SEBS is now Available on GPU

Global High Resolution Estimation of Evapotranspiration – SEBS on GPU using CUDA-C

I had a chance to come to the Netherlands and collaborate with a highly experienced team of hydrologist from the University if Twente – ITC (www.itc.nl). During my visit, I worked on various projects related to Surface Energy Balance System (SEBS) algorithm, originally developed by Prof. Bob Su (resume). I was working under the supervision of Prof. Su and Dr. Joris Timmermans.

During my stay I implemented SEBS algorithm on Graphical Processing Units (GPU) using CUDA-C. SEBS is an algorithm to estimate Evapotranspiration along with other turbulent fluxes and parameters. The outputs of SEBS algorithm are:

• Z0m: Roughness height for momentum transfer,
• Z0h: Roughness height for heat transfer,
• d0: displacement height,
• Rn: Net Radiation,
• G0: Ground heat flux,
• H: Sensible heat flux,
• LE: Latent heat flux,
• Evap_Fr: Evaporative fraction,
• Re_i: Relative evaporation
• Ustar: Friction velocity,
• H_DL: Sensible heat flux of dry condition,
• H_WL: Sensible heat flux of wet condition,
• Edaily: Daily Evapotranspiration,
• Rndaily: Daily Net Radiation.

The CUDA-C implementation of SEBS algorithm achieved a speedup of about 380 times on Tesla M1060 NVIDIA cards, (compiled with -arch=sm11 -use_fast_math).

Further information can be found here.