Combining Remotely Sensed Data and Ground-Based Radiometers to Estimate Crop Cover and Surface Temperatures at Daily Time Steps

Abstract

Estimation of evapotranspiration (ET) is important for monitoring crop water stress and for developing decision support systems for irrigation scheduling. Techniques to estimate ET have been available for many years, while more recently remote sensing data have extended ET into a spatially distributed context. However, remote sensing data cannot be easily used in decision systems if they are not available frequently. For many crops ET estimates are needed at intervals of a week or less, but unfortunately due to cost, weather, and sensor availability constraints, high resolution