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Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory (614)

Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory (614)

Terrestrial Water Cycle Seminar: Craig Ferguson

Affiliation: Princeton - Hosted by the LIS-WRF group
Event Date: Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Location: Bldg 33, Room A128
Time: 3:30 PM

Quantifying Uncertainty in Satellite-based Estimates of Evapotranspiration

There exists now a number of satellite-based applications capable of providing estimates of evapotranspiration (RS-E) globally at high spatial resolution. Efforts to validate these products through observation has been impeded by errors in eddy covariance flux measurements and complicated by the mismatch in representative scale. Here, we provide a comprehensive assessment of the uncertainties in a Penman-Monteith RS-E attributable to input errors, algorithmic assumptions, and RS data coverage limitations. We quantify and rank the impact of these errors for seven major U.S. basins for the period 2003-6. During this period, the RS-E is also evaluated for bias via intercomparisons with VIC-model and GRACE and NARR inferred E. Ultimately, it is shown that the RS-E is comparable in skill to expected output from a land surface model forced with satellite-based precipitation. 

 
-Brief Bio-
Craig is currently a Ph.D. candidate of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University. He is advised by Professor Eric F. Wood. Craig leads Princeton’s X-band (AMSR-E) remote sensing soil moisture and Penman-Monteith RS-E retrievals, in addition to AIRS and CERES data validation efforts. For his NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship, Craig is investigating the distribution of land-atmosphere interaction as observed from satellite observations. He also collaborates with Justin Sheffield (Princeton) and Huilin Gao (U.Wash) on satellite-based water budget studies and with Raghuveer Vinukollu (Princeton) on SEBS RS-E retrievals.

 

Posted or updated: Thursday, November 5, 2009

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