## 5 Conclusions  
Considering that soil water is central to both biogeophysical and biogeochemical interaction processes within the Earth system, this study is a step forward in revealing the climatic aspects of spatiotemporal variability of land surface dry anomalies using LST retrievals from IR observations by geostationary MSG satellites.  
As a consequence, we identify that the relationship between soil moisture and land surface temperature can only be regionally and temporally understood by considering regional and temporal variations of their anomalies, taking into account the main drivers of evapotranspiration and their seasonal changes. The results obtained from the use of satellite LST data as a drought indicator, providing climatic information of drought occurrence and severity, encourages their use in other applications. The results obtained on the use of satellite LST data as a drought indicator providing climatic information of drought occurrence and severity encourages their use in other applications.  
As illustrated in this study, the significance of LST as a useful parameter for long-term fire risk assessment comes from its origin in providing combined information for both land surface state (drought, vegetation stress) and meteorological parameters (temperature, humidity), which control the fire risk and indicate potential fire occurrences. Contemporary understanding accounts for drought as a main factor affecting wildfire occurrence and size [36; 58; 72]. Landscape fires in the Mediterranean region are mostly related to human-caused land-use and land-cover change (LULCC) during their agricultural practices. LULCC can drastically alter hydrological and land surface-atmosphere processes. Knowledge about the identification of drought-prone areas on a regional basis is of importance for the purposes of mitigation activities because fires and biomass burning in the region are not only a natural hazard but can also be a climate change driver. Even better results for fire risk assessment and forecast can be obtained by using as indicator the temperature difference between LST and air temperature at 2 m height (LST-T2m) rather than using LST alone [37; 64].  
Accurately understanding LST behavior at a regional level helps to evaluate the exchange process in models and, when combined with other physical properties such as vegetation and soil moisture, provides a valuable metric of surface state and processes. Based on the framework developed in this study and our experience on work with LST /(LST-T2) applications, further studies might be focused on using CDR of LST from geostationary and polar orbiting satellite missions for short-term and long-term aspects of drought [37; 40] analyses, linking land surface 'dry' anomalies and related heat waves [41], for crop yield prediction [47]. Of special interest is the link between the coupled biogeophysical and biogeochemical processes and their associated products, like gross primary productivity (GPP), e.g., in [73], and net primary productivity (NPP) of ecosystems in a drought environment.  
**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, [PERSON]; methodology, [PERSON], C.G.; software, C.G.; formal analysis, P.N.; investigation, [PERSON]; data curation, C.G., J.S., A.K.; writing--original draft preparation, J.S.; writing--editing, C.G.; visualization, A.K.; project administration, J.S.; funding acquisition, J.S.  
**Funding:** This research was partially funded by EUMETSAT, grant number PO Number/Date 45000176992/22-January-2019.  
**Acknowledgments:** ISASAF is acknowledged for providing the requested LST data, which were not available at NIMH. The authors are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and helpful suggestions. Thanks are due to EUMETSAT for editing the text and improving the English language and style.  
**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.