Evaluation of the Operational Simplified Surface Energy Balance Model for Pastureland Evapotranspiration Mapping and Drought Monitoring in North Central Kentucky

Figure 5

Spatial distribution of the remotely sensed actual ET (ET_a) and anomalies at the eddy covariance site and surrounding counties from 2016 to 2018. This map includes the 17-county area known as the “Bluegrass” region of Kentucky and they have similar vegetative features, featuring large pastureland and other agricultural lands. The counties are Anderson, Bourbon, Boyle, Clark, Estill, Fayette, Franklin, Garrard, Harrison, Jessamine, Lincoln, Madison, Mercer, Nicholas, Powell, Scott, and Woodford. The area represents 11,070 km². Significantly lower than average ET (dry conditions) is identified with orange color. Higher than average ET is identified with green color. Maps showing ET anomalies are shown on the left side of each panel. Anomaly is computed as a deviation between average values of ET of any given year from the historical mean (2000 to 2017).