Temporal variability of evapotranspiration simulated by different models at the croplants

Abstract

Evapotranspiration (ET) is one of the main factor to understand the hydrologic cycle on land surfaces of entire globe. It accounts for about 65% of precipitation returning to the atmosphere. Accurate estimation of the ET is essential to many applications of water resources management, hydrology, meteorology, climatology, and agriculture. Over the past few decades, there have been extensive efforts to develop and validate a number of ET models. Priestley-Taylor (P-T) and Food and Agriculture Organization Penman-Monteith (P-M) models are generally recognized as simple, but great operational approaches to estimate ET over different land cover types. In this study, we compare/validate different models of increasing complexity, P-T, P-M, and Common Land Model (CLM) in croplands, IA.