RM-OBS/PU Potential Evapotranspiration and Supporting Forcing L4 3-hourly 0.25x0.25 degree V001 (PET_PU_3H025)

The Princeton University MEaSUREs Potential Evapotranspiration (PET) dataset provides a set of estimates of PET based on near surface meteorology and surface radiation data derived from a combination of reanalysis, satellite and gridded gauge data. The rationale of the project is to reduce the error from the input meteorological forcing and provide a variety of widely-used PET methods for different research and application purposes.

PET is estimated using three methods: Penman open-water method (Penman), Priestley-Taylor method (PT), Reference crop evapotranspiration using the UN Food and Agricultural Organization approach (FAO). The Penman equation assumes PET occurs from an open water surface and calculates PET based on observations of surface net radiation, near-surface air temperature, wind speed, and specific humidity (Shuttleworth, 1993). The PT equation calculates PET based on surface net radiation and near-surface air temperature and does not account for the aerodynamic component (Priestley and Taylor, 1972). The FAO equation is a specific application of the Penman-Monteith equation for crop and short-grass reference surfaces and is based on surface net radiation, near-surface air temperature, wind speed, and specific humidity (Allen, 1998).

This first version of dataset is estimated at a 3 hourly temporal resolution and 0.25x0.25 degrees spatial resolution globally, spanning the 23-year period 1984-2006. Datasets are stored as a 3-dimensional array with dimension 720 x 1440 x 8 for each day, in NetCDF-4 format.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Maintainer Earthdata Forum
Last Updated September 15, 2026, 03:10 (UTC)
Created April 1, 2025, 18:31 (UTC)
accessLevel public
bureauCode {026:00}
catalog_conformsTo https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
harvest_object_id efaf912a-9b63-46b3-a49b-ba36d7aa8dbb
harvest_source_id b99e41c6-fe79-4c19-bbc3-9b6c8111bfac
harvest_source_title Science Discovery Engine
identifier 10.5067/GPZDZYELYG1A
license https://www.usa.gov/government-works
modified 2026-09-07T22:16:02Z
programCode {026:000}
publisher NASA/GSFC/SED/ESD/TISL/GESDISC
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash aa241ec41f5d93034935a062e2ee7bcb600d4a3e3227316128b85094fb6bcdfc
source_schema_version 1.1
spatial ["CARTESIAN", [{"WestBoundingCoordinate": -180, "NorthBoundingCoordinate": 90, "EastBoundingCoordinate": 180, "SouthBoundingCoordinate": -60}]]
temporal 1984-01-01/2006-12-31
theme {"Earth Science"}