A Satellite-Based Tool for Mapping Evaporation in Inland Water Bodies: Formulation, Application, and Operational Aspects

With the increase of evaporation projected for water bodies worldwide, there is a growing need flexible and low data-demanding tools enabling monitoring management resources. This study presents simple satellite-based tool named LakeVap specifically designed mapping from lakes reservoirs. requires small amount potentially available data with global coverage. The follows Dalton-type approach produces instantaneous (i.e., hourly) daily maps satellite-derived Lake Surface Water Temperature (LSWT) single-point/gridded meteorological data. model tested on Garda, Italy, by using long time series LSWT (ESA CCI-Lakes) different sources forcing. accuracy outputs checked comparison those hydro-thermodynamic (Delft3D) set up validated case study. Results are consistent sensitive to representativeness In test site, wind speed found be most spatially variable parameter, it significantly underestimated ERA5 dataset (up 100%). potential application other studies in operational contexts discussed.