DOI: 10.5285/d329f4d6-95ba-4134-b77a-a377e0755653
title: Climate hydrology and ecology research support system potential evapotranspiration dataset for Great Britain (1961-2012) [CHESS-PE]

description: 1km resolution gridded potential evapotranspiration over Great Britain for the years 1961-2012. This dataset contains time series of two potential evapotranspiration variables. The first is potential evapotranspiration (PET) (mm/day) calculated using the Penman-Monteith equation [1] for FAO-defined well-watered grass [2]. The second is potential evapotranspiration with interception correction (PETI) (mm/day), which adds a correction for interception by a well-watered grass on days in which there is rainfall. Both PET and PETI are calculated using the Climate Hydrology and Ecology research Support System meteorology dataset (CHESS-met) meteorological variables [3].

[1] Monteith, J. L.: Evaporation and environment, in: 19th Symposia of the Society for Experimental Biology, University Press, Cambridge, 1965
[2] Allen, R. G., Pereira, L. S., Raes, D., and Smith, M.: Crop evapotranspiration - Guidelines for computing crop water requirements, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy, FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper, 1998.
[3] Robinson, E. L., Blyth, E., Clark, D. B., Finch, J., Rudd, A. C. (2015). Climate hydrology and ecology research support system meteorological dataset (1961-2012) [CHESS-met] . NERC-Environmental Information Data Centre https://doi.org/10.5285/80887755-1426-4dab-a4a6-250919d5020c
description: The PET (mm/day) was calculated by applying the Penman-Monteith equation [1] for a well-watered grass surface [2] to the air temperature, specific humidity, downward long- and shortwave radiation and surface air pressure from the Climate hydrology and ecology research support system meteorology dataset (CHESS-met) [3]. To calculate PETI (mm/day) an interception correction is applied on days with non-zero rainfall, by interpolating between PET and potential interception assuming an exponential dry-down. On dry days the PETI is equal to the PET. The PETI is calculated using all of the same input variables as the PET, as well as the precipitation from the CHESS-met dataset, which is the CEH-Gridded Estimates of Areal Rainfall (CEH-GEAR) daily rainfall estimates [4,5] scaled to units of kg m-2 s-1. The PET and PETI data were created using software developed in python. For further detail see the Supporting Documentation.

[1] Monteith, J. L.: Evaporation and environment, in: 19th Symposia of the Society for Experimental Biology, University Press, Cambridge, 1965
[2] Allen, R. G., Pereira, L. S., Raes, D., and Smith, M.: Crop evapotranspiration - Guidelines for computing crop water requirements, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy, FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper, 1998.
[3] Robinson, E. L., Blyth, E., Clark, D. B., Finch, J., Rudd, A. C. (2015). Climate hydrology and ecology research support system meteorological dataset (1961-2012) [CHESS-met] . NERC-Environmental Information Data Centre doi:10.5285/80887755-1426-4dab-a4a6-250919d5020c
[4] Tanguy, M., Dixon, H., Prosdocimi, I., Morris, D. G., Keller, V. D. J. (2014). Gridded estimates of daily and monthly areal rainfall for the United Kingdom (1890-2012) [CEH-GEAR]. NERC-Environmental Information Data Centre doi:10.5285/5dc179dc-f692-49ba-9326-a6893a503f6e
[5] Keller,V. D. J., Tanguy, M. , Prosdocimi, I. , Terry, J. A. , Hitt, O., Cole, S. J. , Fry, M., Morris, D. G., Dixon, H. (2015) CEH-GEAR: 1km resolution daily and monthly areal rainfall estimates for the UK for hydrological use. Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., 8, 83-112 doi:10.5194/essdd-8-83-2015.