The purpose of this study is to estimate monthly evapotranspiration (ET) using normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) obtained from NOAA-AVHRR data sets. Actual evapotranspiration was evaluated by the complementary relationship, and monthly NDVI was obtained by maximum value composite method from daily NDVI images in the Korean peninsula for the year 2001 The monthly actual ETs for each land cover were compared with the monthly NDVIs to determine relationships between actual ET and NDVI for each land cover category, There was a high correlation between monthly NDVI and monthly mean actual ET. This study presents an alternative approach for land surface evapotranspiration based on remote sensing techniques.