Set up and run a real field
Define an AOI, prepare Landsat, weather, soil, land cover, and elevation, then run the project locally.
Capabilities
What BAITSSS Desktop V1 can do.
The short version is below. The full technical inventory remains on this page for users who want the details.
The established spatial workflow is the current Desktop V1 capability. The newer Upper local-station workflow remains clearly separated below as active development.
Established capability
The short version.
BAITSSS takes a field from environmental inputs to hourly water analysis, mapped Results, scenario comparison, and a traceable project record.
Follow water hour by hour
Track total ET, vegetation ET, soil ET, surface soil water, root-zone soil water, vegetation, irrigation, and thermal behavior through time.
Compare irrigation scenarios
Rerun the same field with different supported management settings while keeping each run independent and traceable.
Inspect 30 m spatial Results
Move from the whole field to a selected 30 m model pixel and examine its historical model behavior.
Stop and resume long runs
Committed-hour checkpoints preserve progress so supported simulations can stop safely and continue from the next uncommitted hour.
Keep the analysis traceable
Run identity, frozen settings, data sources, Results, checkpoints, and provenance stay tied to the run that produced them.
Full capability reference
Open only the area you need.
This section keeps the detailed inventory available without forcing every visitor to read a wall of bullets from top to bottom.
Field, projects and dataProject identity, AOI, Landsat, environmental layers, weather, and installation
Projects and runs
- Windows desktop scientific application
- Create, open, switch, and manage persistent projects
- Maintain multiple independent projects
- Run multiple independent simulations within one project
- Preserve project identity and simulation period
- Freeze scientific configuration at run start
- Keep previous runs and Results rather than overwriting them
AOI and model grid
- Define, inspect, save, and reopen an Area of Interest
- Review AOI against map and raster context
- Validate CRS, extent, grid, and spatial compatibility
- Use a 30 m Landsat-based model grid for spatial projects
- Preserve point and single-cell spatial identity where supported
Landsat and vegetation
- Landsat 7, 8, and 9
- Scene discovery and period-based processing
- AOI-aware and model-grid-aligned preparation
- NDVI and LAI representation
- Seasonal vegetation progression between observations
- Source-scene and processed-product traceability
Environmental base data
- DEM and elevation
- NLCD land cover
- Soil Field Capacity
- Soil Available Water Capacity
- Supported automatic static-layer selection
- Review, replacement, and validation where supported
Weather and reference ET
- NLDAS hourly meteorological forcing
- Complete-hour coverage checks
- Missing-data and readiness validation before Run
- Continuous hourly forcing
- Internal reference ET preparation
- Weather forcing and run period retained with run authority
Installation and portability
- Packaged Windows desktop system
- Application and scientific runtime distributed together
- User projects separated from replaceable application files
- Updates and reinstalls preserve user projects and completed Results
Scientific computationHourly energy balance, ET partitioning, soil water, thermal behavior, and execution modes
Core BAITSSS model science
- Hourly two-source energy balance
- Vegetation ET and soil ET
- Total evapotranspiration
- Two-layer soil-water balance
- Surface soil water and root-zone soil water
- Hour-to-hour state progression
- Coupled vegetation, energy, water, irrigation, and thermal behavior
Thermal capability
- Internally modeled soil temperature
- Internally modeled canopy temperature
- Thermal Results and scientific inspection
- Observed Landsat surface temperature at a selected 30 m model pixel when a valid acquisition exists
- Exact Landsat acquisition datetime retained for comparison
- Independent comparison between observed Landsat thermal and modeled thermal behavior
Execution modes
- Whole-AOI spatial execution
- Multiprocessing spatial execution
- Supported point and single-cell execution
- Short diagnostic runs and long seasonal runs
- Visible run progress and status
- Selected run remains authority for its own Results
Thermal boundary: observed Landsat thermal is not assimilated directly into the maintained BAITSSS model trajectory.
Water and irrigationModeled irrigation, supported management settings, and scenario comparison
Modeled irrigation and management
- Modeled irrigation requirement
- Management Allowed Depletion control where exposed
- Rooting-depth configuration where exposed
- Initial soil-moisture adjustment where exposed
- Irrigation configuration where exposed
- Supported advanced scientific settings
Scenario comparison
Supported management and scientific settings are frozen into each run. The same field can be rerun with different supported settings so scenarios remain independent and traceable rather than modifying an earlier run.
Scientific evaluation
- Compare model outputs with independent ET or flux observations
- Compare with soil-water observations
- Compare modeled thermal behavior with thermal observations
- Compare modeled irrigation with irrigation or water records
- Use other appropriate independent scientific evidence
Execution and long runsCheckpointing, stop, pause, resume, recovery, storage protection, and finalization
Stop, pause, resume, and recovery
- Committed-hour checkpoints
- Safe Stop and Pause at committed-hour boundaries
- Resume from the next uncommitted hour
- Committed hours remain preserved
- Recoverable failed run when a valid checkpoint exists
- Recovery from the last valid committed checkpoint after interruption
Storage and disk protection
- Runtime disk-space protection
- Bounded storage for long simulations
- Lossless storage of older hourly spatial outputs
- Historical Results remain accessible
- Storage optimization is not allowed to change scientific pixel values
Finalization
- Run-specific final Results generation
- Final hourly simulation CSV
- Finalization tied to the selected run
- Supported restart or recovery of finalization from valid partial state
Results and 30 m pixel analysisMapped field behavior, time series, selected-pixel history, and thermal traceability
Results visualization
- Run-specific Results selection
- Mapped total ET and field-scale spatial variability
- Hourly and seasonal time series where supported
- ET total, vegetation ET, and soil ET
- Surface and root-zone soil water
- Modeled irrigation
- Supported vegetation and weather context
- Scientific map and selected-pixel interaction
- Point and single-cell Results where supported
Selected-pixel science
- Select a 30 m model pixel
- Retrieve its complete hourly history
- Works with whole-AOI spatial runs and supported single-cell runs
- Preserves selected run as Results authority
- Includes observed Landsat thermal when a valid acquisition applies
- Preserves pixel identity and coordinates for traceability
Thermal observation traceability
When observed Landsat surface temperature is available for the selected pixel, the scientific record retains the observed temperature and acquisition time while companion metadata preserves scene, source, quality, and thermal provenance.
Export and reproducibilityVerified output paths, run provenance, and safeguards against silent changes
Scientific export and reporting
- Hourly CSV export
- Run Results CSV export
- Clean scientific analysis tables
- Separate provenance and metadata JSON
- PNG export for supported Results
- General and Publication figure modes where exposed
- Simulation Report PDF where exposed
Run information and provenance
- Run settings and scientific configuration
- Run diagnostics and status
- Run-specific inputs and outputs
- Run-specific checkpoints and completion state
- Persisted data-source and validation state
- Thermal acquisition and source provenance
Reproducibility safeguards
- Frozen scientific configuration per run
- Provisional sources cannot silently replace verified sources
- Selected-pixel identity remains traceable
- Numerical equivalence claims require evidence
- Project and Results persistence is separated from replaceable application files
Research, teaching and evaluationUse the same field-scale environment for investigation, instruction, demonstration, and comparison
Research
Evaluate model behavior, spatial variability, management scenarios, input sensitivity, site transferability, and comparison with independent scientific observations.
Teaching and demonstration
Use the same project, model, Results, selected pixel, and workflow for scientific instruction and demonstration while retaining traceable inputs and run settings.
Evidence-based continuity
The maintained BAITSSS Desktop route preserves the established BAITSSS model formulation across supported workflows.
Active development
Upper local-station workflow.
The newer Upper workflow is intentionally kept separate from the established Desktop V1 capability above. It connects local weather-station data to conditioning, reference ET, BAITSSS execution, and comparative Results, but remaining comparison and integration details are still being verified.
Local station authority
- Local hourly weather-station CSV input
- Required latitude, longitude, and elevation
- Strict hourly timestamp and full-period validation
- Weather and NDVI completeness checks
- Saved source authority with explicit CSV replacement
Conditioning and reference ET
- Dedicated conditioning parameters
- Conditioned weather generation
- Internal short and tall reference ET preparation
- Original and Conditioned Weather preserved as explicit alternatives
Current boundary
- Weather comparisons are operating in the current development build
- Short and tall RefET comparisons are operating in the current development build
- BAITSSS ET comparison controls are present
- Matched opposite-weather BAITSSS run discovery remains under active validation