Use of NDVI and Land Surface Temperature for Drought Assessment: Merits and Limitations

Abstract A large number of water- and climate-related applications, such as drought monitoring, are based on spaceborne-derived relationships between land surface temperature (LST) and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). The majority of these applications rely on the existence of a negative slope between the two variables, as identified in site- and time-specific studies. The current paper investigates the generality of the LST–NDVI relationship over a wide range of moisture and climatic/radiation regimes encountered over the North American continent (up to 60°N) during the summer growing season (April–September). Information on LST and NDVI was obtained from long-term (21 years) datasets…

• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration

  Awards: NNG04GM89G, NNG04GD65G, NAG59634
• NO
  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• GS
  Goddard Space Flight Center
• LR
  Langley Research Center
• SM
  Science Mission Directorate
• NH
  NASA Headquarters