Time and Place Calibration of the Hargreaves Equation for Estimating Monthly Reference Evapotranspiration under Different Climatic Conditions

The standardized FAO-56 Penman-Monteith (PM) equation requires a great number of input parameters that are difficult to record. The Hargreaves method is another approach. It has high accuracy, while it requires fewer input parameters. In the present study, the Hargreaves-Samani method was calibrated by the PM equation under different climate conditions, in the western Iran. Different correction coefficients were used for each station under study instead of the constant coefficient 0.0023 in the Hargreaves equation based on monthly and annual scales. The corrected coefficients obtained for different regions can be used to estimate ETo for the PM method under the same climates where reliable data are available. The results also showed that as a larger study area with more weather stations is used and a larger amount of data is obtained, the coefficient of 0.0023 in the Hargreaves equation does not need further corrections for local calibration purposes.