Blending multi-source evapotranspiration datasets via triple collocation
approach
Abstract
In this research, we provided a framework to merge well-known satellite-
and reanalysis-based global ET products (GLDAS, GLEAM, MOD16, and MERRA)
using the triple collocation (TC) along with least-square based merging
scheme without the utilization of high-quality ground measurement over
East Asia. Firstly, the error characteristics of each ET product were
statistically estimated using TC metrics with four different
combinations. Results revealed that GLEAM showed the least error
variance and highest product-truth correlation coefficient for most land
cover types, followed by GLDAS, MERRA, and MOD16. TC-based error
characteristics at different land cover types were reflected to
parameterize weighting factors for individual ET products, and in turn,
utilized in producing the merged ET estimates. Evaluation of merged ET
estimates was conducted at 11 flux tower sites located within the study
area. When relatively low-quality ET products (MERRA and MOD16) were
used as input for TC metric, the accuracy of the merged ET estimates was
better than those of the two individual ET products at all three land
cover types. Furthermore, when two relatively high-quality ET products
(GLEAM and GLDAS) were used as input for TC, the accuracy of merged ET
estimates were greater than that of GLEAM and showed the highest
statistical performance among the ET products over the three land cover
types. Merged ET estimates from scenarios containing GLEAM and GLDAS
showed MAE (RMSE) ranging from 0.275 to 0.692 mm/8 day (0.399 to 0.873
mm/8 day) and correlation coefficient ranging from 0.864 to 0.933 in
compared to in-situ measurements. These statistics showed substantial
improvement when compared to the original ET products (MAE: 0.327 to
1.172 mm/8 day, RMSE: 0.464 to 1.455 mm/8 day, and correlation
coefficient: 0.636 to 0.925) over the three land cover types. These
results confirmed that a TC-based merging framework could enhance the
accuracy of terrestrial ET.