VJ116A2: Global Evapotranspiration and Latent Heat Flux

Global satellite-derived data provides 8-day composites of actual and potential evapotranspiration and latent heat flux at a 500-meter resolution. The VJ116A2 algorithm uses the Penman-Monteith equation, incorporating meteorological reanalysis and VIIRS vegetation and albedo data. Layers include total water loss and average daily energy flux, with a quality control layer and browse images.

Use Cases

• [Modeling water availability for agriculture] based on [8-day total evapotranspiration (ET) layers]
• [Assessing surface energy balance] based on [average daily latent heat flux (LE) layers]
• [Estimating irrigation demand] based on [comparison of actual (ET) and potential (PET) evapotranspiration]
• [Monitoring regional drought conditions] based on [time-series of 500-meter resolution water loss data]
• [Validating hydrological models] based on [quality control layer and known issue documentation]

Strengths

• [High spatial resolution] cited from [500 meter pixel resolution]
• [Algorithmically robust] cited from [use of the Penman-Monteith equation with multiple input data sources]
• [Cross-platform availability] cited from [presence on datagov and nasa_earthdata platforms]

Limitations

• [Metadata completeness] cited from [unknown column names and row counts across all platforms]
• [Documentation gaps] cited from [license specified as 'other-license-specified' without details]
• [Composite period irregularity] cited from [last period of each year being a 5 or 6-day composite]

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing via NOAA-20 VIIRS instrument and algorithmic processing.

Freshness

2026-04-09 20:51:26.053831

Geography

Global