Satellite-derived evapotranspiration across southern Africa

Programming code for: Evaluating the performance of satellite-derived evapotranspiration products across varying bioclimates in South Africa This repository hosts the code for the processing of acquired evapotranspiration time series datasets. Summary In this study we aim to evaluate the performance of freely available satellite-derived evapotranspiration products across varying bioclimates in South Africa. Satellite-derived evapotranspiration products were evaluated against in situ observations at a monthly time-step. Evapotranspiration time series datasets from flux towers across South Africa as well as from satellite-derived evapotranspiration products were collated and processed. Metrics used for the evaluation included correlation (Spearman Correlation Coefficient), Percent Bias and Kling-Gupta Efficiency for different temporal levels including overall, log transformed data, interannual and seasonal. The best performing satellite-derived evapotranspiration products were identified and integrated into a mean ensemble model for South Africa, which was then also evaluated. Note: Evapotranspiration refers to the combination of the evaporation of water from the Earths surface and transpiration from vegetation. Repository Components The components of this repository include two primary steps each including a set of method workflow notes and code scripts The two steps include the following: A) Evaluate satellite-derived evapotranspiration products performance Collate and process field-measured and satellite-derived evapotranspiration time series datasets Evaluate the performance of satellite-derived evapotranspiration products B) Select products for an ensemble and evaluate its performance Collate evapotranspiration time series using ensemble Evaluate the ensembles performance