7 March 2022 Estimation of bell pepper evapotranspiration using two-source energy balance model based on high-resolution thermal and visible imagery from unmanned aerial vehicles
Emre Tunca, Eyüp Selim Köksal, Alfonso F. Torres-Rua, William P. Kustas, Hector S. Nieto
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Abstract

Crop evapotranspiration (ET) is a crucial component of energy and water budgets. The accurate determination of ET is vital for agricultural water management. Several satellite-based ET models have been developed to map ET at the field to regional scales. The spatial resolution of the satellite observations, particularly thermal-infrared imagery, is insufficient to estimate ET for small (<1  ha) agricultural fields. With unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology advancement, high spatial and temporal images can be acquired with UAVs to monitor ET for small fields or even at a canopy scale. The aim of this study was the evaluation of the two-source energy balance (TSEB) model to estimate daily and seasonal crop (bell pepper) ET (ETTSEB) using high-resolution visible and thermal UAV imagery. Also, the impact of using different pixel resolutions (40, 50, 60, and 70 cm) with TSEB is compared with ET values derived using a soil water budget approach (ETSWD) with a profile soil water content. The results of this study showed that there is a high correlation between ETTSEB and ETSWD values (R2  =  0.73 for daily, R2  =  0.98 for seasonal). The root mean square error values for daily and seasonal ETTSEB are 0.62  mm day  −  1 and 11.46  mm season  −  1, respectively. The sensitivity of TSEB output to the spatial resolution indicated that different pixel resolutions do not significantly impact ET estimates. We suggest that the TSEB model has a real potential for agricultural water management applications for small agricultural fields using high-resolution UAV multispectral and thermal images.

© 2022 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) 1931-3195/2022/$28.00 © 2022 SPIE
Emre Tunca, Eyüp Selim Köksal, Alfonso F. Torres-Rua, William P. Kustas, and Hector S. Nieto "Estimation of bell pepper evapotranspiration using two-source energy balance model based on high-resolution thermal and visible imagery from unmanned aerial vehicles," Journal of Applied Remote Sensing 16(2), 022204 (7 March 2022). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JRS.16.022204
Received: 4 December 2021; Accepted: 17 February 2022; Published: 7 March 2022
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Cited by 7 scholarly publications.
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KEYWORDS
Unmanned aerial vehicles

Spatial resolution

Soil science

Agriculture

Thermal modeling

Thermography

Heat flux

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