Drought Monitoring from Fengyun Satellite Series: A Comparative Analysis with Meteorological-Drought Composite Index (MCI)

Abstract

Drought is a complex natural hazard that affects various regions of the world, causing significant economic and environmental losses. Accurate and timely monitoring and forecasting of drought conditions are essential for mitigating their impacts and enhancing resilience. Satellite-based drought indices have the advantage of providing spatially continuous and consistent information on drought severity and extent. A new drought product was developed from the thermal infrared observations of the Fengyun (FY) series of satellites. We proposed a data fusion algorithm to combine multiple FY satellites, including FY-2F, FY-2G, and FY-4A, to create a long time series of a land surface temperature (LST) data set without systematic bias. An FY drought index (FYDI) is then derived by coupling the long-term LST data set with the surface–atmospheric energy exchange model at 4 km spatial resolution over China from 2013 to present. The performance and reliability of the new FYDI product are evaluated in this study by comparing it with the Meteorological-drought Composite Index (MCI), one of the authoritative drought monitoring indices used in the Chinese meteorological services. The main objectives of this paper are: (1) to evaluate the performance of the FYDI in capturing the spatiotemporal patterns of drought events over China; (2) to quantitively analyze the consistency between the FYDI and MCI products; and (3) to explore the advantages and limitations of the FYDI for drought monitoring and assessment. The preliminary results show that the FYDI product has good agreement with the MCI, indicating that the FYDI can effectively identify the occurrence, duration, severity, and frequency of drought events over China. These two products have a strong correlation in terms of drought detection, with a correlation coefficient of approximately 0.7. The FYDI was found to be particularly effective in the regions where ground observation is scarce, with the capability of reflecting the spatial heterogeneity and variability of drought patterns more clearly. Overall, the FYDI can be a useful measure for operational drought monitoring and early warning, complementing the existing ground-based MCI drought indices.