Drought Monitoring Toolbox for the Northeast: September 14, 2021

Welcome

Speaker: Sylvia Reeves, NOAA's National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS); Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES)

• Today's presentation highlights one of many drought research efforts that focus on improving our drought early warning capacity.
• I'd like to introduce the project lead, Dr. Dan McEvoy, a regional climatologist at the Western Regional Climate Center and Desert Research Institute. He'll introduce his team, share an overview of the Coping with Drought-funded project, and highlight our agenda for today.

Introduction to Drought Indicators and Indices Project

Speaker: Dan McEvoy, Desert Research Institute, Western Regional Climate Center

• We are wrapping up a two-year project funded through NOAA's Climate Program Office and NIDIS: "Identifying Time Scales and Tools to Support the Northeast DEWS and Management of Different Drought Types."
• Last week, we shared some of the research highlights from this project, and today we'll focus on tools developed by the project team for drought monitoring and data access:
  • Climate Engine
  • Evaporative Demand Drought Index (EDDI)
  • Landscape Evaporative Response Index (LERI) and the Drought Index Portal

Global to Field-Scale Drought Monitoring with Climate Engine

Speaker: Dan McEvoy, Desert Research Institute, Western Regional Climate Center

•  Climate Engine web application:
  • Powered by Google Earth Engine
  • Gridded climate data, remote sensing, and sub-seasonal climate forecasts
  • Updated daily in near real time
  • Global coverage (for certain datasets)
  • Mapping and time series options
• Global datasets:
  • ERA5 Reanalysis
  • MERRA2 Reanalysis
  • Landsat and MODIS archives
• Mapping and data export options:
  • For any map, select rectangular region and down image as a geoTIFF or a PDF.
  • The geoTIFF images can be brought directly into ArcGIS or similar platforms.
  • There is an API currently in development with Climate Engine that would allow one to automatically grab data.
• Climate Engine User Manual

The Evaporative Demand Drought Index (EDDI) in the Northeast DEWS Region

Speaker: Mike Hobbins, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES)

• The Evaporative Demand Drought Index (EDDI) is the anomaly in evaporative demand at a specified timescale, for a given location, expressed as a percentile.
• What is evaporative demand?
  • Evaporative demand is the "thirst of the atmosphere." Evaporative demand is not evapotranspiration/evaporation. It is evaporation given unlimited moisture.
  • Evaporative demand is used for:
    • Estimating crop water requirements
    • Scheduling irrigation
    • Driving actual evapotranspiration estimates in land surface models and R/S fusion
    • Monitoring drought.
• How to access EDDI:
  • EDDI web page
  • 40-year downloadable archives of CONUS-wide EDDI
  • Daily EDDI map access for the Northeast DEWS region
  • EDDI is also accessible through Drought.gov, RISA and RCC climate dashboards

Landscape Evaporative Response Index (LERI): High-Resolution Monitoring of Anomalies in ET Response Across the Contiguous U.S.

Speaker: Imtiaz Rangwala, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES)

• Landscape Evaporative Response Index (LERI): A measure of land surface dryness
  • Resolution: 1 km
  • Climate variable: Evaporative response
  • Underlying data: Evaporative fraction derived from MODIS Terra thermal imagery
  • Period of record: 2000–present
  • Coverage: Contiguous U.S. and northern Mexico
  • Update frequency: Weekly and monthly
  • Applications: Agricultural, ecological, and flash droughts; wildfire risk
• Drought Index Portal (DrIP)
  • Several drought indices: PDSI, Palmer-Z, PDSI-sc, SPI (1–12 months), SPEI (1–12 months), EDDI (1–12 months)
  • Climate variables: minimum, maximum, and mean temperature; precipitation; vapor-pressure deficit
  • Users can plot each index using U.S. Drought Monitor categories and estimate the Drought Severity Coverage Index (DSCI) for each index.
  • Download options: Time series data, image files
  • Time selection: Long historical period (1900–present, updated monthly); flexibility with month selection
  • Data source: WestWide Drought Tracker (for all data except EDDI)
  • Update frequency: Monthly

Q&A Session