Merging technique for evapotranspiration based on in-situ, satellite, and reanalysis data using modifed KGE fusion method

The modified Kling-Gupta efficiency fusion method to merge actual evapotranspiration was proposed and compared with the simple Taylor skill’s score method using Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS), Global Land Evaporation Amsterdam Model (GLEAM), MODIS Global Evapotranspiration Project (MOD16), and the flux tower on three different land cover types over the Korean peninsula and China. In the results of the weights estimated from two actual evapotranspiration merging techniques (i.e., STS and KGF), the weights of reanalysis data (i.e, GLDAS and GLEAM) in cropland and grassland showed similar performance, while the results of weights are different according to the merging techniques in forest. Both two merging techniques showed better results than original dataset in grassland and forest. However, there were no improvement in cropland compared to the other land cover types. The results of the KGF method slightly improved compared to those of the STS in grassland and forest.