Water Surface Evaporation over Canada's Landmass

The datasets contain water surface evaporation (PET, in mm of H2O) over Canada's landmass at a spatial resolution of 10-km and temporal intervals of a month and a year over a 24-year period of 2000-2023. The PET was produced by the Land Surface Model EALCO (Ecological Assimilation of Land and Climate Observations) developed at Natural Resources Canada. The PET algorithm in EALCO integrates the dynamic surface evolutions of liquid water, ice, and snow-on-ice for a waterbody into the Penman Equation. The PET was simulated at a daily time step. The monthly (or annual) PET in the datasets is the sum of the daily PET values in a month (or a year). Dew and frost formations simulated by EALCO are included in the PET as negative values, so the PET represents the net water flux between water surface and the atmosphere. Details of the dataset and the EALCO PET modelling algorithms can be found in Li, Wang, and Li (2020, Spatial variations and long‑term trends of potential evaporation in Canada. Scientific Reports, 10: 22089, doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-78994-9).

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Last Updated January 16, 2026, 21:09 (UTC)
Created January 16, 2026, 21:09 (UTC)
contains_pii non
crisis_categories Tempêtes hivernales
criticality_level Faible
data_formats GeoTIF; JSON; WMS
fair_openness Level 2 - Machine-readable
geographic_scope Canada
sensitivity_level Faible
source_inventaire Inventaire_W
source_url https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/7a600d2a-ea0f-4dd5-bb4c-71fffe17b9ca
subject form_descriptors, nature_and_environment, science_and_technology
update_frequency irregular
year_most_recent 2024-10-29 14:40:34.111000
year_start 2024-10-29 14:40:34.111000