Drought monitoring and warning in the middle reach of Yangtze River with MODIS

摘要

In China, drought is one of the major environmental disasters, which bring great harm to the people. The middle reach of Yangtze River is the most important base to produce grains in China. Influenced by the summer monsoon, the drought occurs frequently. In our paper, the NDVI and LST from MODIS data were utilized to calculate the TVDI (Temperature Vegetation Dryness Index), which were used to monitor the drought of the study area. Meteorological drought indices were calculated from 10-day precipitation, temperature and evaporation data of 94 meteorological stations, including precipitation standardized variables, dryness and relative moisture index were used to analyze the degree of drought and the area of drought. The results showed that TVDI is significantly related to soil moisture.