The Global Aridity Index and Potential Evapotranspiration Database (v3) provides high-resolution (30 arc-seconds) global raster data for the 1970-2000 period, related to evapotranspiration processes and rainfall deficit for potential vegetative growth, based on the implementation of the FA0-56 Penman-Monteith Reference Evapotranspiration (ET0) equation.This dataset is expected to have utility for and support studies contributing to sustainable development, biodiversity and environmental conservation, poverty alleviation, and adaption to climate change, particularly relevant in the support of agronomic crop and yield modeling, and other ecological or bioclimatic modeling, and notably, supporting plant breeding, crop cultivar and tree species suitability analysis, and the impact of climate change on future production.

The Global Aridity and Potential Evapotranspiration are both modeled using the data available from WorldClim.org. This dataset is available to download from the Figshare Open Data Respository:

https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7504448.v6

An overview of the data and methods used to derive these datasets are described fully in:

Zomer, R.J., Xu, J. & Trabucco, A. Version 3 of the Global Aridity Index and Potential Evapotranspiration Database. Sci Data 9, 409 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01493-1

The data dictionary and data use instructions are found in the associated Readme file in the figshare repository.

The Python programming source code used to run the calculation of ETo and AI is available online on Figshare at:

https://figshare.com/articles/software/Global_Aridity_Index_and_Potential_Evapotranspiration_Climate_Database_v3_-_Algorithm_Code_Python_/20005589

Global-AI_PET

Global Aridity Index and Potential Evapotranspiration Database v3

Robert J. Zomer, Antonio Trabucco

Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change, IAFES Division, Sassari, Italy.