Improving Assessment and Monitoring of Droughts in Grasslands

Xiangming Xiao, Pradeep Wagle, Rajen Bajgain, Yuting Zhou, Yao Zhang, Chandrashekhar Biradar, Jeff Basara. (9/3/2015). Improving Assessment and Monitoring of Droughts in Grasslands.

Abstract

Grasslands in the Southern Great Plains of the United States have experienced various degrees of droughts over years and substantial economic losses occurred to many ranchers under severe drought conditions. Since 2013 we set up integrated grassland observation sites (iGOS) to track the land-atmosphere interactions at ecosystem and landscape scales. We also analyze time series satellite images in an effort to develop novel, simple and robust algorithms that better characterize and monitor the impacts of severe drought on grasslands