Abstract. Satellite observations of evapotranspiration (ET) have been widely used for water resources management in China. An accurate ET product with a high
spatiotemporal resolution is required for research on drought stress and water resources management. However, such a product is currently
lacking. Moreover, the performances of different ET estimation algorithms for China have not been clearly studied, especially under different
environmental conditions. Therefore, the aims of this study were as follows: (1) to use multisource images to generate a long-time-series
(2001–2018) daily ET product with a spatial resolution of 1 km × 1 km based on the Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for
Land (SEBAL); (2) to comprehensively evaluate the performance of the SEBAL ET in China using flux observational data and hydrological observational
data; and (3) to compare the performance of the SEBAL ET with the MOD16 ET product at the point scale and basin scale under different environmental
conditions in China. At the point scale, both the models performed best in the conditions of forest cover, subtropical zones, hilly terrain, or
summer, respectively, and SEBAL performed better in most conditions. In general, the accuracy of the SEBAL ET (rRMSE = 44.91 %) was slightly
higher than that of the MOD16 ET (rRMSE = 48.72 %). In the basin-scale validation, both the models performed better than in the point-scale
validation, with SEBAL obtaining results superior (rRMSE = 13.57 %) to MOD16 (rRMSE = 32.84 %). Additionally, both the models showed
a negative bias, with the bias of the MOD16 ET being higher than that of the SEBAL ET. In the daily-scale validation, the SEBAL ET product showed a root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.92 mm d−1 and an r value of 0.79. In general, the SEBAL ET product can be used for the qualitative analysis and most
quantitative analyses of regional ET. The SEBAL ET product is freely available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4243988 and https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4896147 (Cheng,
2020a, b). The results of this study can provide a reference for the application of remotely sensed ET products and the improvement of satellite ET
observation algorithms.