Global evapotranspiration and surface heat fluxes dataset from 1978-2018 produced by the Maximum Entropy Production model

Accurate estimate of evapotranspiration (ET) is vital for understanding the global hydrological cycle. Here, based on inputs from the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) and Global Land Surface Satellite (GLASS) products, we produce a global ET as well as sensible and ground heat fluxes dataset at a 0.25-degree spatial resolution from 1978-2018 by the Maximum Entropy Production (MEP) model. The MEP estimated global ET showed a close agreement with eddy-covariance (EC) measurements from 475 flux sites. Overall, the MEP model provides an accurate ET estimate with parsimonious inputs, which outperforms the GLDAS-Noah ET product, and will serve for the global analysis of the hydrological cycle and climate change. All the dataset files are in Netcdf (.nc) format.