Deconstructing a Drought Severity Index Based on NASA Earth Observations into Its Components for Better End-User Assessment of the Driving Factors Behind Local Scale Drought

The importance of monitoring drought is indispensable for countries whose economic viability is strongly tied to agriculture. Droughts are a major concern for the country of Uruguay, affecting their agricultural and energy sectors. Developing an accurate and reliable remotely sensed drought-monitoring tool can aid government agencies in disseminating drought information to local stakeholders will be helpful in sustaining these important economic sectors. This study is built on the Drought Severity Index (DSI) from previous terms by modifying the scaling method within the model as well as adding a ternary diagram showing the values of each of the parameters within the DSI. The DSI itself is based off of methodology from Rhee et al. (2010), which uses the climatological anomalies of NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) daytime land surface temperature (LST) data, precipitation data from NOAA's Climate Prediction Center's Morphing Technique (CMORPH), and MODIS Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) data. This modified DSI as well as the parameter ternary diagrams have the potential to aid the Instituto Nacional de Investigacion Agropecuaria (INIA) and the Ministry of Agriculture in informing land managers, insurance providers, and policy makers in drought preparation and mitigation practices.

Location

International Reseach Institute for Climate and Society

Term

Spring 2016

Partner(s)

Instituto Nacional de Investigacion Agropecuaria (INIA)

NASA Earth Observations

Aqua, MODIS
Terra, MODIS
DMSP-13, 14, & 15, SSM/I
NOAA-15, 16, 17, & 18, AMSU-B

Team

Jerrod Lessel (Project Lead)
Andrew Kruczkiewicz

Advisor(s)

Dr. Pietro Ceccato (Research Scientist, Lead Environmental Monitoring Program, International Research Institute for Climate Society, The Earth Institute, Columbia University)

Project Video