For logistical and security reasons, various institutions and organizations monitor vegetation condition in food insecure regions of the world using remote sensing techniques from space. In this study, we outline a method to objectively assess the characteristics of concluded growing seasons on the basis of optical remote sensing data only. A few key phenological indicators, derived from multi-temporal Earth observations, characterize the spatial and temporal evolution of successive growing seasons. These indicators, together with a simplified light use efficiency approach, are used to compute a proxy of the yearly gross primary production. Vegetation condition and the associated risk of food deficit are derived from a comparison of these yearly values with their long-term averages. This approach is exploited here to document the severe 2010-2011 drought in the Horn of Africa.
MERONI Michele;
VERSTRAETE Michel;
REMBOLD Felix;
URBANO Ferdinando;
KAYITAKIRE Francois;
2013-05-16
EARSeL
JRC71518
http://www.earsel.org/SIG/timeseries/proceedings.php,
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC71518,
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