The main goal of this research was to estimate the actual evapotranspiration (ETc) of a drip-irrigated apple orchard located in the semi-arid region of Talca Valley (Chile) using a remote sensing-based soil water balance model. The methodology to estimate ETc is a modified version of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) dual crop coefficient approach, in which the basal crop coefficient (K-cb) was derived from the soil adjusted vegetation index (SAVI) calculated from satellite images and incorporated into a daily soil water balance in the root zone. A linear relationship between the K-cb and SAVI was developed for the apple orchard K-cb = 1.82 center dot SAVI - 0.07 (R-2 = 0.95). The methodology was applied during two growing seasons (2010-2011 and 2012-2013), and ETc was evaluated using latent heat fluxes (LE) from an eddy covariance system. The results indicate that the remote sensing-based soil water balance estimated ETc reasonably well over two growing seasons. The root mean square error (RMSE) between the measured and simulated ETc values during 2010-2011 and 2012-2013 were, respectively, 0.78 and 0.74 mm center dot day(-1), which mean a relative error of 25%. The index of agreement (d) values were, respectively, 0.73 and 0.90. In addition, the weekly ETc showed better agreement. The proposed methodology could be considered as a useful tool for scheduling irrigation and driving the estimation of water requirements over large areas for apple orchards.