OpenET: Supporting Sustainable Water Management with Earth Observations and Open Science

OpenET is a fully automated system for field-scale (30 m), satellite-based mapping of evapotranspiration (ET) at daily, monthly, and annual timesteps. OpenET currently provides data across the 23 westernmost states in the United States and includes low latency, near real-time information, and multi-year timeseries of ET data from October 1999 to present. The OpenET team has implemented an ensemble of six satellite-based ET models on Google Earth Engine, which provides a shared computing platform for collaboration on processing of data from Landsat and other satellites, land cover, and meteorological inputs, leading to increased consistency and accuracy across the ensemble of models. Earth Engine also facilitates hosting and distribution of data via open data collections and an application programming interface (API). OpenET was developed in close partnership with agricultural producers and water resource managers who provided guidance and defined user requirements. Here, the development of the OpenET framework and the most recent accuracy assessment is summarized with discussion of how co-production with the user community and open science has facilitated successful applications of OpenET data for a wide range of water resource management activities. Current applications of OpenET demonstrate that broad acceptance and ease of access to ET data contribute to the rapid adoption of ET data in support of innovative water management practices and facilitate meaningful progress towards more sustainable management of water supplies.

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Published
2025-05-15
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784486184.052
Primary Topic
Hydrology and Watershed Management Studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

OpenET: Supporting Sustainable Water Management with Earth Observations and Open Science

G. B. Senay, Bruno Comini de Andrade, Jack Eggleston, Thomas Holmes et al.
Hydrology and Watershed Management Studies
article

OpenET: Supporting Sustainable Water Management with Earth Observations and Open Science

G. B. Senay, Bruno Comini de Andrade, Jack Eggleston, Thomas Holmes, Jordan Harding, Leonardo Laipelt, Maurice Hall, Yun Yang, MacKenzie Friedrichs, Peter ReVelle, Ayşe Kiliç, Lee Johnson, A. J. Purdy, Forrest Melton, Matt Bromley, Anderson Ruhoff, B. Daudert, Rachel O’Connor, Blake Minor, Conor T. Doherty, Samuel Ortega‐Salazar, John Volk, Joshua B. Fisher, Christopher Hain, Will Carrara, Martha C. Anderson, Kyle R. Knipper, Richard G. Allen, Justin Huntington, Charles Morton, Chris Pearson, Alberto Guzman, Karin Tuxin-Bettman, Garshaw Amidi-Abraham, Gabriel Parish
article en

Abstract

OpenET is a fully automated system for field-scale (30 m), satellite-based mapping of evapotranspiration (ET) at daily, monthly, and annual timesteps. OpenET currently provides data across the 23 westernmost states in the United States and includes low latency, near real-time information, and multi-year timeseries of ET data from October 1999 to present. The OpenET team has implemented an ensemble of six satellite-based ET models on Google Earth Engine, which provides a shared computing platform for collaboration on processing of data from Landsat and other satellites, land cover, and meteorological inputs, leading to increased consistency and accuracy across the ensemble of models. Earth Engine also facilitates hosting and distribution of data via open data collections and an application programming interface (API). OpenET was developed in close partnership with agricultural producers and water resource managers who provided guidance and defined user requirements. Here, the development of the OpenET framework and the most recent accuracy assessment is summarized with discussion of how co-production with the user community and open science has facilitated successful applications of OpenET data for a wide range of water resource management activities. Current applications of OpenET demonstrate that broad acceptance and ease of access to ET data contribute to the rapid adoption of ET data in support of innovative water management practices and facilitate meaningful progress towards more sustainable management of water supplies.

University of Nebraska–Lincoln (US), Ames Research Center (US), United States Geological Survey (US), Google (United States) (US), Marshall Space Flight Center (US), Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (BR), Goddard Space Flight Center (US), Agricultural Research Service (US), California State University, Monterey Bay (US), University of Idaho (US), Cornell University (US), United Nations Human Settlements Programme (KE), Pacific Island Ecosystems Research Center, Desert Research Institute (US)
Openalex Percentile: Top 89%
Hydrology and Watershed Management Studies
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