Spatially variable evapotranspiration over salt affected pistachio orchards analyzed with satellite remote sensing estimates

•METRIC evapotranspiration (ET) estimation tracks the temporal dynamics and spatial variability in pistachio orchards.•The estimated annual ET is 32% lower in most saline orchard than that in the control orchard.•Canopy structure affects available energy, and tree water stress further regulates latent heat. Recent prolonged droughts in California have emphasized the urgent need to implement more efficient water management practices for high value tree crops. Accurate estimation of evapotranspiration (ET), a main component of consumptive water use, is critical for improving management of micro-irrigated pistachio orchards grown in the San Joaquin Valley of California. We estimated ET of three mature commercial pistachio orchards on non-saline and increasingly saline soils in 2015 and 2016, using the Mapping Evapotranspiration at high Resolution with Internalized Calibration (METRIC) method and Landsat 8 satellite observations. Based on a comparison with field observations at 8 sites, we modified the parameterizations of the momentum roughness length and net radiation for pistachio tree crops and reduced the uncertainty of daily ET estimates. When compared with field data, the recalibrated METRIC ET estimates had an R2 of 0.59, a mean absolute error of 1.1 mm/day, and a RMSE of 1.4 mm/day during Landsat overpass dates (n = 72). The METRIC ET map captured the temporal dynamics and spatial heterogeneity both within and among the orchards. The mean annual crop season estimated ET (mid-March to mid-October in 2016) with remote sensing decreased by 32% from 1064 ± 99 mm in the non-salt affected control orchard to 725 ± 82 mm in the orchard with the highest level of soil-water salinity. The ET reduction was consistent with canopy volume differences among the study orchards, as shown by summer Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) from Landsat observations, e.g., 0.72 ± 0.06 in the control vs. 0.52 ± 0.06 in the most saline orchard. The available energy was controlled mostly by canopy features and explained 64% of daily ET variation among all Landsat pixels and satellite overpass days. The normalized differenced water index (NDWI) could be considered as an important parameter to capture the partitioning of available energy for ET (R2 = 0.38), suggesting that the lower soil osmotic potential in saline orchards further reduced crop ET.