Manyari et al. (2025) Accuracy Assessment of Remote Sensing-Derived Evapotranspiration Products Against Eddy Covariance Measurements in Tensift Al-Haouz Semi-Arid Region, Morocco

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Atmosphere
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-12-17
• Authors: Yassine Manyari, Mohamed Hakim Kharrou, Vincent Simonneaux, Saïd Khabba, Lionel Jarlan, Jamal Ezzahar, Salah Er‐Raki
• DOI: 10.3390/atmos16121407

Research Groups

Not explicitly stated in the provided text, but the study involves the research group(s) of the authors (not provided) and institutions responsible for maintaining the five eddy covariance (EC) measurement stations in Morocco’s semi-arid Tensift Al-Haouz region.

Short Summary

This study evaluated five high-resolution global evapotranspiration (ET) products against eddy covariance measurements in a semi-arid Moroccan region over 14 years. It found that PMLv2 performed best, followed by WaPOR and SSEBop, while ETMonitor and MOD16 showed significant underperformance.

Objective

• To evaluate the performance of five high-resolution (≤1 km) global evapotranspiration (ET) products (SSEBop, MOD16, ETMonitor, PMLv2, and FAO’s WaPOR) against ground-truth eddy covariance (EC) measurements in Morocco’s semi-arid Tensift Al-Haouz region.
• To assess each product’s sensitivity to soil moisture and precipitation-driven ET variations, specifically identifying responses to rainfall and irrigation inputs in both rainfed and irrigated fields.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Global ET products with a spatial resolution of 1 km or less, evaluated at five local eddy covariance station sites within Morocco's semi-arid Tensift Al-Haouz region.
• Temporal Scale: Observations spanning from 2006 to 2019, covering a period of 14 years.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: SSEBop, MOD16, ETMonitor, PMLv2, and FAO’s WaPOR (these are the remote sensing ET products being evaluated).
• Data sources:
  • Five high-resolution (≤1 km) global remote sensing evapotranspiration products.
  • Five eddy covariance (EC) measurements (ground-truth) from flux towers.
  • Precipitation observations.

Main Results

• PMLv2 demonstrated the best agreement with EC measurements, achieving a coefficient of determination (R²) up to 0.65, a root mean square error (RMSE) as low as 4.63 × 10⁻⁹ m/s (0.4 mm/day), and a percent bias (PBIAS) under 10% at most sites.
• WaPOR and SSEBop captured seasonal ET patterns (R² ~0.3–0.5) with moderate biases (~20–30%).
• ETMonitor and MOD16 underperformed, exhibiting larger errors (RMSE ~1.16 × 10⁻⁸ m/s to 2.89 × 10⁻⁸ m/s (1–2.5 mm/day)) and substantial underestimation biases (e.g., MOD16 PBIAS ~50–80% in irrigated sites).
• The study highlighted the significant impact of algorithmic differences among the evaluated ET products on their performance.

Contributions

• Provides a comprehensive and rigorous evaluation of five high-resolution global ET products using long-term (14 years) eddy covariance measurements in a challenging semi-arid agricultural environment.
• Identifies specific remote sensing ET products (PMLv2, SSEBop, and WaPOR) as more reliable for estimating ET in water-limited semi-arid agricultural regions, particularly where in situ measurements are scarce.
• Offers insights into the sensitivity of different ET products to precipitation and irrigation, distinguishing their performance in rainfed versus irrigated agricultural settings.

Funding

Not mentioned in the provided paper text.

Citation

@article{Manyari2025Accuracy,
  author = {Manyari, Yassine and Kharrou, Mohamed Hakim and Simonneaux, Vincent and Khabba, Saïd and Jarlan, Lionel and Ezzahar, Jamal and Er‐Raki, Salah},
  title = {Accuracy Assessment of Remote Sensing-Derived Evapotranspiration Products Against Eddy Covariance Measurements in Tensift Al-Haouz Semi-Arid Region, Morocco},
  journal = {Atmosphere},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.3390/atmos16121407},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos16121407}
}