Reference crop evapotranspiration database in Spain (1961–2014)

Abstract

Obtaining climate grids describing distinct variables is important for developing better climate studies. These grids are also useful products for other researchers and end users. The atmospheric evaporative demand (AED) may be measured in terms of the reference evapotranspiration (ETo), a key variable for understanding water and energy terrestrial balances and an important variable in climatology, hydrology and agronomy. Despite its importance, the calculation of ETo is not commonly undertaken, mainly because datasets consisting of a high number of climate variables are required and some of the required variables are not commonly available. To address this problem, a strategy based on the spatial interpolation of climate variables prior to the calculation of ETo using FAO-56 Penman–Monteith equation was followed to obtain an ETo database for continental Spain and the Balearic Islands, covering the 1961–2014 period at a spatial resolution of 1.1 km and at a weekly temporal resolution. In this database, values for the radiative and aerodynamic components as well as the estimated uncertainty related to ETo were also provided. This database is available for download in the Network Common Data Form (netCDF) at https://doi.org/10.20350/digitalCSIC/8615 (Tomas-Burguera et al., 2019). A map visualization tool (http://speto.csic.es, last access: 10 December 2019) is available to help users download the data corresponding to one specific point in comma-separated values (csv) format. A relevant number of research areas could take advantage of this database. For example, (i) studies of the Budyko curve, which relates rainfall data to the evapotranspiration and AED at the watershed scale, (ii) calculations of drought indices using AED data, such as the Standardized Precipitation–Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) or Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI), (iii) agroclimatic studies related to irrigation requirements, (iv) validation of climate models' water and energy balance, and (v) studies of the impacts of climate change in terms of the AED.