sri Lanka for assessing agricultural and environmental water use.” Agric. Water Manage., 58(2), 171–192.
Bastiaanssen, W. G. M., Menenti, M., Feddes, R. A., and Holtslag, A. A. M. (1998). “A remote sensing surface energy balance algorithm for land (SEBAL): 1. Formulation.” J. Hydrol., 212–213, 198–213.
Bastiaanssen, W. G. M., Noordman, E. J. M., Pelgrum, H., Thoreson, B. P., and Allen, R. G. (2005). “SEBAL model with remotely sensed data to improve water-resources management under actual field conditions.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 131(1), 85–93.
Brutsaert, W., Hsu, A. Y., and Schmugge, T. J. (1993). “Parameterization of surface heat fluxes above forests with satellite thermal sensing and boundary layer soundings.” J. Appl. Meteorol., 32, 909–917.
Brutseart, W., and Sugita, M. (1992). “Application of self-preservation in the diurnal evolution of the surface energy balance budget to determine daily evaporation.” J. Geophys. Res., 97(D17), 18377–18382.
Chander, G., and Markham, B. (2003). “Revised Landsat-5 TM radiometric calibration procedures and postcalibration dynamic ranges.” IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens., GE–41(11), 2674–2677.
Chen, J. M., Chen, X., Ju, W., and Geng, X. (2005). “Distributed hydrological model for mapping evapotranspiration using remote sensing inputs.” J. Hydrol., 305, 15–39.
Crawford, T. M., and Duchon, C. E. (1999). “An improved parameterization for estimating effective atmospheric emissivity for use in calculating daytime downwelling longwave radiation.” J. Appl. Meteorol., 38, 474–480.
Daughtry, C. S. T., Kustas, W. P., Moran, M. S., Pinter, P. J., Jackson, R. D., Brown, P. W., Nichols, W. D., and Gay, L. W. (1990). “Spectral estimates of net radiation and soil heat flux.” Remote Sens. Environ., 32, 111–124.
Diak, G. R., Bland, W. L., Mecikalski, J. R., and Anderson, M. C. (2000). “Satellite–based estimates of longwave radiation for agricultural applications.” Agric. Forest Meteorol., 103, 349–355.
Franks, S. W., and Beven, K. J. (1997). “Estimation of evapotranspiration at the landscape scale: A fuzzy disaggregation approach.” Water Resour. Res., 33(12), 2929–2938.
Gieske, A., and Meijninger, W. (2005). “High density NOAA time series of ET in the Gediz Basin, Turkey.” Irrig. Drain. Syst., 19, 285–299.
Goodrich, D. C., et al. (2000). “Seasonal estimates of riparian evapotranspiration using remote and in situ measurements.” Agric. Forest Meteorol., 105, 281–309.
Griend, A. A. V. D., and Owe, M. (1993). “On the relationship between thermal emissivity and the normalized difference vegetation index for natural surfaces.” Int. J. Remote Sens., 14(6), 1119–1131.
Hall, F. G., Huemmrich, K. F., Geotz, S. J., Sellers, P. J., and Nickerson, J. E. (1992). “Satellite remote sensing of surface energy balance: Successes, failures, and unresolved issues in FIFE.” J. Geophys. Res., 97(D17), 19061–19090.
Hammer, R. R., Ragon, L. G., and Buechle, A. A. (1981). “Soil survey of Clay County, Nebraska.” Soil Conservation Service and University of Nebraska Conservation and Survey Division, Lincoln, Neb.
Hemakumara, H. M., Chandrapala, L., and Moene, A. (2003). “Evapotranspiration fluxes over mixed vegetation areas measured from large aperture scintillometer.” Agric. Water Manage., 58, 109–122.
Irmak, A., Irmak, S., and Martin, D. L. (2007a). “Reference and crop evapotranspiration in south central Nebraska: I. Comparison and analysis of grass and alfalfa-reference evapotranspiration methods.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., in review.
Irmak, S., Irmak, A., and Martin, D. L. (2007b). “Reference and crop evapotranspiration in south central Nebraska. I: Measurement and estimation of corn evapotranspiration.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., in review.
Irmak, A., Martin, D. L., Koelliker, J. K., and Eisenhauer, D. E. (2006a). “Modeling the effects of terracing on water supplies in the Medicine Creek, Nebraska.” Proc., 2006 ASABE Annual Int. Meetings, Portland, Ore., Paper No. 062291.
Irmak, S., Payero, J. O., Martin, D. L., Irmak, A., and Howell, T. A. (2006b). “Sensitivity analyses and sensitivity coefficients of the standardized ASCE-Penman-Monteith equation to climate variables.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 132(6), 564–578.
Jacob, F., Olioso, A., Gu, X. F., Su, Z., and Seguin, B. (2002). “Mapping surface fluxes using airborne visible, near infrared, thermal infrared remote sensing data and a spatialized surface energy balance model.” Agronomie, 22, 669–680.
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.
Jones, H. G., Archer, N., Rotenberg, E., and Casa, R. (2003). “Radiation measurement for plant ecophysiology.” J. Exp. Bot., 54(384), 879–889.
Kustas, W. P., and Daughtry, C. S. T. (1990). “Estimation of the soil heat flux/net radiation ratio from spectral data.” Agric. Forest Meteorol., 49, 205–223.
Kustas, W. P., Moran, M. S., Humes, K. S., Stannard, D. I., Pinter, P. J., Hipps, L. E., Swiatek, E., and Goodrich, D. C. (1994a). “Surface energy balance estimates at local and regional scales using optical remote sensing from an aircraft platform and atmospheric data collected over semiarid rangelands.” Water Resour. Res., 30(5), 1241–1259.
Kustas, W. P., and Norman, J. M. (1996). “Use of remote sensing for evapotranspiration monitoring over land surfaces.” Hydrol. Sci. J., 41(4), 495–516.
Kustas, W. P., and Norman, J. M. (2000). “Evaluating the effects of subpixel heterogeneity on pixel average fluxes.” Remote Sens. Environ., 74, 327–342.
Kustas, W. P., Perry, E. M., Doraiswamy, P. C., and Moran, M. S. (1994b). “Using satellite remote sensing to extrapolate evapotranspiration estimates in time and space over a semiarid rangeland basin.” Remote Sens. Environ., 49, 275–286.
Lhomme, J. P., and Elguero, E. (1999). “Examination of evaporative fraction diurnal behavior using a soil-vegetation model coupled with a mixed-layer model.” Hydrology Earth Syst. Sci., 3(2), 259–270.
Li, F., and Lyons, T. J. (1999). “Estimation of regional evapotranspiration through remote sensing.” J. Appl. Meteorol., 38, 1644–1654.
Liu, J., Chen, J. M., and Cihlar, J. (2003). “Mapping evapotranspiration based on remote sensing: An application to Canada’s landmass.” Water Resour. Res., 39(7), 1189.
Loheide, S. P., II, and Gorelick, S. M. (2005). “A local-scale, high resolution evapotranspiration mapping algorithm (ETMA) with hydroecological applications at riparian meadow restoration sites.” Remote Sens. Environ., 98, 182–200.
Melesse, A. M., and Nangia, V. (2005). “Estimation of spatially distributed surface energy fluxes using remotely-sensed data for agricultural fields.” Hydrolog. Process., 19, 2653–2670.
Meneti, M., and Choudhary, B. J. (1993). “Parameterization of land surface evapotranspiration using a location dependent potential evapotranspiration and surface temperature range.” Exchange processes at the land surface for a range of space and time series, H. J. Bolle, R. A. Feddes, and J. D. Kalma, eds., Vol. 12, Proc. Yokohama, Japan Symposium, International Association of Hydrological Sciences Publication, Publication No. 212, 561–568.
Michael, M. G., and Bastiaanssen, W. G. M. (2000). “A new simple method to determine crop coefficients for water allocation planning from satellites: Results from Kenya.” Irrig. Drain. Syst., 14, 237–256.
Min, W., Chen, Z., Sun, L., Gao, W., Luo, X., Yang, T., Pu, J., Huang, G., and Yang, X. (2004). “A scheme for pixel-scale aerodynamic surface temperature over hilly land.” Adv. Atmos. Sci., 21(1), 125–131.
Mohamed, Y., Bastiaanssen, W. G. M., and Savenije, H. H. G. (2004). “Spatial variability of evaporation and moisture storage in the swamps of the upper Nile studied by remote sensing techniques.” J. Hydrol., 277, 116–124.
Morse, A., Tasumi, M., Allen, R. G., and Kramber, W. J. (2000). “Application of the SEBAL methodology for estimating consumptive use of water and streamflow depletion in the Bear River basin of Idaho through remote sensing.” Final Rep., Phase I, Submitted to The Raytheon Systems Company, Earth Observation System Data and Information System Project, by Idaho Dept. of Water Resources and Univ. of Idaho.
Nebraska Dept. of Natural Resources (NDNR). (2004). Nebraska revised statutes, LB 962, Chap. 46, Nebraska.
Norman, J. M., Kustas, W. P., and Humes, K. S. (1995). “A two-source approach for estimating soil and vegetation energy fluxes in observations of directional radiometric surface temperature.” Agric. Forest Meteorol., 77, 263–293.
Qualls, R., and Brutsaert, W. (1996). “Effects of vegetation density on the parameterization of scalar roughness to estimate spatially distributed sensible heat fluxes.” Water Resour. Res., 32(3), 645–652.
Roerink, G. J., Su, Z., and Menenti, M. (2000). “S-SEBI: A simple remote sensing algorithm to estimate the surface energy balance.” Phys. Chem. Earth, Part B, 25(2), 147–157.
Seguin, B., Assad, E., Freaud, J. P., Imbernon, J. P., Kerr, Y., and Lagouarde, J. P. (1989). “Use of meteorological satellite for rainfall and evaporation monitoring.” Int. J. Remote Sens., 10, 1001–1017.
Su, Z. (2002). “The surface energy balance system (SEBS) for estimation of turbulent heat fluxes.” Hydrology Earth Syst. Sci., 6(1), 85–89.
Sugita, M., and Brutsaert, W. (1990). “Regional surface fluxes from remotely sensed skin temperature and lower boundary layer measurements.” Water Resour. Res., 26, 2937–2944.
Tasumi, M., Allen, R. G., Trezza, R., and Wright, J. L. (2005a). “Satellite-based energy balance to assess within-population variance of crop coefficient curves.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 131(1), 94–109.
Tasumi, M., Trezza, R., Allen, R. G., and Wright, J. L. (2003). “U.S. validation tests on the SEBAL model for evapotranspiration via satellite.” Proc., ICID Workshop on Remote Sensing of ET for Large Regions, 1–14.
Tasumi, M., Trezza, R., Allen, R. G., and Wright, J. L. (2005b). “Operational aspects of satellite-based energy balance models for irrigated crops in the semi-arid U.S.” Irrig. Drain. Syst., 19, 355–376.
Verma, S. B., Kim, J., and Clement, R. J. (1992). “Momentum, water vapor, and carbon dioxide exchange at a centrally located prairie site during FIFE.” J. Geophys. Res., 97(D17), 18629–18639.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 134 • Issue 3 • June 2008
Pages: 273 - 285
Copyright
© 2008 ASCE.
History
Received: Mar 14, 2007
Accepted: Aug 15, 2007
Published online: Jun 1, 2008
Published in print: Jun 2008
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.