Intercomparison of Agricultural Drought Monitoring Products

Agricultural drought is a significant factor in impacting the agricultural yield. It is a big challenge to monitor agricultural drought as it is an abstract concept rather than a measurable variable. A lot of models are invented to capture the sign of its traces. The pros and cons of each product varies case by case. This paper used a combination of the existing cyberinfrastructure to streamline the retrieval, visualization, comparison, and validation of the drought products. Multiple software including GADMFS, US Drought Monitor, and NOAA STAR vegetation health index system have been used to support the workflow. The involved data includes not only the model outputs but also the ground truth data collected onsite. The functions and tools will allow the visualization of the multisource and format-disparate data in one place and facilitate the comparison and validation side by side. The web-based feature permits users to directly manipulate the data without download and software installation. The feedbacks of users show the approach as a promising way in significantly improving the efficiency of model comparison and validation in agricultural monitoring community.