OpenET: Supporting Sustainable Water Management with Earth Observations and Open Science

Monday, May 19, 2025

1:30 PM – 1:45 PM Alaska Daylight Time (AKDT)

Room: Room 13 & 14

Author(s)

Adam J. Purdy

CSUMB | NASA ARC-CREST, United States

Author (not presenting)(s)

Forrest Melton

Sr Research Scientist
NASA Ames Research Center, California, United States

Co-Author (not attending)(s)

Garshaw Amidi-Abraham

OpenET, Inc., Oregon, United States
MacKenzie Friedrichs

KBR Inc., Contractor to USGS EROS, United States
John M. Volk, Ph.D.

Assistant Research Scientist, Hydrologic Software Engineer
Desert Research Institute, Nevada, United States
Will Carrara

CSUMB and NASA Ames Research Center Cooperative for Research in Earth Science and Technology, California, United States
Yun Yang

Cornell University, United States
Charles Morton

Associate Research Scientist, Geography
Desert Research Institute, United States

Abstract Submission: OpenET is a fully automated system for field-scale (30 m), satellite-based mapping of evapotranspiration (ET) at daily, monthly and annual timesteps. OpenET currently provides data across the 23 westernmost states in the United States (U.S.) and includes low latency, near real-time information and multi-year timeseries of ET data. The OpenET team has implemented an ensemble of six satellite-based ET models on Google Earth Engine, which provides a shared computing platform for collaboration on processing of data from Landsat and other satellites, land cover and meteorological inputs, leading to increased consistency and accuracy across the ensemble of models. Earth Engine also facilitates hosting and distribution of data via open data collections and an application programming interface (API). OpenET was developed in close partnership with agricultural producers and water resource managers who provided guidance and defined user requirements. Here we summarize the development of the OpenET framework and the most recent accuracy assessment, and describe how co-production with the user community and open science has facilitated successful applications of OpenET data for a wide range of water resource management activities. Current use cases demonstrate that broad acceptance and ease of access to ET data contribute to the rapid adoption of ET data in support of innovative water management practices at scale, and facilitate meaningful progress towards more sustainable management of water supplies both in the U.S. and internationally.

Learning Objectives/Expected Outcome (Optional) :