Satellite-based NDVI crop coefficients and evapotranspiration with eddy covariance validation for multiple durum wheat fields in the US Southwest

•NDVI from satellites used to estimate basal crop coefficients in wheat fields.•Actual ET with eddy covariance was compared with modeled ET from remote sensing.•Remotely sensed NDVI accurately estimates cumulative, mid-season and late season ET.•Water stress event detected with NDVI. A three-year study was conducted to assess the ability of satellite-based vegetation index (VI) images to track evapotranspiration over wheat. While the ability of using VIs, notably with the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), to track vegetation growth has been well established, the operational capability to accurately estimate the crop coefficient (Kc) and crop evapotranspiration (ETc) at farm-scale from spaceborne platforms has not been widely studied. The study evaluated wheat ET over 7 sites between 2016 and 2019 in Yuma and Maricopa, Arizona, USA estimated by using Sentinel 2 and Venus satellites to map NDVI time-series for entire wheat cropping seasons, December to June. The basal crop coefficient (Kcb) was modeled by the NDVI time-series and the daily FAO56 reference ETo was obtained by near-by weather network stations. Eddy covariance (EC) stations in each field observed ETc during the same seasonal periods, and applied irrigation amounts were logged. The experiment found that remote sensing of NDVI and modeled Kcb accurately estimated Kc and crop ET during mid-season through senescence in most cases. However, NDVI-based estimation performed less well during early season (