JPL Technical Activities NASA Drought Project Meeting 24 April 2007 National Drought Monitoring System for Drought Early Warning Using Hydrologic and Ecologic Observations from NASA Satellite Data JPL Technical Activities Presentation by S. V. Nghiem NASA JPL, California Institute of Technology

US Drought Monitor (USDM) USDM: state-of-the-art drought monitoring system and decision support tool using percentile ranking based on indices/indicators: Palmer drought index, CPC soil moisture model, USGS weekly streamflow, standardized precipitation index (SPI), and satellite vegetation health index …

AMSR-E Microwave Radiometer In support of the Earth Science Enterprise's goals, NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) Aqua Satellite was launched from Vandenberg AFB, California on May 4, 2002 at 02:54:58 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time. The primary goal of Aqua, as the name implies, is to gather information about water in the Earth's system. Equipped with six state-of-the-art instruments, Aqua will collect data on global precipitation, evaporation, and the cycling of water. This information will help scientists all over the world to better understand the Earth's water cycle and determine if the water cycle is accelerating as a result of climate change. Table 1. EOS AMSR Nominal Performance Characteristics ————————————————————————————————————————— Center Frequencies GHz 6.925 10.65 18.7 23.8 36.5 89.0 Bandwidth (MHz) 350 100 200 400 1000 3000 Sensitivity (K) 0.3 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6 1.1 IFOV (km) 76 x 44 49 x 28 28 x 16 31 x 18 14 x 8 6 x 4 Sampling Rate (km) 10 x 10 10 x 10 10 x 10 10 x 10 10 x 10 5 x 5 Integration Time (ms) 2.6 2.6 2.6 2.6 2.6 1.3 Main Beam Efficiency % 95.3 95.0 96.3 96.4 95.3 96.0 Beamwidth (degrees) 2.2 1.4 0.8 0.9 0.4 0.18

AMSR-E Microwave Radiometer Soil moisture: From simple model by NOAA CPC using surface observations of precipitation and temperature; containing significant uncertainties. AMSR-E Data: Aboard EOS Aqua Satellite since 2002 Soil moisture product (gridded Level 3, AE-Land3) Full US coverage in 3 days at 25-km resolution Large-scale representation of surface soil moisture Better in Western US than in Eastern (vegetation) AMSR-E vegetation water content product is useful

AMSR-E Soil Moisture and Vegetation Water Content August 2002 Soil water content (v/v %): shows dry conditions in western U.S., consistent with the drought conditions there according to the USDM drought map. August 2002 Vege. water content (kg·m2): shows higher vegetation water content in eastern US that may mask soil moisture signature in this area.

QuikSCAT Microwave Scatterometer Scatterometer: stable and accurate RADAR Launched in June 1999 (8-years data so far) QuikSCAT: Sun-sync, ~14 orbits per days Conical scan with all azimuth angles Cover >90% global/day, 2 times/day hi-lat. Resolutions: Cell 25x25 km, 7x25 km

QuikSCAT Microwave Scatterometer Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI): Currently used in USDM; based on preliminary precipitation data from 450-550 stations; rain gauge data are not accurate; 3-4 months to get quality-controlled data. QuikSCAT Data: SeaWinds scatterometer on QuikSCAT since 1999 Water on land surface from precipitations Full US coverage in 2.5 days at 25-km resolution Monitoring water change and dispersion process Counting and mapping precipitation frequency Seasonal trend: Season change of vegetation

SCAN Station, Lonoke, Arkansas

QuikSCAT and GLDAS Products 9/4/2004 9/5/2005 2 5 10 15 20 25 35 mm 21 27 33 39 45 140 130 120 110 100 90 80 70 60 (a) (c) (b) (d) (e) (f) 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 dB 1.7 3.3 5.0 6.7 8.4 10.0 % NEXRAD IV HIGGINS QuikSCAT

QuikSCAT Drought Monitoring NOAA NCDC/GSOD Station Great Falls, Montana

QuikSCAT Result and USDM Comparison October 12, 2004 October 5, 2004 October 11, 2004

(mid-May to mid-September) QuikSCAT Precipitation-Water Frequency (mid-May to mid-September) 2000: Sixth wettest June in 106 years, widespread flash floods and long-term river flood in US Midwest. 2003: Severe drought in Iowa, August driest record, soybean production down 25-30% compared to 2002,when productivity had been significantly down compared to that in 2000.

QuikSCAT Snowmelt Monitoring Not supported by NASA Drought Project

AMSR Stream Flow Measurement Not supported by NASA Drought Project Reach 134, Red River, North Dakota Reach 187, Wabash River, Indiana Reach 1, Lena River, Russia

Summary Computer upgrade: 10 terabyte RAID, DLT library with robotic arm AMSR-E level 2 and level 3 data are at JPL QuikSCAT Mission Project: Decided to reprocess all QuikSCAT backscatter data Reprocessed QuikSCAT data are being transferred for drought product processing Output products in binary and ASCII data, and images Specific formats to be discussed with the NASA Drought Project team