Abstract
We evaluated the performance of the Thornthwaite (ThW) method using two gridded climate datasets to estimate monthly average daily potential evapotranspiration (PET). The PET estimated from two gridded series were compared to PET and to reference evapotranspiration (ETo) determined, respectively, through the ThW and Penman-Monteith model parameterized on Food and Agriculture Organization–Irrigation and Drainage paper No 56 (PM-FAO56) using data from weather stations. The PET by ThM was based on monthly air temperature series (1961–2010) from two gridded datasets (Global Historical Climatology Network-GHCN and University of Delaware-UDel) and 21 weather stations of the National Institute of Meteorology (INMET) located in Southeastern Brazil. The ETo PM-FAO56 used monthly climate series (1961–2010) on sunshine duration, air temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed from weather stations of the INMET. The PET estimated using UDel gridded series was better overall performance than the GHCN series. Differences in altitude, latitude, and longitude were the main geographic factors determining the performance of the PET estimates using gridded climate series. Depending on the factors, some locations require bias correction, especially locations more than 10 km away from the grid point. The gridded datasets are an alternative for locations without climatic series data or with low-quality non-continuous data series.
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Data availiability
The observed data used in the present study are made available by the National Meteorological Institute of Brazil (INMET) and the gridded data by the Climate Data Center – NOAA.
National Meteorological Institute
https://portal.inmet.gov.br/servicos/bdmep-dados-hist%C3%B3ricos
Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN)
https://psl.noaa.gov/data/gridded/data.ghcncams.html)
University of Delaware (UDel)
https://psl.noaa.gov/data/gridded/data.UDel_AirT_Precip.html)
Code availability
Not applicable.
Abbreviations
- CAMS:
-
Climate Anomaly Monitoring System
- CWB:
-
Climatic Water Balance
- CWS:
-
conventional weather stations
- DGP:
-
distance from the station to the grid point
- DH:
-
difference in altitude
- dw :
-
Willmott's agreement index
- ET:
-
evapotranspiration
- ET0 :
-
reference evapotranspiration
- ETa :
-
actual evapotranspiration
- ETc :
-
crop evapotranspiration
- ES:
-
Espírito Santo State
- FAO:
-
Food and Agriculture Organization
- GCD:
-
gridded climates datasets
- GCD1 :
-
gridded climates datasets from the Global Historical Climatology Network
- GCD2 :
-
gridded climates datasets from the University of Delaware
- GHCN:
-
Global Historical Climatology Network
- Ia :
-
arid index
- Ih :
-
humidity index
- Im :
-
moisture index
- INMET :
-
National Institute of Meteorology
- Kc :
-
crop coefficient
- MG:
-
Minas Gerais State
- MSE:
-
mean square Error
- MESs :
-
systematic error
- MESn :
-
non-systematic error
- n:
-
sunshine duration
- N:
-
daylight duration (photoperiod)
- ND:
-
number of days in a month
- NOAA:
-
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- nRMSE:
-
normalized root mean square error
- ThW:
-
Thornthwaite method
- ThWGCD1 :
-
using gridded climate data from the Global Historical Climatology Network
- ThWGCD2 :
-
using gridded climate data from the University of Delaware
- Ti :
-
mean monthly air temperature
- Tn :
-
minimum air temperature
- Tx :
-
maximum air temperature
- PET:
-
potential evapotranspiration
- PETs:
-
potential evapotranspiration under standard conditions
- PETGCD1 :
-
potential evapotranspiration from the Global Historical Climatology Network
- PETGCD2 :
-
potential evapotranspiration from the University of Delaware
- PETobs :
-
potential evapotranspiration from weather stations data
- PM-FAO56:
-
Penman-Monteith model parameterized on Food and Agriculture Organization – Irrigation and Drainage paper No 56
- r2 :
-
coefficient of determination
- RH:
-
relative humidity
- RJ:
-
Rio de Janeiro State
- RMSE:
-
root mean square error
- SP:
-
São Paulo State
- SEB:
-
Southeastern Brazil
- UDel:
-
University of Delaware
- u10 :
-
wind speed measured at 10 m
- u2 :
-
wind speed measured at 2 m
- z:
-
altitude
- WMO:
-
World Meteorological Organization
- WUE:
-
Water-Use Efficiency
- β0 :
-
intercept of linear regression
- β1 :
-
slope of linear regression
- ωs :
-
hourly angle between sunrise and sunset
- φ:
-
latitude
- δ:
-
solar declination
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Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the Brazilian National Institute of Meteorology (INMET) for the climatic data. The authors also like to thank the Natural Resources Institute at the Federal University of Itajuba for providing subsidies for publishing this article.
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This study was funded by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq) (Grant number: 312373/2018-0 and 435238/2018-3).
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Santos, C.N., Santos, A.A.R., Abreu, M.C. et al. Monthly potential evapotranspiration estimated using the Thornthwaite method with gridded climate datasets in Southeastern Brazil. Theor Appl Climatol 155, 3739–3756 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-024-04847-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-024-04847-4