Quantifying the uncertainty in estimates of surface–atmosphere fluxes through joint evaluation of the SEBS and SCOPE models

Accurate estimation of global evapotranspiration is considered to be of great importance due to its key role in the terrestrial and atmospheric water budget. Global estimation of evapotranspiration on the basis of observational data can only be achieved by using remote sensing. Several algorithms have been developed that are capable of estimating the daily evapotranspiration from remote sensing data. Evaluation of remote sensing algorithms in general is problematic because of differences in spatial and temporal resolutions between remote sensing observations and field measurements. This problem can be solved in part by using soil-vegetation-atmosphere transfer (SVAT) models, because on the one hand these models provide evapotranspiration estimations also under cloudy conditions and on the other hand can scale between different temporal resolutions.