{"id":1424,"date":"2020-12-08T14:18:40","date_gmt":"2020-12-08T14:18:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ufrgs.br\/lsh\/?page_id=1424"},"modified":"2021-05-12T01:22:07","modified_gmt":"2021-05-12T01:22:07","slug":"et-brasil","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ufrgs.br\/lsh\/research\/ongoing\/et-brasil\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Remote sensing of evapotranspiration for water management in Brazil<\/em><\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

Our goal<\/strong><\/p>\n

Provide consistent and timely access to satellite-based estimates of evapotranspiration for improved water management at multiple scales across Brazil on an open and user-friendly platform named ET Brasil\u00a0.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Our motivation<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Evapotranspiration, a measure of the water entering the atmosphere as water vapor through evaporation from the land surface and transpiration from plants, is a key driver in Earth\u2019s water, carbon, and energy cycles.<\/p>\n

With increasing forest fires, land cover changes from deforestation, and expanding agriculture in the tropics, using novel remote sensing technologies to monitor evapotranspiration is crucial for assessing changes in the water cycle and associated effects on interactions between the land surface and atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Evapotranspiration data\u00a0 is also an essential information for water resources management and can support decision-makers in efforts to improve water security and better allocate of water use in agricultural lands.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Our project<\/strong><\/p>\n

New technologies and high-performance computing have enabled significant improvements in remote sensing data and models. Using the Google Earth Engine cloud-computing platform, our research group is able to generate evapotranspiration estimates at multiple scales down to the field-level, using several models and data sources, including Landsat and MODIS images.<\/p>\n

We also use ground-measured data across Brazil for model validation and accuracy assessment, allowing us to apply widely used global models to tropical and subtropical climates.<\/p>\n

Before public release, our evapotranspiration estimates are submitted to peer-reviewed and high-impact journals, giving scientific credibility and reliability to the datasets.<\/p>\n

User-friendly Earth Engine application (geeSEBAL)\u00a0<\/em><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

geeSEBAL can be accessed at\u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/etbrasil.org\/geesebal<\/a>\u00a0(not\u00a0<\/em>public released yet)<\/i><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

Research applications and case studies<\/strong><\/p>\n

Using Landsat images from 1984 to present, we\u2019re focusing on several applications in Brazil, including assessing the impacts of deforestation in the Amazon on surface-atmosphere water fluxes and water use associated with expanding acreage of irrigated cropland.<\/p>\n

Assessing impacts of deforestation on surface-atmosphere interaction in the Amazon\u2019s \u201cArc of Deforestation\u201d<\/em><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mapping cropland expansion and agricultural water use in Brazil<\/em><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Areas of ongoing research<\/strong><\/p>\n