Estimates of spatial variation in evaporation using satellite-derived surface temperature and a water balance model

Evaporation dominates the water balance in arid and semi-arid areas. The estimation of evaporation by land-cover type is important for proper management of scarce water resources. Here, we present a method to assess spatial and temporal patterns of actual evaporation by relating water balance evaporation estimates to satellite-derived radiometric surface temperature. The method is applied to a heterogeneous landscape in the Krishna River basin in south India using 10-day composites of NOAA advanced very high-resolution radiometer satellite imagery. The surface temperature predicts the difference between reference evaporation and modelled actual evaporation well in the four catchments (r