Precipitation and Evapotranspiration Mechanisms in Drylands and Their Remote Sensing Retrieval & Simulation II

Dear Colleagues,

Precipitation and evapotranspiration, as the two main components of the hydrological cycle, are essential for water resources, agriculture, and ecosystem management. Drylands, covering about 45% of the Earth’s land surface, are home to more than 38% of the world’s population and are one of the most sensitive areas to climate change and human activities. Over drylands, precipitation and evapotranspiration are scarce and highly variable. An accurate characterization of precipitation and evapotranspiration properties is lacking due to the limited ground monitoring systems typical of these regions. Precipitation and evapotranspiration mechanisms are complex and different from other regions. Precipitation is also strongly coupled with evapotranspiration in these regions due to strong land–atmosphere interactions.  Improving our understanding of the mechanisms in precipitation and evapotranspiration and their simulation over dryland is a top priority for weather and climate research. Satellites have been providing vital information from multispectral, hyperspectral, thermal, and microwave remote sensing data to estimate precipitation. ET is a multifaceted variable and is controlled by a combination of radiative, atmospheric, and vegetation drivers, which could be obtained from remote sensing. Estimation from satellite observations provides the opportunity to improve our knowledge of precipitation and evapotranspiration in these regions.

To promote wide communication on the subject, we convened a session AS31 at the AOGS2022 19th Annual Meeting with a similar theme: “Precipitation Mechanisms in Drylands and Their Simulation”. This Special Issue builds on the session and expands and enriches the research themes for a wider research scope.

This Special Issue will showcase recent efforts in applying remote sensing data in precipitation and evapotranspiration research, including remote sensing inversion methods on precipitation and evapotranspiration, precipitation mechanisms and evapotranspiration regulation mechanisms, and numerical simulation studies based on remote sensing combined with other data. This subject involves the multidisciplinary intersection of atmospheric and hydrometeorological sciences with remote sensing. It fits well with the research scope of this journal.

This Special Issue invites contributions dealing with the retrieval of precipitation and evapotranspiration data on different spatial and temporal scales, monitoring their dynamics, exploring the mechanisms of precipitation and evapotranspiration, and improving simulation accuracy based on the integrated use of remotely sensed data and in situ measurements. Articles may address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Retrieval of precipitation;
• Estimation of evapotranspiration;
• Evapotranspiration regulation mechanisms;
• Validation of precipitation and evapotranspiration models;
• Characterization of precipitation properties;
• The impact of climate change on precipitation and evapotranspiration;
• Spatial and temporal characteristics of evapotranspiration;
• Precipitation mechanism;
• Numerical simulation of precipitation and evapotranspiration;
• Land–atmosphere interaction;
• Drought and flood assessment and monitoring.

This Special Issue is the second edition of the Special Issue, “Precipitation and Evapotranspiration Mechanisms in Drylands and Their Remote Sensing Retrieval & Simulation”.

Prof. Qiang Zhang
Prof. Dr. Yu Zhang
Prof. Dr. Ping Yue
Dr. Zesu Yang
Dr. Yongli He
Dr. Simone Lolli
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• precipitation
• evapotranspiration
• environmental regulations
• sensible heat fluxes
• soil moisture
• precipitation recycling process
• evapotranspiration partitioning
• evapotranspiration–precipitation coupling
• Asia summer monsoon
• westerly wind
• vegetation dynamics
• numerical simulation
• hydrological extremes
• drylands

• Precipitation and Evapotranspiration Mechanisms in Drylands and Their Remote Sensing Retrieval & Simulation in Remote Sensing (11 articles)