Evaluation of Landsat-Based METRIC Modeling to Provide High-Spatial Resolution Evapotranspiration Estimates for Amazonian Forests

Abstract

While forest evapotranspiration (ET) dynamics in the Amazon have been studied both as point estimates using flux towers, as well as spatially coarse surfaces using satellite data, higher resolution (e.g., 30 m resolution) ET estimates are necessary to address finer spatial variability associated with forest biophysical characteristics and their changes by natural and human impacts. The objective of this study is to evaluate the potential of the Landsat-based METRIC (Mapping Evapotranspiration at high Resolution with Internalized Calibration) model to estimate high-resolution (30 m) forest ET by comparing to flux tower ET (FT ET) data collected over seasonally dry tropical forests in Rondônia, the southwestern region of the Amazon. Analyses were conducted at daily, monthly and seasonal scales for the dry seasons (June–September for Rondônia) of 2000–2002. Overall daily ET comparison between FT ET and METRIC ET across the study site showed r2 = 0.67 with RMSE = 0.81 mm. For seasonal ET comparison, METRIC-derived ET estimates showed an agreement with FT ET measurements during the dry season of r2 >0.70 and %MAE <15%. We also discuss some challenges and potential applications of METRIC for Amazonian forests.

Keywords

• evapotranspiration
• METRIC
• Landsat
• rainforests
• Amazon