Don’t estimate ET. Measure it.
Knowing exactly how much water a canopy loses during the day is vital to many applications. From irrigation planning to quantifying hydrological changes over time to modeling an ecosystem’s energy balance, direct measurements of evapotranspiration can give you the information you need to make the right decisions at the right time.
The ATMOS 51 VBR Actual ET Sensor takes your data beyond reference evapotranspiration values, using a variance Bowen ratio technique to simplify water and energy balance measurements in the field. Now, you can use actual ET data to accurately measure plant water use throughout the day, identify water limitations, and detect plant stress signals earlier.
Scale measurements to your application
Like conventional field-scale water flux measurements, such as eddy covariance towers, the ATMOS 51 abides by turbulent transport principles to measure energy and water exchange via dynamic eddies. This compact unit measures the same area at a fraction of the cost and with less infrastructure, so you can optimize ET measurements to your application without breaking your budget.
Use the ATMOS 51 to supplement or expand ET measurements throughout your eddy covariance tower footprint or validate crop ET (reference ET) by pairing it with the all-in-one weather stations in your field.
More precision for better decisions
Going beyond reference ET and crop ET means you know exactly how much water is leaving the system. Characterize plant hydraulic stress, optimize irrigation, steer crops, and monitor water conservation efforts with accurate measurements from your site (learn more).
Combine actual ET with precipitation and soil moisture measurements to get a clear, mechanistic understanding of water movement into and out of a system.
Simple setup and data management
The ATMOS 51 uses the same compact design as our other popular ATMOS devices. Setup is as simple as mounting the sensor to an instrument mast and plugging it into a ZL6 data logger. Go from setup to streaming data in as little as 20 minutes.
