Monitoring Evapotranspiration in the Intermountain West

Appraising, monitoring, and early warning drought in the United States is markedly improved through the use of potential evapotranspiration (PET), and actual evapotranspiration (AET) data. With help from several key federal and state-level partners, the Colorado Climate Center is collecting PET and AET data, and leveraging it to create value-added drought monitoring and early warning products. These efforts, discussed herein, span state, regional, and national scales, and range from citizen scientist data collection to satellite-derived products.