ECOSTRESS and CIMIS: A Comparison of Potential and Reference Evapotranspiration in Riverside County, California

The ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) provides remotely-sensed estimates of plant water use, demand, and stress at 70 m spatial resolution every 1–5 days, sampling across the diurnal cycle. This study, in partnership with an operational water management institution, the Eastern Municipal Water District (EMWD) in Southern California, was conducted to evaluate estimates of evapotranspiration under ideal conditions where water is not limited. EMWD regularly uses a ground-based network of reference evapotranspiration (ETo) estimates from the California Irrigation Management Information System (CIMIS), yet there are gaps in spatial coverage and questions of spatial representativeness and consistency. Space-based potential evapotranspiration (PET) estimates, such as those from ECOSTRESS, provide consistent spatial coverage. We compared ECOSTRESS ETo (estimated from PET) to CIMIS ETo at five CIMIS sites in Riverside County, California from July 2018–June 2020. We found strong correlations between CIMIS ETo and ECOSTRESS ETo across all five sites (R2 = 0.89, root mean square error (RMSE) = 0.11 mm hr−1). Both CIMIS and ECOSTRESS ETo captured similar seasonal patterns through the study period as well as diurnal variability. There were site-specific differences in the relationship between ECOSTRESS AND CIMIS, in part due to spatial heterogeneity around the station site. Consequently, careful examination of landscapes surrounding CIMIS sites must be considered in comparisons. These results indicate that ECOSTRESS successfully retrieves PET that is comparable to ground-based reference ET, highlighting the potential for providing observation-driven guidance for irrigation management across spatial scales.