Spatial variation of reference crop evapotranspiration on Tibetan Plateau +

This study is based on meteorological observation data collected at 38 weather stations on the Tibetan Plateau over several decades. Daily reference crop evapotranspiration (ET0) was calculated with the FAO-56 standard Penman-Monteith formula. A test of normality was performed with Statistica 6.0 software, isotropic and anisotropic semi-variogram analysis was conducted with the GS+ (geostatistics for the environmental sciences) system for Windows 7.0, and the characteristics of spatial variation of daily ET0 were obtained. The following results can be obtained: Daily ET0 for different periods on the Tibetan Plateau are distributed normally; Except for daily ET0 in the E-W (east-west) direction in the summer, which showed a slight negative correlation with distance change, the Moran's indexes of daily ET0 for different periods in all directions on the Tibetan Plateau within a 100-km distance were positive, demonstrating a positive correlation with distance change; Variograms of daily ET0 in June, the dry season, the wet season, as well as annual average daily ET0 fit well with the Gaussian model; A variogram of daily ET0 in December fit well with the exponential model; Variograms of daily ET0 for the four seasons fit well with the linear with sill model.