Modeling and Partitioning of Regional Evapotranspiration Using a Satellite-Driven Water-Carbon Coupling Model

The modeling and partitioning of regional evapotranspiration (ET) are key issues in global hydrological and ecological research. We incorporated a stomatal conductance model and a light-use efficiency-based gross primary productivity (GPP) model into the Shuttleworth–Wallace model to develop a simplified carbon-water coupling model, SWH, for estimating ET using meteorological and remote sensing data. To enable regional application of the SWH model, we optimized key parameters with measurements from global eddy covariance (EC) tower sites. In addition, we estimated soil water content with the principle of the bucket system. The model prediction of ET agreed well with the estimates obtained with the EC measurements, with an average R2 of 0.77 and a root mean square error of 0.72 mm·day−1. The model performance was generally better for woody ecosystems than herbaceous ecosystems. Finally, the spatial patterns of ET and relevant model outputs (i.e., GPP, water-use efficiency and the ratio of soil water evaporation to ET) in China with the model simulations were assessed.