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Reference evapotranspiration estimation methods that require minimal data are necessary when climatic datasets are incomplete, inaccurate, or unavailable. This study was conducted to evaluate temperature-based reference evapotranspiration methods in Florida. Using reference evapotranspiration estimates using satellite-derived radiation as the standard for comparison, the "reduced-set" Penman-Monteith, Hargreaves, and Turc equations were evaluated using monthly temperature data from 72 weather stations in Florida.

Results of this work found that the Turc equation produced the best estimates of reference evapotranspiration in Florida when compared to the full standardized Penman Monteith equation. The results of this work has been published in 2 articles in the Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering (link, link).