Daily Historical Water Balance Products for the CONUS

This dataset provides daily historical Water Balance Model outputs from a Thornthwaite-type, single bucket model. Climate inputs to the model are from GridMet daily temperature and precipitation for the Continental United States (CONUS). The Water Balance Model output variables include the following: Potential Evapotranspiration (PET, mm), Actual Evapotranspiration (AET, mm), Moisture Deficit (Deficit, mm), Soil Water (soilwater, mm), Runoff (mm), Rain (mm), and Accumulated Snow Water Equivalent (accumswe, mm). The dataset covers the period from January 1 to December 31 for years 1980 through 2023 for the CONUS. Water Balance Model variables are provided as individual files, by variable and year, at a 1 km x 1 km spatial resolution and a daily temporal resolution. Data are in a North America Lambert Conformal Conic projection and are distributed in a standardized Climate and Forecast (CF)-compliant NetCDF file format.

gridMET is a dataset of daily surface meteorological data at approximately four-kilometer resolution, covering the contiguous U.S. from 1979 to the present. These data can provide important inputs for ecological, agricultural, and hydrological models.

The Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) MYD16A2 Version 6.1 Evapotranspiration/Latent Heat Flux product is an 8-day composite dataset produced at 500 meter (m) pixel resolution. The improved algorithm is based on the logic of the Penman-Monteith equation, which includes inputs of daily meteorological reanalysis data along with MODIS remotely sensed data products such as vegetation property dynamics, albedo, and land cover. Provided in the MYD16A2 product are layers for composited Evapotranspiration (ET), Latent Heat Flux (LE), Potential ET (PET) and Potential LE (PLE) along with a quality control layer. Two low resolution browse images, ET and LE, are also available for each MYD16A2 granule. The pixel values for the two Evapotranspiration layers (ET and PET) are the sum of all eight days within the composite period, and the pixel values for the two Latent Heat layers (LE and PLE) are the average of all eight days within the composite period. Note that the last acquisition period of each year is a 5 or 6-day composite period depending on the year. Known Issues * Operational and uncertainty issues are provided under Section 3 in the User Guide. * For complete information about known issues please refer to the MODIS/VIIRS Land Quality Assessment website.

The MOD16A2 Version 6.1 Evapotranspiration/Latent Heat Flux product is an 8-day composite dataset produced at 500 meter (m) pixel resolution. The algorithm used for the MOD16 data product collection is based on the logic of the Penman-Monteith equation, which includes inputs of daily meteorological reanalysis data along with Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) remotely sensed data products such as vegetation property dynamics, albedo, and land cover. Provided in the MOD16A2 product are layers for composited Evapotranspiration (ET), Latent Heat Flux (LE), Potential ET (PET) and Potential LE (PLE) along with a quality control layer. Two low resolution browse images, ET and LE, are also available for each MOD16A2 granule. The pixel values for the two Evapotranspiration layers (ET and PET) are the sum of all eight days within the composite period and the pixel values for the two Latent Heat layers (LE and PLE) are the average of all eight days within the composite period. Note that the last acquisition period of each year is a 5 or 6-day composite period, depending on the year. Known Issues * Operational and uncertainty issues are provided under Section 3 in the User Guide. * For complete information about known issues please refer to the MODIS/VIIRS Land Quality Assessment website.

The Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) MYD16A2GF Version 6.1 Evapotranspiration/Latent Heat Flux (ET/LE) product is a year-end gap-filled 8-day composite dataset produced at 500 meter (m) pixel resolution. The improved algorithm is based on the logic of the Penman-Monteith equation, which includes inputs of daily meteorological reanalysis data along with MODIS remotely sensed data products such as vegetation property dynamics, albedo, and land cover. The MYD16A2GF will be generated at the end of each year when the entire yearly 8-day MYD15A2H is available. Hence, the gap-filled MYD16A2GF is the improved MYD16, which has cleaned the poor-quality inputs from 8-day Leaf Area Index and Fraction of Photosynthetically Active Radiation (LAI/FPAR) based on the Quality Control (QC) label for every pixel. If any LAI/FPAR pixel did not meet the quality screening criteria, its value is determined through linear interpolation. However, users cannot get MYD16A2GF in near-real time because it will be generated only at the end of a given year. Provided in the MYD16A2GF product are layers for composited ET, LE, Potential ET (PET), and Potential LE (PLE) along with a quality control layer. Two low resolution browse images, ET and LE, are also available for each MYD16A2GF granule. The pixel values for the two Evapotranspiration layers (ET and PET) are the sum of all eight days within the composite period, and the pixel values for the two Latent Heat layers (LE and PLE) are the average of all eight days within the composite period. The last acquisition period of each year is a 5 or 6-day composite period, depending on the year. Known Issues * Operational and uncertainty issues are provided under Section 3 in the User Guide. * For complete information about known issues please refer to the MODIS/VIIRS Land Quality Assessment website.

The Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) MOD16A2GF Version 6.1 Evapotranspiration/Latent Heat Flux (ET/LE) product is a year-end gap-filled 8-day composite dataset produced at 500 meter (m) pixel resolution. The algorithm used for the MOD16 data product collection is based on the logic of the Penman-Monteith equation, which includes inputs of daily meteorological reanalysis data along with MODIS remotely sensed data products such as vegetation property dynamics, albedo, and land cover. The MOD16A2GF will be generated at the end of each year when the entire yearly 8-day MOD15A2H is available. Hence, the gap-filled MOD16A2GF is the improved MOD16, which has cleaned the poor-quality inputs from 8-day Leaf Area Index and Fraction of Photosynthetically Active Radiation (LAI/FPAR) based on the Quality Control (QC) label for every pixel. If any LAI/FPAR pixel did not meet the quality screening criteria, its value is determined through linear interpolation. However, users cannot get MOD16A2GF in near-real time because it will be generated only at the end of a given year. Provided in the MOD16A2GF product are layers for composited ET, LE, Potential ET (PET), and Potential LE (PLE) along with a quality control layer. Two low resolution browse images, ET and LE, are also available for each MOD16A2GF granule. The pixel values for the two Evapotranspiration layers (ET and PET) are the sum of all eight days within the composite period, and the pixel values for the two Latent Heat layers (LE and PLE) are the average of all eight days within the composite period. The last acquisition period of each year is a 5 or 6-day composite period, depending on the year. Known Issues * Operational and uncertainty issues are provided under Section 3 in the User Guide. * For complete information about known issues please refer to the MODIS/VIIRS Land Quality Assessment website.