Actual Evapotranspiration Estimation Using Remote Sensing: Comparison of SEBAL and SSEB Approaches

Abstract

The main objective of this paper was to evaluate the daily actual evapotranspiration (ET) accuracy obtained by remote sensing algorithms when compared with Bowen ratio measurements performed in the cotton fields. The experiment was conducted in a cotton experimental field of EMBRAPA located in Ceará State, Brazil. Seven TM Landsat-5 images acquired in 2005 and 2008 were used to perform SEBAL and SSEB algorithms. The comparison between the estimated values by remoting sensing algorithms and the measured values in situ showed an acceptable accuracy. Besides, SSEB algorithm showed to be an important tool for ET analysis in the semi-arid regions, due to the fact that it does not need the meteorological data to solve the energy balance, but only the average temperature of the “hot” and “cold” pixels. Additionally, SSEB presents simpler processing than SEBAL algorithm that needs to solve an iterative process to obtain the sensible heat flux values.