Effect of local calibration on the performance of the Hargreaves reference crop evapotranspiration equation

Obtaining accurate estimates of reference crop evapotranspiration (ET0) using limited climatic inputs is essential in data-short situations where the preferred FAO-56 Penman–Monteith (PM) equation cannot be implemented. Among several available for ET0 estimation, the empirical temperature-based Hargreaves–Samani (HG) equation remains a popular alternative. However, accurate HG estimates can be obtained by local calibration and replacing the mean daily temperature with the effective daily temperature. Therefore, the present study was taken up to evaluate the effects of site-specific calibration of model parameters and the use of effective air temperature on the accuracy of ET0 estimates by the HG model. For this purpose, climate records for the historical period 2006–2016 of 67 stations located across 10 agro-climatic zones of Karnataka State, India, were used and the analysis was carried out using a monthly time step. Calibration and statistical performance evaluation was performed using FAO-56 PM ET0 estimates as a reference. Overall results showed significant improvement in HG estimates across all zones with the use of locally calibrated parameters, whereas the use of effective air temperature did not lead to any significant gain in prediction accuracies. The derived information on the spatial distribution of calibrated parameters will help obtain accurate ET0 estimates with only air temperature inputs.