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Evaporative Stress Index Goes Operational

September 30, 2016 04:11 AM
GET-D_9-30-16
GET-D ESI 02 Week Composite 9-29-16
© 

CICS-MD Scientists Christopher Hain and Li Fang, former CICS-MD Scientist Zhengpeng Li, and the rest of their team at NESDIS/STAR/SMCD/EMB are happy to announce that their GOES Evapotransporation and Drought Production System  (GET-D) system is now operational. It generates 2-, 4-, 8- and 12-week Evaporative Stress Index (ESI) composites over the North American domain. These products are available at the NOAA Office of Satellite and Product Operations (OSPO) at http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/Products/land/getd/.

Hain says, "The Evaporative Stress Index is useful because it provides an independent assessment of drought that is not based on precipitation...It does a particularly good job of capturing of “flash droughts” and “agricultural droughts” that are driven by how much water plants are taking up. It can also capture how irrigation affects conditions on the ground, which measures based purely on precipitation cannot.”

The University of Maryland has just published an article on the Hain and the ESI at http://cmns.umd.edu/news-events/features/3658. The ESI has also been featured on NASA's Image of the Day at http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=88738

 

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