An Evaluation of MODIS Global Evapotranspiration Product as Satellite-Based Evapotranspiration Data for Supporting Precision Agriculture in West Papua - Indonesia

Abstract

Precision Agriculture has been a significant issue since the middle of the 1980s. Evapotranspiration is one of the main parameters in precision agriculture to analyze real water needs in the agriculture area and managing water resources. Traditionally evapotranspiration estimates by directly measured methods, i.e., lysimeter, pan-evaporation, eddy covariance, Bowen ratio, soil water, and climate data analysis. These methods are expensive techniques with low spatial representativeness. The utilization of remote sensing technology is expected to be an alternative solution for providing evapotranspiration data with a cost-effective and high spatial representative. This research aims to evaluate the MODIS global evapotranspiration as satellite-based evapotranspiration in estimating evapotranspiration in West Papua. Four (4) statistical parameters, i.e., mean error (ME), root means square error (RMSE), relative bias (RB), and mean bias factor (MBF), are using for evaluation. The research showed that MODIS global evapotranspiration was overestimated in estimating evapotranspiration in West Papua. However, MODIS global evapotranspiration has an acceptable accuracy in estimating evapotranspiration in West Papua indicated by ME = 0.66 mm/day, RMSE = 0.94 mm/day, RB = 0.27, and MBF = 0.81. Therefore, MODIS global evapotranspiration can be used as an alternative solution for providing evapotranspiration data in West Papua with a cost-effective.