Drought monitoring using modis data in Central America

This study aimed to delineate drought-prone areas in Central America using MODIS data. The data were processed for 2014 using the simple vegetation health index (VHI) calculated based on the temperature condition index (TCI) and vegetation condition index (VCI). The results were verified with the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) precipitation data, indicating close relationship between these two datasets with the correlation coefficient (r) value of 0.78. The larger area of severe drought was generally observed during January to April, however, declined during May-November, except for July-August due to the occurrence of a short dry spell. The results obtained from this study could be useful to devise strategies in order to mitigate negative effects of droughts on crop production.