U.S. flagAn official website of the United States government
                    Here's how you know **Official websites use .gov**
                            
                            A **.gov** website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
 **Secure .gov websites use HTTPS**
                            
                            A **lock** (                            
                              A locked padlock                                                      
                            
                            ) or **https://** means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Menu Agricultural Research Service
						
                    U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
 Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory: Beltsville, MD
 close



    Research

                    Research Projects
                                    Publications
                                    Collaborations
                                    News
                                    Software
                People

                    Staff Listing
                                    CareersSearch small
                    Search
            
            ARS Home
                                About ARS
                                Contact Us




ARS Home Northeast Area Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) Beltsville Agricultural Research Center Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory Research Publications at this Location





- ARS National Programs
- Search for a scientific manuscript
- Search for a research project
- ARS Software
- Programs and Projects
- Collaborations
- Subjects of Investigation
- Publications
- People
- Research Sites
- Pesticide Volatilization
- Watershed Modeling
- Climate Change
- Soil Moisture
- Drought and ET
- HRSL Brochure

Title:   Author  item
                                            Semmens, Kathrynitem
                                            Anderson, Marthaitem
                                            Mladenova, Ilianaitem
                                            HAIN, C - University Of Marylanditem
                                            OTKIN, J - University Of Wisconsinitem
                                            GUINDIN, N - Collaborator
  Submitted to: American Meteorological Society
                                    Publication Type: Abstract Only
                                    Publication Acceptance Date: 10/2/2013
                                    Publication  Date: 2/2/2014
                                    Citation: Semmens, K.A., Anderson, M.C., Mladenova, I., Hain, C., Otkin, J., Guindin, N. 2014. Assessing the remote sensing derived evaporative stress index with ground observations of crop conditions to advance drought early warning [abstract]. 2013 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, December 9-13, 2013, San Francisco, CA.Interpretive Summary:
                                Technical Abstract: Drought has significant impacts over broad spatial and temporal scales, and information about the timing and extent of such conditions is of critical importance to many end users in the agricultural and water resource management communities.  The ability to accurately monitor effects on crops, and provide early warning of developing vegetation stress, will provide valuable information for mitigating negative impacts of drought.  This research assesses the potential of the thermal remote sensing based Evaporative Stress Index (ESI) as a relatively early indication of declining crop condition using county level crop condition (CC) and soil moisture (SM) weekly reports from the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) collected by trained observers on the ground in crop growing counties in the contiguous United States (CONUS).  Spatial and temporal correlations between these datasets will be explored over a variety of temporal and spatial scales, as well as for different crop types and phenologic stages.  Preliminary analysis shows that monthly ESI agrees well with the ground observations, suggesting the ESI as a valuable, spatially continuous dataset for improving drought modeling efforts.  In addition, stress-induced changes in ESI are hypothesized to precede declines in crop cover fraction, typically observed using optical vegetation indices such as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index.  Increases in canopy and soil temperatures (detectable via thermal remote sensing) are hypothesized to occur before crop biomass is visibly affected by soil moisture depletion.  Spatiotemporal agreement between NASS CC and SM observations, gridded over CONUS, will be assessed in comparison with ESI data fields and other standard drought indictors to identify optimal indices for early detection of degrading crop conditions.  Analysis over the time period 2000-2013 will allow the relationships to be assessed in a variety of climatological conditions (i.e. wet and dry years, etc.).  This research, by comparing both remote sensing and ground observations, provides a unique and valuable perspective of evapotranspiration and drought estimation with implications for modeling and operational decision making.


Return to top


Connect with ARS Sign up


ARS Home
                            USDA.gov
                            Plain Writing
                            Policies & Links
                            Civil Rights Statements
                            FOIA
                            Accessibility Statement
                            Privacy Policy
                            Non-Discrimination Statement
                            Quality of Information
                            USA.gov
                            WhiteHouse.gov