This paper presents a method of estimating regional distributions of surface air temperature (T_a) and surface vapor pressure (e_a), which uses remotely-sensed data and meteorological data as its inputs. The method takes into account the effects of both local driving force and horizontal advection on T_a and e_a. Good correlation coefficients (R²) and root mean square error (RMSE) between the measurements of T_a/e_a at weather stations and T_a/e_a estimates were obtained; with R² of 0.77, 0.82 and 0.80 and RMSE of 0.42K, 0.35K and 0.20K for T_a and with R² of 0.85, 0.88, 0.88 and RMSE of 0.24hpa, 0.35hpa and 0.16hpa for e_a, respectively, for the three-day results. This result is much better than that estimated from the inverse distance weighted method (IDW). The performance of T_a/e_a estimates at Dongping Lake illustrated that the method proposed in the paper also has good accuracy for a heterogeneous surface. The absolute biases of T_a and e_a estimates at Dongping Lake from the proposed method are less than 0.5Kand 0.7hpa, respectively, while the absolute biases of them from the IDW method are more than 2K and 3hpa, respectively. Sensitivity analysis suggests that the T_a estimation method presented in the paper is most sensitive to surface temperature and that the e_a estimation method is most sensitive to available energy.

The partitioning of available energy between sensible heat and latent heat is important for precise water resources planning and management in the context of global climate change. Land surface temperature (LST) is a key variable in energy balance process and remotely sensed LST is widely used for estimating surface heat fluxes at regional scale. However, the inequality between LST and aerodynamic surface temperature (T_aero) poses a great challenge for regional heat fluxes estimation in one-source energy balance models. To address this issue, we proposed a One-Source Model for Land (OSML) to estimate regional surface heat fluxes without requirements for empirical extra resistance, roughness parameterization and wind velocity. The proposed OSML employs both conceptual VFC/LST trapezoid model and the electrical analog formula of sensible heat flux (H) to analytically estimate the radiometric-convective resistance (r_ae) via a quartic equation. To evaluate the performance of OSML, the model was applied to the Soil Moisture-Atmosphere Coupling Experiment (SMACEX) in United States and the Multi-Scale Observation Experiment on Evapotranspiration (MUSOEXE) in China, using remotely sensed retrievals as auxiliary data sets at regional scale. Validated against tower-based surface fluxes observations, the root mean square deviation (RMSD) of H and latent heat flux (LE) from OSML are 34.5 W/m² and 46.5 W/m² at SMACEX site and 50.1 W/m² and 67.0 W/m² at MUSOEXE site. The performance of OSML is very comparable to other published studies. In addition, the proposed OSML model demonstrates similar skills of predicting surface heat fluxes in comparison to SEBS (Surface Energy Balance System). Since OSML does not require specification of aerodynamic surface characteristics, roughness parameterization and meteorological conditions with high spatial variation such as wind speed, this proposed method shows high potential for routinely acquisition of latent heat flux estimation over heterogeneous areas.

Evapotranspiration (ET) is an essential part of the hydrological cycle and accurately estimating it plays a crucial role in water resource management. Surface energy balance (SEB) models are widely used to estimate regional ET with remote sensing. The presence of horizontal advection, however, perturbs the surface energy balance system and contributes to the uncertainty of energy influxes. Thus, it is vital to consider horizontal advection when applying SEB models to estimate ET. This study proposes an innovative and simplified approach, the surface energy balance-advection (SEB-A) method, which is based on the energy balance theory and also takes into account the horizontal advection to determine ET by remote sensing. The SEB-A method considers that the actual ET consists of two parts: the local ET that is regulated by the energy balance system and the exotic ET that arises from horizontal advection. To evaluate the SEB-A method, it was applied to the middle region of the Heihe River in China. Instantaneous ET for three days were acquired and assessed with ET measurements from eddy covariance (EC) systems. The results demonstrated that the ET estimates had a high accuracy, with a correlation coefficient (R²) of 0.713, a mean average error (MAE) of 39.3 W/m² and a root mean square error (RMSE) of 54.6 W/m² between the estimates and corresponding measurements. Percent error was calculated to more rigorously assess the accuracy of these estimates, and it ranged from 0% to 35%, with over 80% of the locations within a 20% error. To better understand the SEB-A method, the relationship between the ET estimates and land use types was analyzed, and the results indicated that the ET estimates had spatial distributions that correlated with vegetation patterns and could well demonstrate the ET differences caused by different land use types. The sensitivity analysis suggested that the SEB-A method requested accurate estimation of the available energy, $R_n-G$ , but was less constrained with the difference between ground and air temperature, $T_0-T_{a–loc}$ .

Evapotranspiration (ET) is a key component of the hydrological cycle, but traditional monitoring approaches are always based on measurements, which cannot satisfy the requirements of research on a regional scale. Hence, ET estimation by remote sensing is essential. MOD16 is a remote-sensing model based on the P-M equation and has good applicability. However, it describes soil moisture indirectly by RH, etc., which may cause uncertainties in ET estimating, so this study attempts to utilize the NDWI as a supplement to soil moisture information and makes improvements on the MOD16 model (with the resultant new model being named MOD16-sm). Specific work includes two aspects: one is model verification through making comparisons between ET estimates and measurements, and the other is a model application effect test analyzing the spatiotemporal characteristics of ET and exploring how ET responds to climate and land-use changes. Model verification indicated that the accuracy of the improved MOD16-sm model increased, with a higher R² of 0.71, a lower RMSE 0.9 mm, and a lower MAE 0.91 mm, and that the improved MOD16-sm model was convincing. The application effect test of the MOD16-sm model showed that the average relative change rate of annual ET was 1.7%, showing an upward trend, and areas with growth trends of ET also had high vegetation coverage. As for the impacts of climate and land-use changes on ET, ET was positively correlated with precipitation, whereas it had no relevant correlation with air temperature in most areas, and the ET of all land-use types displayed significant increasing trends resulting from climate change. The application effect test demonstrated that ET estimates by the improved MOD16-sm model were reasonable.