remote sensing Article Quantification and Mapping of Satellite Driven Surface Energy Balance Fluxes in Semi-Arid to Arid Inter-Mountain Region Bibek Acharya 1, Vivek Sharma 1,* , James Heitholt 2, Daniel Tekiela 2 and Fabian Nippgen 3 1 Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA; bibekacharya@ufl.edu 2 Department of Plant Sciences, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071, USA;
[email protected] (J.H.);
[email protected] (D.T.) 3 Department of Ecosystem Sciences and Management, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071, USA;
[email protected] * Correspondence: vsharma1@ufl.edu; Tel.: +1-352-294-6725 Received: 29 October 2020; Accepted: 5 December 2020; Published: 8 December 2020 Abstract: Crop evapotranspiration (ETc) estimates, on a regional scale, hold enormous potential in managing surface and groundwater resources. This is particularly important for the headwater state of Wyoming, which provides water to found major river basins of the US. In this study, METRIC (Mapping evapotranspiration at high resolution with internalized calibration), a satellite-based image processing model, was used to map and quantify daily, monthly, and seasonal ETc and other energy balance fluxes, i.e., net radiation (Rn), sensible heat (H), and soil heat flux (G) dynamics for different land-use classes. Monthly and seasonal ETc estimated were further used to approximate regional water consumption patterns for different land-use types for nine irrigation districts in semi-arid to arid intermountain region of Big Horn Basin (BHB), Wyoming.