Journal of Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers ISSN:1738-3692(Print) 2093-7709(Online) 한국농공학회논문집

Estimating the reference evapotranspiration is an important factor to consider in irrigation system design and agricultural water use. However, there is a limitation in using the FAO Penman-Monteith (FAO P-M) equation, which requires various meteorological data. The purpose of this study is to compare three reference evapotranspiration (ETo) equations in the case of meteorological data missing for 11 study weather stations. Firstly, the FAO P-M equation is used for reference potential evapotranspiration estimation with the actual solar radiation data R_n and the actual vapor pressure e_a. Then, in the case of R_n, and e_a are missed, the reference evapotranspirations applying FAO P-M, Priestley-Taylor (P-T), Hargreaves (HG) equation were calculated using other meteorological factors. Secondly, MAE, RMSE, R² were calculated to compare ETo relationship from the ETo equations. From the results, ETo with Hargreaves equation in coastal areas and the Priestley-Taylor equation in the inland areas showed relatively high correlation with FAO P-M when e_a data is missed. In the case of R_n data is missed or two weather data, e_a, and R_n data are all missed, R² value in Priestley-Taylor equation was highest in coastal areas, and R² values in Hargreaves equation were the high values for 7 inland areas. The results of sensitivity analysis showed that net radiation was the most sensitive for P-T and HG equation, and for FAO P-M, the most sensitive factor was net radiation and relative humidity, air temperature and wind speed were follows. Therefore, in considering of the accessibility to the coast, the types of the missing wether data, and the correlation and the magnitude of error, the reference evapotranspiration equations would be selected in sense of different conditions.