Estimation of Evapotranspiration of Almond orchards using Remote Sensing based SEBAL model in Central Valley, California

Evapotranspiration is one of the main components of the hydrologic cycle and its impact to hydrology, agriculture,forestry and environmental studies is very crucial. SEBAL (Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land) is an image-processing model comprised of twenty-five computational sub-models that computes actual evapotranspiration (ETa) and other energy exchanges as a component of energy balance which is used to derive the surface radiation balance equation for the net surface radiation flux (Rn) on a pixel-by-pixel basis. For this study, SEBAL method is applied to Level 1B dataset of visible, near-infrared and thermal infrared radiation channels of MASTER instrument on-board NASA-DC 8 flight. This paper uses the SEBAL method to (1) investigate the spatial distribution property of land surface temperature (Ls), NDVI, and ETa over the San Joaquin valley. (2) Estimate actual evapotranspiration of almond class on pixel-by-pixel basis in the Central valley, California. (3) Comparison of actual Evapotranspiration obtained from SEBAL model with reference evapotranspiration (Eto) using Penman Monteiths method based on the procedures and available data from California Irrigation Management Information System (CIMIS) stations. The results of the regression between extracted land surface temperature, NDVI and, evapotranspiration show negative (-) correlation. On the other hand Ls possessed a slightly stronger negative correlation with the ETa than with NDVI for Almond class. The correlation coefficient of actual ETa estimates from remote sensing with Reference ETo from Penmann Monteith are 0.8571. ETa estimated for almond crop from SEBAL were found to be almost same with the CIMIS_Penman Monteith method with bias of 0.77 mm and mean percentage difference is 0.10%. These results indicate that combination of MASTER data with surface meteorological data could provide an efficient tool for the estimation of regional actual ET used for water resources and irrigation scheduling and management. Keywords: Evapotranspiration, Hydrologic cycle, SEBAL, net surface radiation flux, MASTER, NDVI, Penman Monteith, CIMIS, Surface Temperature