Abstract

Many remote sensing-based evapotranspiration (RSBET) algorithms have been proposed in the past decades and evaluated using flux tower data, mainly over North America and Europe. Model evaluation across South America has been done locally or using only a single algorithm at a time. Here, we provide the first evaluation of multiple RSBET models, at a daily scale, across a wide variety of biomes, climate zones, and land uses in South America. We used meteorological data from 25 flux towers to force four RSBET models: Priestley-Taylor Jet Propulsion Laboratory (PT-JPL), Global Land Evaporation Amsterdam Model (GLEAM), Penman-Monteith Mu model (PM-MOD), and Penman-Monteith Nagler model (PM-VI). ET was predicted satisfactorily by all four models, with correlations consistently higher (R2>0.6) for GLEAM and PT-JPL, and PM-MOD and PM-VI presenting overall better responses in terms of percent bias (-10