Work

Estimation of field-scale crop evapotranspiration from the mechanistic SIF-ET model using the UAV hyperspectral imagery

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Accurate estimation of evapotranspiration (ET) is critical for agricultural water management and understanding land-atmosphere interactions. Conventional thermal and optical remote sensing is a powerful tool for ET estimation, but existing methods remain constrained by empirical parameterization, calibration complexity, and limited applicability. As a direct indicator of vegetation photosynthesis, solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) enables consistent and accurate ET estimation through a mechanistically grounded framework that does not require site-specific empirical calibration of the SIF-GPP relationship. However, current SIF-based ET estimation mainly rely on coarse-resolution satellite data and its capacity to resolve high-resolution ET dynamics over farmland remains unexplored. To address this, the mechanistic light response model and water-carbon relationship was integrated to construct a SIF-ET model at field-scale using UAV narrow-band hyperspectra imagery. The principal conclusions are: (1) High-resolution crop (canola,soybean and wheat) canopy SIF 740 at 1-nm SR was retrieved from UAV hyperspectra imagery using the Photochemistry and Energy Fluxes (SCOPE) model; (2)The daily ET estimates from SIF-ET model were validated against the in-situ measurements across multiple growth stages and water-nitrogen treatments, with wheat exhibiting the highest precision (R²=0.72–0.94, RMSE = 0.04–0.11 mm/d, MAPE = 1.70–5.89%), followed by canola and soybean; (3) Cumulative ET errors across repeated UAV observations within each growth stage remained within acceptable bounds, indicating the stability of SIF-ET model in capturing long-term ET dynamics. Overall, the SIF-ET model from UAV hyperspectra imagery revealed fine-scale cropland ET spatial-temporal heterogeneity. These findings provide support for precision irrigation, rational water-nitrogen management, and stress diagnostics under changing environmental conditions.

Source: European Journal of Agronomy

DOI: 10.1016/j.eja.2026.128332