Spatial filtering analysis for quick drought assessment using MODIS images to detect drought affected areas

This paper proposed to apply spatial computing methods to identify drought affected areas using satellite images. Satellite derived indices, such as Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), normalized difference moisture index (NDMI), standardized vegetation index (SVI) and standardized moisture index (SMI), were used to evaluate drought condition. The maps of SVI and SMI showed the areas affected by the drought. The results demonstrated the proposed method is effective and provide useful spatial information.