Wind Speed-Independent Two-Source Energy Balance Model Based on a Theoretical Trapezoidal Relationship between Land Surface Temperature and Fractional Vegetation Cover for Evapotranspiration Estimation

• Main Authors: Xiao-Gang Wang, Qing Kang, Xiao-Hong Chen, Wen Wang, Qing-Hua Fu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hindawi Limited 2020-01-01
• Series: Advances in Meteorology
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2020/6364531

An accurate estimation of terrestrial evapotranspiration over heterogeneous surfaces using satellite imagery and few meteorological observations remains a challenging task. Wind speed (u), which is known to exhibit high temporal-spatial variation, is a significant constraint in the abovementioned task. In this study, a wind speed-independent two-source energy balance (WiTSEB) model is proposed on the basis of a theoretical land surface temperature (Tr)-fractional vegetation coverage (fc) trapezoidal space and a two-stage evapotranspiration decomposing method. The temperatures in theoretically driest boundaries of the Tr-fc trapezoid are iteratively calculated without u by using an assumption of the absence of sensible heat exchange between water-saturated surface and atmosphere in the vertical direction under the given atmospheric condition. The WiTSEB was conducted in HiWATER-MUSOEXE-12 in the middle reaches of the Heihe watershed across eight landscapes by using ASTER images. Results indicate that WiTSEB provides reliable estimates in latent heat flux (LE), with root-mean-square-errors (RMSE) and coefficient of determination of 68.6 W m−2 and 0.88, respectively. The RMSE of the ratio of the vegetation transpiration component to LE is 5.7%. Sensitivity analysis indicates WiTSEB does not aggravate the sensitivity on meteorological and remote sensing inputs in comparison with other two-source models. The errors of estimated Tr and observed soil heat flux result in LE overestimation/underestimation over parts of landscapes. The two-stage evapotranspiration decomposing method is carefully verified by ground observation.