A Hybrid Dual-Source Model of Estimating Evapotranspiration over Different Ecosystems and Implications for Satellite-Based Approaches

Accurate estimation of evapotranspiration (ET) and its components is critical to developing a better understanding of climate, hydrology, and vegetation coverage conditions for areas of interest. A hybrid dual-source (H-D) model incorporating the strengths of the two-layer and two-patch schemes was proposed to estimate actual ET processes by considering varying vegetation coverage patterns and soil moisture conditions. The proposed model was tested in four different ecosystems, including deciduous broadleaf forest, woody savannas, grassland, and cropland. Performance of the H-D model was compared with that of the Penman-Monteith (P-M) model, the Shuttleworth-Wallace (S-W) model, as well as the Two-Patch (T-P) model, with ET and/or its components (i.e., transpiration and evaporation) being evaluated against eddy covariance measurements. Overall, ET estimates from the developed H-D model agreed reasonably well with the ground-based measurements at all sites, with mean absolute errors ranging from 16.3 W/m to 38.6 W/m, indicating good performance of the H-D model in all ecosystems being tested. In addition, the H-D model provides a more OPEN ACCESS Remote Sens. 2014, 6 8360 reasonable partitioning of evaporation and transpiration than other models in the ecosystems tested.