Agricultural Drought Indices - US Department of Agriculture
Agricultural Drought Indices - US Department of Agriculture
Agricultural Drought Indices - US Department of Agriculture
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<strong>Drought</strong> Assessment Using MERIS Images<br />
Alberto Rodríguez Fontal<br />
General Directorate <strong>of</strong> Water Ministry<br />
<strong>of</strong> the Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs, Madrid, Spain<br />
Abstract<br />
Use <strong>of</strong> satellite images for drought monitoring purposes provides water managers with valuable<br />
information. The National <strong>Drought</strong> Mitigation Center <strong>of</strong> the University <strong>of</strong> Nebraska has been<br />
successfully using this methodology in the United States, using MODIS satellite images. In the<br />
present work, the methodology developed by the University <strong>of</strong> Nebraska is adapted to the<br />
European background, and it is applied to Spain. Main differences between American satellite<br />
MODIS and European satellite MERIS are shown, and a modified index adapted to MERIS satellite<br />
images is proposed.<br />
Introduction<br />
The spectral drought index developed by the University <strong>of</strong> Nebraska, called Normalized Difference<br />
<strong>Drought</strong> Index (NDDI), for the drought assessment from images MODIS (resolution <strong>of</strong> 1 km), is<br />
based on the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Normalized Difference<br />
Water Index (NDWI).<br />
Where: RED red, NIR near infrared and SWIR infrared shortwave<br />
Figure 1. Definition <strong>of</strong> <strong>Drought</strong> Index (University <strong>of</strong> Nebraska)<br />
The initial demonstrations <strong>of</strong> the NDDI potential in drought assessment were developed in the<br />
North American grasslands <strong>of</strong> the region <strong>of</strong> Flint Hills (Kansas and Oklahoma), where there is one<br />
<strong>of</strong> the vastest extensions <strong>of</strong> prairie. The conclusion reached was that the NDDI presented a<br />
remarkable sensitivity to NDVI-NDWI differences and broader ranges <strong>of</strong> response during periods<br />
<strong>of</strong> drought than during the rainy season (Gu et al., 2007).<br />
The application <strong>of</strong> drought index developed by the University <strong>of</strong> Nebraska in the Spanish territory is<br />
initially constrained by the characteristics <strong>of</strong> the data used in the study, which are images acquired<br />
from the MERIS sensor. A comparison <strong>of</strong> the MODIS and MERIS characteristics is shown in Table<br />
1.<br />
Table 1. Comparison <strong>of</strong> MODIS and MERIS characteristics<br />
Sensor<br />
Number <strong>of</strong> bands<br />
Resolution (m) Revisit (days) Swath width<br />
VIS NIR SWIR TIR Min Max Min Max (Km)<br />
MERIS 12 3 260 1.040 1 3 1.150<br />
MODIS 1 1 5 29 250 1.000 1 2 2.330<br />
Where: VIS: visible; NIR: near infrared; SWIR: short-wave infrared; TIR: thermal infrared<br />
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