DROUGHT MONITORING FROM NOAA POLAR-ORBITING SATELLITES - PRINCIPLES, DEVELOPMENT AND VERIFICATION

The data obtained from the NOAA series of polar-orbiter satellites wer e used for drought monitoring. These data were processed in order to c alculate the vegetation-condition index. The latter showed to be a ver y good indicator of vegetation conditions and through them also drough t. This index was calculated for the United States in the period from 1988 through 1990. The drought areas were outlined during the growing seasons. These areas coincided with the drought areas outlined by such ground-truth data as precipitation and yield of agricultural crops wh ich are normally used to detect drought and measure its intensity, dyn amics, duration and impacts on vegetation.