GLEAM4: global land evaporation and soil moisture dataset at 0.1° resolution from 1980 to near present
Diego G. Miralles, Olivier Bonte, Akash Koppa, Oscar M. Baez‐Villanueva, Emma Tronquo, Feng Zhong, Hylke E. Beck, Petra Hulsman, Wouter Dorigo, Niko E. C. Verhoest, Shekoofeh Haghdoost
Abstract
Terrestrial evaporation plays a crucial role in modulating climate and water resources. Here, we present a continuous, daily dataset covering 1980–2023 with a 0.1°spatial resolution, produced using the fourth generation of the Global Land Evaporation Amsterdam Model (GLEAM). GLEAM4 embraces developments in hybrid modelling, learning evaporative stress from eddy-covariance and sapflow data. It features improved representation of key factors such as interception, atmospheric water demand, soil moisture, and plant access to groundwater. Estimates are inter-compared with existing global evaporation products and validated against in situ measurements, including data from 473 eddy-covariance sites, showing a median correlation of 0.73, root-mean-square error of 0.95 mm d −1 , and Kling–Gupta efficiency of 0.49. Global land evaporation is estimated at 68.5 × 10 3 km 3 yr −1 , with 62% attributed to transpiration. Beyond actual evaporation and its components (transpiration, interception loss, soil evaporation, etc.), the dataset also provides soil moisture, potential evaporation, sensible heat flux, and evaporative stress, facilitating a wide range of hydrological, climatic, and ecological studies.