California has Extreme Mediterranean Climate

Eto = 9.30 in.

Paramount Farms Almond Orchards, Lost Hills, San Joaquin Valley, CA

6 replicates of 4 nitrogen and water treatments,

measured for the past 8 years
Cotton Fields, Lemoore, CA
 Class AG Project: Using Remote Sensing
Data to Spatially Estimate
Evapotranspiration

Evapotranspiration (ET) is the loss of water from the

soil by the process of evaporation and from plant
surfaces by transpiration to the atmosphere
 What do you need to measure?
How much SW energy is incoming from sun and atmosphere?
How much LW energy is emitted from the earth

What is the driving gradient? The water

vapor gradient between leaf & bulk air.

Measure the latent heat of vaporization

from the temperature leaf and air and
the Relative Humidity
To measure at canopy and pixel scale:
Leaf area per unit of ground area
% bare soil
Temperatures of soil and canopy

Other useful information? Leaf size and shape, Canopy

roughness and height, soil moisture, developmental stage
Controls on water loss from leaves

Stoma w/ cavity
Canopy Resistance to Water Vapor Diffusion

LAI
 Factors Affecting Evapotranspiration
radiation, air temperature, vapor
pressure deficit, wind speed

crop type & variety,

developmental stage,
crop height, crop
roughness, leaf area,
leaf size and orientation,
EMR reflection, ground
cover

crop rooting characteristics

soil properties, soil albedo
California Irrigation Management Information
System (CIMIS) Weather Stations

1. Total solar radiation (pyranometer)

2. Soil temperature (thermistor)
3. Air temperature/relative humidity (HMP35)
4. Wind direction (wind vane)
5. Wind speed (anemometer)
6. Precipitation (tipping-bucket rain gauge)
Project Goals: Investigate alternative ET
prediction methods
 8 Yr study, 6 replicate blocks (~6 acres) 4 Nitrogen and
water treatments

Ongoing measurements at the field:

(14d): canopy light interception, soil moisture, soil temperature,
Ψleaf,

Leaf N (8 Yr), P (2008), Yield (2 trees/rep., 8 yrs), tree canopy

size.
Almonds: 8 Yr study, 6 replicate blocks
Cotton Fields
(~6 acres) 4 Nitrogen and water
treatments

SARP measurements at the field:

Water: Ψleaf , fresh and dry weight
LAI: fisheye cameras and LiCOR PCA
Spectrometer: reflectance,
Thermal IR: TIR guns
Location: GPS
Image data: MASTER on two days.
Pistachio Orchards, Paramount Farms, Lost Hills
And at AZCAL Farms, Lemoore,
San Joaquin Valley, California
ASTER Map of 3 Endmembers:

Green vegetation (green),

Soil (blue) and
dry plant material (red)
Pistachio

Garlic Tomato

Wheat
Optical measurements of Spectral Reflectance
and Thermal Emissions of Bare Soil
Pistachio Orchard Leaf Spectra
 AZCAL Farms: Irrigated cotton (2 var.),
tomatoes, onion, garlic, other. Lemoore, San
Joaquin Valley, CA

Index Methods
 Relationship Between Leaf Water Potential and 1- 980 CR
band depth
-10

-12
Water Potential (Bars)

-14

y =51.836x - 17.438
2
R =0.1586
-16

-18

-20
0.09 0.08 0.07 0.06 0.05 0.04 0.03 0.02 0.01 0
1-980 Cotinuum Removal

Pressure bomb vs. field ASD Spectra

0.16

y = 1.9609x - 0.0692
0.14
R2 = 0.5358

0.12

1-980 Continuum Removal

Field Measured Leaf Water 0.1
Acala&Pima

Thickness and AVIRIS 1-980 CR 0.08 Pistachio

Linear (Acala&Pima)

band depth for Acala and Pima 0.06

Cotton and Pistachio Orchards

0.04

0.02

0
0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1 0.11

Ustin et al., 2004 Water Thickness (cm)

 Using Physiological Indexes to Estimate Plant
0.16
Water Stress
0.9

y = 1.9609x - 0.0692
0.14
R2 = 0.5358 0.85

0.12
0.8
1-980 Continuum Removal

0.1
0.75
Acala&Pima
0.08 Pistachio y = 5.0693x + 0.2188

NDVI
Linear (Acala&Pima) 0.7 R2 = 0.757

0.06
0.65

0.04
0.6

0.02
0.55

0
0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1 0.11 0.5
0.08 0.085 0.09 0.095 0.1 0.105 0.11 0.115 0.12 0.125 0.13
Water Thickness (cm)
1-980 CR

(Left) Leaf equivalent water thickness and 1-980nm

water feature CR band depth for acala and pima
cotton and pistachio orchards from AVIRIS image.

(Right) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index and

1-980nm water feature CR band depth from AVIRIS
data in 2002.
Cotton Fields 16 July
2002, 980 nm CR
reflectance image,
Darker pixels
represent higher
water content, lighter
areas have lower
water content.

Areas of the image

that are masked
represent other crops
or areas not currently
in production.
 Differential water treatments cotton field near
Phoenix , Arizona Measured with TIR data

Surface temperature image, 28 July 1999, 12:30 derived from a

scanning infrared thermomter mounted on a linear move irrigation
system
Identifying Canopy Water Stress from Temperature and Vapor
Pressure

Measured value

Canopy minus air temperature (Tc -Ta) versus vapor pressure deficit (VPD)
for well-watered and maximally stressed alfalfa based on measurements at
various sites across the United States.

The Crop Water Stress Index (CWSI) is computed as the ratio of the
distances CB and AB. (Data from Idso et al., 1981; from Moran et al. 2004.)
*VPD: difference between water saturation and water vapor concentration
 Combining
Water Thermal IR and Vegetation
Identifying Stress from Greenness and Index to
Temperature Estimate Crop Water Deficit
SAVI

(Ts-Ta)
With a measurement of Ts-Ta at point C, the ratio of actual ET to ETo is equal to a ratio
of the distances CB and AB (data from Moran et al., 1994).
(Moran et al., 2004)
25
California Irrigation Management Information
System (CIMIS)

Stratford #15

Weather stations are located throughout California, but emphasize agricultural

areas. Established in late 1970s to improve irrigation efficiency by establishing the
maximum water ET on a daily basis.
 Modifying ETo for crop type and developmental stage

Almonds Kc 105%
Cotton Kc 95%

Initial stage - planting until 10% ground cover.

Crop development stage - 10% to effective groundcover
(around 70-80%).
Mid-season stage - 70-80% groundcover to the start of
maturity.
The relationship between Reference Evapotranspiration
(ETO) and standard Crop Evapotranspiration (ETc)
 ASCE Penman-Monteith
Eqn.
0.408∆( Rn − G ) + γ
900
u (es − ea)
2
ETo = T + 273
∆ + γ (1 + 0.34u 2 )
• Rn = net radiation (MJ m-2 day-1)
• G = soil heat flux density (MJ m-2 day-1) = 0
• T = mean daily air temperature (ºC)
• u2 = mean daily wind speed at 2-meter
height (m s-1)
• es = mean saturation vapor pressure (kPa)
• ea = mean actual vapor pressure (kPa)
• Δ = slope of the vapor pressure-temperature
curve (kPa ºC-1)
Daily interpolated CIMIS reference ETo from web site
http://goes.casil.ucdavis.edu/cimis/YYYY/MM/DD

06/14/09 07/14/09

2 km resolution
06/14/09

07/14/09
06/14/09

07/14/09
06/14/09

07/14/09
CIMIS Interpolations vs. WRF Model
http://goes.casil.ucdavis.edu/wrf/YYYY/MM/DD
CIMIS Interpolations vs. WRF Model
http://goes.casil.ucdavis.edu/wrf/YYYY/MM/DD
 CIMIS vs. Weather Research and
Forecasting (WRF) model
http://goes.casil.ucdavis.edu/wrf/YYYY/MM/DD