Maximum Entropy Production Evapotranspiration for Australia 2003-2013

Delivering daily evaporation, transpiration, and evapotranspiration estimates for Australia from 2003 to 2013 at a 5 km resolution. It was validated against observed data from 20 Eddy Covariance flux towers across 8 land cover types, showing lower error metrics compared to MOD16 and AWRA-L products. The analysis indicates transpiration contributed 62% to total evapotranspiration during the study period, which includes part of Australia's millennium drought.

Use Cases

• Validate and compare other evapotranspiration products like MOD16 and AWRA-L using the provided error metrics (RMSE, MAE, correlation) from 20 flux tower sites.
• Analyze the spatial and temporal patterns of daily evaporation and transpiration components across Australia during the 2003-2013 period, including the millennium drought.
• Model hydrological cycles by integrating the 5 km resolution evapotranspiration data with soil moisture and pedotransfer function inputs referenced in the methodology.
• Assess land-atmosphere interactions by examining the 38% evaporation and 62% transpiration contribution split reported for the total evapotranspiration.

Strengths

• Validation against observed data from 20 Eddy Covariance flux towers across 8 distinct land cover types provides a measure of accuracy.
• The model outperformed two other ET products (MOD16 and AWRA-L) in validation, with a lower average RMSE of 8.21 mm/8 days.
• Provides daily data at a 0.05 degree (5 km) spatial resolution for an 11-year period (2003-2013).
• Includes separate estimates for evaporation and transpiration, quantifying their respective contributions (38% and 62%).

Limitations

• Data is temporally stale, covering a period ending in 2013 with no more recent updates indicated.
• The validation involved only 20 flux tower sites, which may not fully represent the spatial heterogeneity of the entire Australian continent.
• File formats are primarily for visualization (HTML, PNG, WMS), which may complicate direct quantitative analysis without data extraction tools.

Provenance

Source

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network's Data Discovery

Collection Method

Generated using the Maximum Entropy Production model, incorporating pedotransfer functions, soil properties, and remotely sensed soil moisture data.

Time Range

2003 to 2013

Freshness

The record was last updated in March 2026, but the underlying data covers 2003-2013.

Geography

Continent of Australia