Land surface evapotranspiration as seen from Meteosat Second Generation Satellites: LSA-SAF developments and perspectives

The `Land-Surface-Analysis' SAF (LSA-SAF, http://landsaf.meteo.pt/), is dedicated to the operational monitoring of land surface. For this purpose, it develops algorithms to obtain near real time data products. The evapotranspiration (ET), cannot be observed directly by remote sensing and is assessed indirectly through modelling. The ET algorithm uses Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) derived data. It produces in near real time ET estimates at the SEVIRI instrument spatial resolution each 30 minutes. Validation already carried out attests the robustness of the proposed algorithm, notably over Europe. Nevertheless, research will be pursued during coming years, looking for additional validation sites and evolving towards an improved combination of remote sensed observations and models.