I am trying to monitor/find out the drought of certain Nepal areas to relate it to agriculture. I don't have historical data but only SMAP data i.e after 2015. So, based on it, is there any way I can use this to find out the drought?
Soil moisture is one thing, soil moisture tension is another thing ( pF- curve of the soil and of course the crop is very important parameter too. How can the crow under a certain evapotranspiration.
SMAP may provide information on soil moisture which can be used as crop yield forecast and irrigation planning. I dought whether SMAP data can be used to find out the drought.
The SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive) satellite mission, launched by NASA in 2015, measures soil moisture and freeze/thaw state globally, with a high spatial resolution of about 3 km. This data can be used to monitor drought conditions, as drought is often characterized by low soil moisture. However, using SMAP data alone to assess drought conditions in a specific area, such as Nepal, may have some limitations as it is only providing data since 2015.
One way to use SMAP data to monitor drought in Nepal is to compare the soil moisture levels in a specific area to the long-term average soil moisture levels for that area. This can be done by calculating the anomaly of soil moisture, which is the difference between the current soil moisture level and the long-term average soil moisture level. If the anomaly is negative, it indicates that the soil moisture level is lower than the long-term average, which could indicate a drought.
Another way to use SMAP data to monitor drought in Nepal is to compare it with other data sources such as precipitation data, temperature data, and vegetation data. For example, if the SMAP data shows low soil moisture levels in an area, but precipitation data shows that there has been enough rainfall in that area, this could indicate that the soil moisture is not being replenished due to evaporation or that the water is not infiltrating into the soil.
It is also worth mentioning that the SMAP data can be used in combination with other data sources such as remote sensing, meteorological and hydrological data, to monitor drought and its effects on agriculture, water resources, and ecosystems.
In order to use the SMAP data more effectively, it's important to have a clear understanding of the limitations and the quality of the data and to validate it with ground-based data and local knowledge.
It's also worth mentioning that drought is a complex phenomenon and it's defined differently depending on the context and the sector. Therefore, it's important to use multiple indicators and not just soil moisture to monitor drought.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Phytochemistry
- Extracts