Long term variations of actual evapotranspiration over the Tibetan Plateau

Abstract. Terrestrial actual evapotranspiration (ETa) is a key parameter controlling the land-atmosphere interaction processes and the water cycle. However, the spatial distribution and temporal changes of ETa over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) remain very uncertain. Here we estimate the multiyear (2001–2018) monthly ETa and its spatial distribution on the TP by a combination of meteorological data and satellite products. Validation against data from six eddy-covariance monitoring sites yielded a root mean square errors ranging from 9.3 to 14.5 mm mo−1, and correlation coefficients exceeding 0.9. The domain mean of annual ETa on the TP decreased slightly (−1.45 mm yr−1, p   90° E), but decreased significantly at a rate of −5.52 mm yr−1 (p  http://www.dx.doi.org/10.11922/sciencedb.t00000.00010 , (Han et al. 2020)) and at the National Tibetan Plateau Data Center ( https://data.tpdc.ac.cn/en/data/5a0d2e28-ebc6-4ea4-8ce4-a7f2897c8ee6/ ).