<i>PyEt</i> v1.3.1: a Python package for the estimation of potential evapotranspiration

<p>Evapotranspiration (ET) is a crucial flux of the hydrological water balance, commonly estimated using (semi-)empirical formulas. The estimated flux may strongly depend on the formula used, adding uncertainty to the outcomes of environmental studies using ET. Climate change may cause additio...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: M. Vremec, R. A. Collenteur, S. Birk
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Copernicus Publications 2024-09-01
Series:Geoscientific Model Development
Online Access:https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/17/7083/2024/gmd-17-7083-2024.pdf
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Summary:<p>Evapotranspiration (ET) is a crucial flux of the hydrological water balance, commonly estimated using (semi-)empirical formulas. The estimated flux may strongly depend on the formula used, adding uncertainty to the outcomes of environmental studies using ET. Climate change may cause additional uncertainty, as the ET estimated by each formula may respond differently to changes in meteorological input data. To include the effects of model uncertainty and climate change and facilitate the use of these formulas in a consistent, tested, and reproducible workflow, we present <i>PyEt</i>. <i>PyEt</i> is an open-source Python package for the estimation of daily potential evapotranspiration (PET) using available meteorological data. It allows the application of 20 different PET methods on both time series and gridded datasets. The majority of the implemented methods are benchmarked against literature values and tested with continuous integration to ensure the correctness of the implementation. This article provides an overview of <i>PyEt</i>'s capabilities, including the estimation of PET with 20 PET methods for station and gridded data, a simple procedure for calibrating the empirical coefficients in the alternative PET methods, and estimation of PET under warming and elevated atmospheric <span class="inline-formula">CO<sub>2</sub></span> concentration. Further discussion on the advantages of using <i>PyEt</i> estimates as input for hydrological models, sensitivity and uncertainty analyses, and hindcasting and forecasting studies (especially in data-scarce regions) is provided.</p>
ISSN:1991-959X
1991-9603