The evaporation of water from land into the atmosphere is a key component of the hydrological cycle. Accurate estimates of this flux are essential for proper water management and irrigation scheduling. However, continuous and qualitative information on land evaporation is currently not available at the required spatio-temporal scales for agricultural applications and regional-scale water management. Here, we apply the Global Land Evaporation Amsterdam Model (GLEAM) at 100 m spatial resolution and daily time steps to provide estimates of land evaporation over The Netherlands, Flanders, and western Germany for the period 2013\uffe2\uff80\uff932017. By making extensive use of microwave-based geophysical observations, we are able to provide data under all weather conditions. The soil moisture estimates from GLEAM at high resolution compare well with in situ measurements of surface soil moisture, resulting in a median temporal correlation coefficient of 0.76 across 29 sites. Estimates of terrestrial evaporation are also evaluated using in situ eddy-covariance measurements from five sites, and compared to estimates from the coarse-scale GLEAM v3.2b, land evaporation from the Satellite Application Facility on Land Surface Analysis (LSA-SAF), and reference grass evaporation based on Makkink\uffe2\uff80\uff99s equation. All datasets compare similarly with in situ measurements and differences in the temporal statistics are small, with correlation coefficients against in situ data ranging from 0.65 to 0.95, depending on the site. Evaporation estimates from GLEAM-HR are typically bounded by the high values of the Makkink evaporation and the low values from LSA-SAF. While GLEAM-HR and LSA-SAF show the highest spatial detail, their geographical patterns diverge strongly due to differences in model assumptions, model parameterizations, and forcing data. The separate consideration of rainfall interception loss by tall vegetation in GLEAM-HR is a key cause of this divergence: while LSA-SAF reports maximum annual evaporation volumes in the Green Heart of The Netherlands, an area dominated by shrubs and grasses, GLEAM-HR shows its maximum in the national parks of the Veluwe and Heuvelrug, both densely-forested regions where rainfall interception loss is a dominant process. The pioneering dataset presented here is unique in that it provides observational-based estimates at high resolution under all weather conditions, and represents a viable alternative to traditional visible and infrared models to retrieve evaporation at field scales.
", "keywords": ["microwave remote sensing", "EVAPOTRANSPIRATION", "WACMOS-ET PROJECT", "Science", "FLUXNET", "Q", "LSA-SAF", "15. Life on land", "01 natural sciences", "6. Clean water", "MODEL", "CARBON", "VARIABILITY", "terrestrial evaporation", "root-zone soil moisture", "13. Climate action", "Earth and Environmental Sciences", "SURFACE EVAPORATION", "GLOBAL DATABASE", "WATER", "SOIL-MOISTURE RETRIEVALS", "terrestrial evaporation; root-zone soil moisture; microwave remote sensing; GLEAM; LSA-SAF", "GLEAM", "0105 earth and related environmental sciences"]}, "links": [{"href": "http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/10/11/1720/pdf"}, {"href": "https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10111720"}, {"rel": "related", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/Remote%20Sensing", "name": "related record", "description": "related record", "type": "application/json"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "10.3390/rs10111720", "name": "item", "description": "10.3390/rs10111720", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10.3390/rs10111720"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2018-10-31T00:00:00Z"}}, {"id": "10.3389/frwa.2022.981745", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"license": "Open Access", "updated": "2026-09-20T16:18:59Z", "type": "Journal Article", "created": "2022-09-16", "title": "Perspective on satellite-based land data assimilation to estimate water cycle components in an era of advanced data availability and model sophistication", "description": "The beginning of the 21st century is marked by a rapid growth of land surface satellite data and model sophistication. This offers new opportunities to estimate multiple components of the water cycle via satellite-based land data assimilation (DA) across multiple scales. By resolving more processes in land surface models and by coupling the land, the atmosphere, and other Earth system compartments, the observed information can be propagated to constrain additional unobserved variables. Furthermore, access to more satellite observations enables the direct constraint of more and more components of the water cycle that are of interest to end users. However, the finer level of detail in models and data is also often accompanied by an increase in dimensions, with more state variables, parameters, or boundary conditions to estimate, and more observations to assimilate. This requires advanced DA methods and efficient solutions. One solution is to target specific observations for assimilation based on a sensitivity study or coupling strength analysis, because not all observations are equally effective in improving subsequent forecasts of hydrological variables, weather, agricultural production, or hazards through DA. This paper offers a perspective on current and future land DA development, and suggestions to optimally exploit advances in observing and modeling systems.The beginning of the 21st century is marked by a rapid growth of land surface satellite data and model sophistication. This offers new opportunities to estimate multiple components of the water cycle via satellite-based land data assimilation (DA) across multiple scales. By resolving more processes in land surface models and by coupling the land, the atmosphere, and other Earth system compartments, the observed information can be propagated to constrain additional unobserved variables. Furthermore, access to more satellite observations enables the direct constraint of more and more components of the water cycle that are of interest to end users. However, the finer level of detail in models and data is also often accompanied by an increase in dimensions, with more state variables, parameters, or boundary conditions to estimate, and more observations to assimilate. This requires advanced DA methods and efficient solutions. One solution is to target specific observations for assimilation based on a sensitivity study or coupling strength analysis, because not all observations are equally effective in improving subsequent forecasts of hydrological variables, weather, agricultural production, or hazards through DA. This paper offers a perspective on current and future land DA development, and suggestions to optimally exploit advances in observing and modeling systems.The beginning of the 21st century is marked by a rapid growth of land surface satellite data and model sophistication. This offers new opportunities to estimate multiple components of the water cycle via satellite-based land data assimilation (DA) across multiple scales. By resolving more processes in land surface models and by coupling the land, the atmosphere, and other Earth system compartments, the observed information can be propagated to constrain additional unobserved variables. Furthermore, access to more satellite observations enables the direct constraint of more and more components of the water cycle that are of interest to end users. However, the finer level of detail in models and data is also often accompanied by an increase in dimensions, with more state variables, parameters, or boundary conditions to estimate, and more observations to assimilate. This requires advanced DA methods and efficient solutions. One solution is to target specific observations for assimilation based on a sensitivity study or coupling strength analysis, because not all observations are equally effective in improving subsequent forecasts of hydrological variables, weather, agricultural production, or hazards through DA. This paper offers a perspective on current and future land DA development, and suggestions to optimally exploit advances in observing and modeling systems.
", "keywords": ["microwave remote sensing", "targeted observations", "vegetation", "snow", "soil moisture", "data assimilation", "land surface modeling"], "contacts": [{"organization": "De Lannoy, Gabri\u00eblle J.M. (author), Bechtold, Michel (author), Albergel, Cl\u00e9ment (author), Brocca, Luca (author), Calvet, Jean Christophe (author), Carrassi, Alberto (author), Crow, Wade T. (author), de Rosnay, Patricia (author), Steele-Dunne, S.C. (author),", "roles": ["creator"]}]}, "links": [{"href": "https://doi.org/25d43a6391aa3b144884152e00849bf4"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "25d43a6391aa3b144884152e00849bf4", "name": "item", "description": "25d43a6391aa3b144884152e00849bf4", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/25d43a6391aa3b144884152e00849bf4"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2022-01-01T00:00:00Z"}}, {"id": "oai:dnet:digitalcsic_::7935fd3fc8ea6e8c9c2214f78909b8f9", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"license": "Open Access", "updated": "2026-09-20T16:27:50Z", "type": "Other", "title": "Perspective on Satellite-Based Land Data Assimilation to Estimate Water Cycle Components in an Era of Advanced Data Availability and Model Sophistication", "description": "Provisionally accepted: The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon. Project Co-ordinators: Dr. Jose Alfonso G\u00f3mez Calero (Instituto de Agricultura Sostenible (IAS-CISC), Dr. Weifeng Xu (Fujian Agriculture and Forest University, FAFU). -- Trabajo desarrollado bajo la financiaci\u00f3n del proyecto \u201cSoil Hydrology research platform underpinning innovation to manage water scarcity in European and Chinese cropping Systems\u201d (773903), coordinado por Jos\u00e9 Alfonso G\u00f3mez Calero, investigador del Instituto de Agricultura Sostenible (IAS). The beginning of the 21st century is marked by a rapid growth of land surface satellite data and model sophistication. This offers new opportunities to estimate multiple components of the water cycle via satellite-based land data assimilation (DA) across multiple scales. By resolving more processes in land surface models and by coupling the land, the atmosphere, and other Earth system compartments, the observed information can be propagated to constrain additional unobserved variables. Furthermore, access to more satellite observations enables the direct constraint of more and more components of the water cycle that are of interest to end users. However, the finer level of detail in models and data is also often accompanied by an increase in dimensions, with more state variables, parameters, or boundary conditions to estimate, and more observations to assimilate. This requires advanced DA methods and efficient solutions. One solution is to target specific observations for assimilation based on a sensitivity study or coupling strength analysis, because not all observations are equally effective in improving subsequent forecasts of hydrological variables, weather, agricultural production, or hazards through DA. This paper offers a perspective on current and future land DA development, and suggestions to optimally exploit advances in observing and modeling systems. This research is supported by Belspo EODAHR (SR/00/376), the European Commission, Horizon 2020 SHui (773903), FWO CONSOLIDATION (G0A7320N), ESA 4D-MED (4000136272/21/I-EF) and KU Leuven C1 (C14/21/057). Peer reviewed", "keywords": ["2. Zero hunger", "Microwave remote sensing", "Land surface modeling", "Vegetation", "13. Climate action", "Snow", "Targeted observations", "Data assimilation", "Soil moisture", "15. Life on land"], "contacts": [{"organization": "De Lannoy, Gabrielle, Bechtold, Michel, Albergel, Cl\u00e9ment, Brocca, Luca, Calvet, Jean-Christophe, Carrassi, Alberto, Crow, Wade T., De Rosnay, Patricia, Durand, Michael, Forman, Bart, Geppert, Gernot, Girotto, Manuela, Franssen, Harrie-Jan Hendricks, Jonas, Tobias, Kumar, Sujay V., Lievens, Hans, Lu, Yang, Massari, Christian, Pauwels, Valentjn, Reichle, Rolf, Steele-Dunne, Susan,", "roles": ["creator"]}]}, "links": [{"href": "https://doi.org/oai:dnet:digitalcsic_::7935fd3fc8ea6e8c9c2214f78909b8f9"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "oai:dnet:digitalcsic_::7935fd3fc8ea6e8c9c2214f78909b8f9", "name": "item", "description": "oai:dnet:digitalcsic_::7935fd3fc8ea6e8c9c2214f78909b8f9", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/oai:dnet:digitalcsic_::7935fd3fc8ea6e8c9c2214f78909b8f9"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2022-01-01T00:00:00Z"}}], "links": [{"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "This document as GeoJSON", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items?keywords=microwave+remote+sensing&f=json", "hreflang": "en-US"}, {"rel": "alternate", "type": "text/html", "title": "This document as HTML", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items?keywords=microwave+remote+sensing&f=html", "hreflang": "en-US"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection URL", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main", "hreflang": "en-US"}, {"type": "application/geo+json", "rel": "first", "title": "items (first)", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items?keywords=microwave+remote+sensing&", "hreflang": "en-US"}, {"rel": "last", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "items (last)", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items?keywords=microwave+remote+sensing&offset=6", "hreflang": "en-US"}], "numberMatched": 6, "numberReturned": 6, "distributedFeatures": [], "timeStamp": "2026-09-20T21:01:07.930370Z"}