World’s average annual evapotranspiration web map from Esri

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Susan Smith
Susan Smith has worked as an editor and writer in the technology industry for over 16 years. As an editor she has been responsible for the launch of a number of technology trade publications, both in print and online. Currently, Susan is the Editor of GISCafe and AECCafe, as well as those sites’ … More »

World’s average annual evapotranspiration web map from Esri

June 20th, 2012 by Susan Smith

Most of us understand the hydrologic cycle in terms of the visible paths that water can take: rainstorms, rivers, waterfalls, swamps, etc. Hydrology takes a different path through a larger volume of water that flows through the air through evaporation and transpiration. This is very different from hydrology as we think of it traveling through visible paths such as waterfalls, streams, rivers, rainstorms, and swamps,etc. Evaporation and transpiration claim 61% of all terrestrial precipitation, and together are referred to as evapotranpsiration. Esri’s Mapping Center has produced a web map showing the world’s average annual evapotranspiration to understand how this process works.

“The map is produced using the MOD16 Global Evapotranspiration Product, which is derived from satellite imagery by researchers at the University of Montana. The imagery is from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), an instrument with 1-km resolution carried by two NASA satellites. The MOD16 algorithm derives from raw imagery a number of secondary data products like land surface temperature, leaf area index, and net solar radiation. These intermediate data are used to solve the Penman-Monteith equation for total daily evapotranspiration”

-Esri Mapping Center

Tags: ESRI, evapotranspiration, Mapping Center, web map

Category: Esri

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