{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,11]],"date-time":"2026-02-11T13:49:49Z","timestamp":1770817789688,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":59,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2017,7,29]],"date-time":"2017-07-29T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1501286400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Estimating daily evapotranspiration is challenging when ground observation data are not available or scarce. Remote sensing can be used to estimate the meteorological data necessary for calculating reference evapotranspiration ET\u2092. Here, we assessed the accuracy of daily ET\u2092 estimates derived from remote sensing (ET\u2092-RS) compared with those derived from four ground-based stations (ET\u2092-G) in Kurdistan (Iraq) over the period 2010\u20132014. Near surface air temperature, relative humidity and cloud cover fraction were derived from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder\/Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AIRS\/AMSU), and wind speed at 10 m height from MERRA (Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Application). Four methods were used to estimate ET\u2092: Hargreaves\u2013Samani (HS), Jensen\u2013Haise (JH), McGuinness\u2013Bordne (MB) and the FAO Penman Monteith equation (PM). ET\u2092-G (PM) was adopted as the main benchmark. HS underestimated ET\u2092 by 2%\u20133% (R2 = 0.86 to 0.90; RMSE = 0.95 to 1.2 mm day\u22121 at different stations). JH and MB overestimated ET\u2092 by 8% to 40% (R2= 0.85 to 0.92; RMSE from 1.18 to 2.18 mm day\u22121). The annual average values of ET\u2092 estimated using RS data and ground-based data were similar to one another reflecting low bias in daily estimates. They ranged between 1153 and 1893 mm year\u22121 for ET\u2092-G and between 1176 and 1859 mm year\u22121 for ET\u2092-RS for the different stations. Our results suggest that ET\u2092-RS (HS) can yield accurate and unbiased ET\u2092 estimates for semi-arid regions which can be usefully employed in water resources management.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs9080779","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,8,1]],"date-time":"2017-08-01T03:30:06Z","timestamp":1501558206000},"page":"779","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":29,"title":["Estimating Daily Reference Evapotranspiration in a Semi-Arid Region Using Remote Sensing Data"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"9","author":[{"given":"Peshawa M.","family":"Najmaddin","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Landscape and Climate Research, School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK"},{"name":"Department of Soil and Water Science, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of Sulaimani, Iraq-Kurdistan Region-Sulaimani-Bekrajo 46011, Iraq"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0277-9559","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mick J.","family":"Whelan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Landscape and Climate Research, School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9053-4684","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Heiko","family":"Balzter","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Landscape and Climate Research, School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK"},{"name":"National Centre for Earth Observation, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2017,7,29]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"359","DOI":"10.1007\/s11442-013-1015-9","article-title":"Evapotranspiration estimation methods in hydrological models","volume":"23","author":"Zhao","year":"2013","journal-title":"J. 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