A continuous satellite‐derived global record of land surface evapotranspiration from 1983 to 2006

We applied a satellite remote sensing–based evapotranspiration (ET) algorithm to assess global terrestrial ET from 1983 to 2006. The algorithm quantifies canopy transpiration and soil evaporation using a modified Penman‐Monteith approach with biome‐specific canopy conductance determined from the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and quantifies open water evaporation using a Priestley‐Taylor approach. These algorithms were applied globally using advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) GIMMS NDVI, NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis (NNR) daily surface meteorology, and NASA/GEWEX Surface Radiation Budget Release−3.0 solar radiation inputs. We used observations from 34 FLUXNET tower sites to parameterize an…