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Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., 6, 1165-1196, 2009
www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci-discuss.net/6/1165/2009/
doi:10.5194/hessd-6-1165-2009
© Author(s) 2009. This work is distributed
under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.


Evaluation of the Surface Energy Balance System (SEBS) applied to ASTER imagery with flux-measurements at the SPARC 2004 site (Barrax, Spain)

J. van der Kwast1,*, W. Timmermans2, A. Gieske2, Z. Su2, A. Olioso3, L. Jia4, J. Elbers4, D. Karssenberg1, and S. de Jong1
1Department of Physical Geography, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
2International Inst. for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), Enschede, The Netherlands
3INRA, Avignon, France
4Alterra, Wageningen University and Research Centre, Wageningen, The Netherlands
*now at: Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), Mol, Belgium

Abstract. Accurate quantification of the amount and spatial variation of evapotranspiration is important in a wide range of disciplines. Remote sensing based surface energy balance models have been developed to estimate turbulent surface energy fluxes at different scales. The objective of this study is to evaluate the Surface Energy Balance System (SEBS) model on a landscape scale, using tower-based flux measurements at different land cover units during an overpass of the ASTER sensor over the SPARC 2004 experimental site in Barrax (Spain). Additionally, the effect of replacement of empirical roughness functions in the model by field estimates or literature values is investigated. Modelled fluxes correspond better with flux measurements over uniform land cover compared to cases where different land covers are mixed in the measurement footprint. Furthermore SEBS underestimates sensible heat flux, which is common in one source models.

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Citation: van der Kwast, J., Timmermans, W., Gieske, A., Su, Z., Olioso, A., Jia, L., Elbers, J., Karssenberg, D., and de Jong, S.: Evaluation of the Surface Energy Balance System (SEBS) applied to ASTER imagery with flux-measurements at the SPARC 2004 site (Barrax, Spain), Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., 6, 1165-1196, doi:10.5194/hessd-6-1165-2009, 2009.   Bibtex   EndNote   Reference Manager    XML