Evapotranspiration of irrigated crops on two irrigation service areas along the lower Colorado River was estimated using a normalized difference vegetation index of satellite data. A procedure was developed which equated the index to crop coefficients. Evapotranspiration estimates for fields for three dates of thematic mapper data were highly correlated with ground estimates. Service area estimates using thematic mapper and Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer data agreed well with estimates based on US Geological Survey gauging station data.