Drought in Africa is of increasing concern as millions are suffering from malnutrition and difficulty growing crops and supporting livestock. Stunted growth in children due to malnutrition was also recently linked to climate change. Join us as we talk with USGS scientists Jim Verdin, Jim Rowland and Chris Funk about what is being done to help.
James Rowland (Former Employee)
Science and Products
SSEBop Evapotranspiration Data from 2012 to Present: Dekadal (10-day), Monthly, Seasonal, and Annual Time Scales
On vegetated landscapes, Evapotranspiration (ET) can be simplified as the combination of evaporation from the soil and transpiration from vegetation. Actual ET (ETa) is produced using the Operational Simplified Surface Energy Balance (SSEBop) model Version 6 (Senay et al., 2013, 2020, 2023) from 2012 to Present using a data stream from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS...
Science Helping to Save Lives in Africa
Drought in Africa is of increasing concern as millions are suffering from malnutrition and difficulty growing crops and supporting livestock. Stunted growth in children due to malnutrition was also recently linked to climate change. Join us as we talk with USGS scientists Jim Verdin, Jim Rowland and Chris Funk about what is being done to help.
Filter Total Items: 44
HarvestStat Africa – Harmonized subnational crop statistics for sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) faces severe agricultural data scarcity amidst high food insecurity and a large agricultural yield gap, making crop production data crucial for understanding and enhancing food systems. To address this gap, HarvestStat Africa presents the largest compilation of open-access subnational crop statistics and time-series across SSA. Based on agricultural statistics...
Authors
Donghoon Lee, Weston Anderson, Xuan Chen, Frank Davenport, Shraddhanand Shukla, Ritvik Sahajpal, Michael Budde, James Rowland, James Verdin, Liangzhi You, Matthieu Ahouangbenon, Kyle Frankel Davis, Endalkachew Kebede, Steffen Ehrmann, Christina Justice, Carsten Meyer
Testing spatial out-of-sample area of influence for grain forecasting models
We examine the factors that determine if a grain forecasting model fit to one region can be transferred to another region. Prior research has proposed examining the area of applicability (AoA) of a model based on structurally similar characteristics in the Earth Observation predictors and weights based on the model derived feature importance. We expand on and evaluate this approach in...
Authors
Frank Davenport, Donghoon Lee, Shraddhanand Shukla, Greg Husak, Chris Funk, Michael Budde, James Rowland
A Central Asia hydrologic monitoring dataset for food and water security applications in Afghanistan
From the Hindu Kush mountains to the Registan Desert, Afghanistan is a diverse landscape where droughts, floods, conflict, and economic market accessibility pose challenges for agricultural livelihoods and food security. The ability to remotely monitor environmental conditions is critical to support decision making for humanitarian assistance. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network...
Authors
Amy McNally, Jossy Jacob, Kristi Arsenault, Kimberly Slinski, Daniel Sarmiento, Andrew Hoell, Shahriar Pervez, James Rowland, Michael Budde, Sujay Kumar, Christa Peters-Lidard, James Verdin
Maize yield forecasts for Sub-Saharan Africa using Earth Observation data and machine learning
Food insecurity continues to grow in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). In 2019, chronically malnourished people numbered nearly 240 million, or 20% of the population in SSA. Globally, numerous efforts have been made to anticipate potential droughts, crop conditions, and food shortages in order to improve early warning and risk management for food insecurity. To support this goal, we develop an...
Authors
Donghoon Lee, Frank Davenport, Shraddhanand Shukla, Gregory J. Husak, Chris Funk, Laura Harrison, Amy McNally, Michael Budde, James Rowland, James Verdin
Enhancing the application of Earth observations for improved environmental decision-making using the Early Warning eXplorer (EWX)
The mitigation of losses due to extreme climate events and long-term climate adaptation requires climate informed decision-making. In the past few decades, several remote sensing and modeled-based Earth observations (EOs) have been developed to provide an unprecedented global overview and routine monitoring of climate and its impacts on vegetation and hydrologic conditions, with the goal...
Authors
Shraddhanand Shukla, Martin F. Landsfeld, Michelle L. Anthony, Michael Budde, Greg Husak, James Rowland, Chris Funk
Vegetation monitoring optimization with normalized difference vegetation index and evapotranspiration using remote sensing measurements and land surface models over East Africa
The majority of people in East Africa rely on the agro-pastoral system for their livelihood, which is highly vulnerable to droughts and flooding. Agro-pastoral droughts are endemic to the region and are considered the main natural hazard that contributes to food insecurity. Drought begins with rainfall deficit, gradually leading to soil moisture deficit, higher land surface temperature...
Authors
Shahriar Pervez, Amy McNally, Kristi Arsenault, Michael Budde, James Rowland
A high-resolution 1983-2016 Tmax climate data record based on InfraRed Temperatures and Stations by the Climate Hazard Center
Understanding the dynamics and physics of climate extremes will be a critical challenge for 21st century climate science. Increasing temperatures and saturation vapor pressures may exacerbate heat waves, droughts and precipitation extremes. Yet our ability to monitor temperature variations is limited and declining. Between 1983 and 2016 the number of observations in the CRU Tmax product...
Authors
Chris Funk, Pete J. Peterson, Seth H. Peterson, Shraddhanand Shukla, Frank Davenport, Joel C. Michaelsen, Martin F. Landsfeld, Gregory J. Husak, Laura Harrison, James Rowland, Michael Budde, Kenneth Knapp
Recognizing the Famine Early Warning Systems Network: Over 30 years of drought early warning science advances and partnerships promoting global food security
On a planet with more than 7 billion people, how do we identify the millions of drought-afflicted people who face a real threat of livelihood disruption or death without humanitarian assistance? Typically, these people are poor and heavily dependent on rainfed agriculture and livestock. Most live in Africa, Central America, or Southwest Asia. When the rains fail, incomes diminish while...
Authors
Chris Funk, Shraddhanand Shukla, Wassila Mamadou Thiaw, James Rowland, Andrew Hoell, Gregory J. Husak, Nicholas Novella
A climate trend analysis of Ethiopia: Examining subseasonal climate impacts on crops and pasture conditions
Ethiopia experiences significant climate-induced drought and stress on crop and livestock productivity, contributing to widespread food insecurity. Here, we present subseasonal crop water stress analyses that indicate degrading, growing conditions along Ethiopia’s eastern highlands, including productive and populated highland regions. These seasonally shifting areas of increasing water...
Authors
Molly E. Brown, Chris Funk, Diego Pedreros, Diriba Korecha, Melesse Lemma, James Rowland, Emily Williams, James Verdin
The climate hazards infrared precipitation with stations—a new environmental record for monitoring extremes
The Climate Hazards group Infrared Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS) dataset builds on previous approaches to ‘smart’ interpolation techniques and high resolution, long period of record precipitation estimates based on infrared Cold Cloud Duration (CCD) observations. The algorithm i) is built around a 0.05° climatology that incorporates satellite information to represent sparsely...
Authors
Chris Funk, Pete J. Peterson, Martin F. Landsfeld, Diego Pedreros, James Verdin, Shraddhanand Shukla, Gregory J. Husak, James Rowland, Laura Harrison, Andrew Hoell, Joel C. Michaelsen
Drought monitoring and assessment: Remote sensing and modeling approaches for the Famine Early Warning Systems Network
Drought monitoring is an essential component of drought risk management. It is usually carried out using drought indices/indicators that are continuous functions of rainfall and other hydrometeorological variables. This chapter presents a few examples of how remote sensing and hydrologic modeling techniques are being used to generate a suite of drought monitoring indicators at dekadal...
Authors
Gabriel B. Senay, Naga Manohar Velpuri, Stefanie Bohms, Michael Budde, Claudia Young, James Rowland, James Verdin
Mapping irrigated areas in Afghanistan over the past decade using MODIS NDVI
Agricultural production capacity contributes to food security in Afghanistan and is largely dependent on irrigated farming, mostly utilizing surface water fed by snowmelt. Because of the high contribution of irrigated crops (> 80%) to total agricultural production, knowing the spatial distribution and year-to-year variability in irrigated areas is imperative to monitoring food security...
Authors
Shahriar Pervez, Michael Budde, James Rowland
Science and Products
SSEBop Evapotranspiration Data from 2012 to Present: Dekadal (10-day), Monthly, Seasonal, and Annual Time Scales
On vegetated landscapes, Evapotranspiration (ET) can be simplified as the combination of evaporation from the soil and transpiration from vegetation. Actual ET (ETa) is produced using the Operational Simplified Surface Energy Balance (SSEBop) model Version 6 (Senay et al., 2013, 2020, 2023) from 2012 to Present using a data stream from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS...
Science Helping to Save Lives in Africa
Drought in Africa is of increasing concern as millions are suffering from malnutrition and difficulty growing crops and supporting livestock. Stunted growth in children due to malnutrition was also recently linked to climate change. Join us as we talk with USGS scientists Jim Verdin, Jim Rowland and Chris Funk about what is being done to help.
Drought in Africa is of increasing concern as millions are suffering from malnutrition and difficulty growing crops and supporting livestock. Stunted growth in children due to malnutrition was also recently linked to climate change. Join us as we talk with USGS scientists Jim Verdin, Jim Rowland and Chris Funk about what is being done to help.
Filter Total Items: 44
HarvestStat Africa – Harmonized subnational crop statistics for sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) faces severe agricultural data scarcity amidst high food insecurity and a large agricultural yield gap, making crop production data crucial for understanding and enhancing food systems. To address this gap, HarvestStat Africa presents the largest compilation of open-access subnational crop statistics and time-series across SSA. Based on agricultural statistics...
Authors
Donghoon Lee, Weston Anderson, Xuan Chen, Frank Davenport, Shraddhanand Shukla, Ritvik Sahajpal, Michael Budde, James Rowland, James Verdin, Liangzhi You, Matthieu Ahouangbenon, Kyle Frankel Davis, Endalkachew Kebede, Steffen Ehrmann, Christina Justice, Carsten Meyer
Testing spatial out-of-sample area of influence for grain forecasting models
We examine the factors that determine if a grain forecasting model fit to one region can be transferred to another region. Prior research has proposed examining the area of applicability (AoA) of a model based on structurally similar characteristics in the Earth Observation predictors and weights based on the model derived feature importance. We expand on and evaluate this approach in...
Authors
Frank Davenport, Donghoon Lee, Shraddhanand Shukla, Greg Husak, Chris Funk, Michael Budde, James Rowland
A Central Asia hydrologic monitoring dataset for food and water security applications in Afghanistan
From the Hindu Kush mountains to the Registan Desert, Afghanistan is a diverse landscape where droughts, floods, conflict, and economic market accessibility pose challenges for agricultural livelihoods and food security. The ability to remotely monitor environmental conditions is critical to support decision making for humanitarian assistance. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network...
Authors
Amy McNally, Jossy Jacob, Kristi Arsenault, Kimberly Slinski, Daniel Sarmiento, Andrew Hoell, Shahriar Pervez, James Rowland, Michael Budde, Sujay Kumar, Christa Peters-Lidard, James Verdin
Maize yield forecasts for Sub-Saharan Africa using Earth Observation data and machine learning
Food insecurity continues to grow in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). In 2019, chronically malnourished people numbered nearly 240 million, or 20% of the population in SSA. Globally, numerous efforts have been made to anticipate potential droughts, crop conditions, and food shortages in order to improve early warning and risk management for food insecurity. To support this goal, we develop an...
Authors
Donghoon Lee, Frank Davenport, Shraddhanand Shukla, Gregory J. Husak, Chris Funk, Laura Harrison, Amy McNally, Michael Budde, James Rowland, James Verdin
Enhancing the application of Earth observations for improved environmental decision-making using the Early Warning eXplorer (EWX)
The mitigation of losses due to extreme climate events and long-term climate adaptation requires climate informed decision-making. In the past few decades, several remote sensing and modeled-based Earth observations (EOs) have been developed to provide an unprecedented global overview and routine monitoring of climate and its impacts on vegetation and hydrologic conditions, with the goal...
Authors
Shraddhanand Shukla, Martin F. Landsfeld, Michelle L. Anthony, Michael Budde, Greg Husak, James Rowland, Chris Funk
Vegetation monitoring optimization with normalized difference vegetation index and evapotranspiration using remote sensing measurements and land surface models over East Africa
The majority of people in East Africa rely on the agro-pastoral system for their livelihood, which is highly vulnerable to droughts and flooding. Agro-pastoral droughts are endemic to the region and are considered the main natural hazard that contributes to food insecurity. Drought begins with rainfall deficit, gradually leading to soil moisture deficit, higher land surface temperature...
Authors
Shahriar Pervez, Amy McNally, Kristi Arsenault, Michael Budde, James Rowland
A high-resolution 1983-2016 Tmax climate data record based on InfraRed Temperatures and Stations by the Climate Hazard Center
Understanding the dynamics and physics of climate extremes will be a critical challenge for 21st century climate science. Increasing temperatures and saturation vapor pressures may exacerbate heat waves, droughts and precipitation extremes. Yet our ability to monitor temperature variations is limited and declining. Between 1983 and 2016 the number of observations in the CRU Tmax product...
Authors
Chris Funk, Pete J. Peterson, Seth H. Peterson, Shraddhanand Shukla, Frank Davenport, Joel C. Michaelsen, Martin F. Landsfeld, Gregory J. Husak, Laura Harrison, James Rowland, Michael Budde, Kenneth Knapp
Recognizing the Famine Early Warning Systems Network: Over 30 years of drought early warning science advances and partnerships promoting global food security
On a planet with more than 7 billion people, how do we identify the millions of drought-afflicted people who face a real threat of livelihood disruption or death without humanitarian assistance? Typically, these people are poor and heavily dependent on rainfed agriculture and livestock. Most live in Africa, Central America, or Southwest Asia. When the rains fail, incomes diminish while...
Authors
Chris Funk, Shraddhanand Shukla, Wassila Mamadou Thiaw, James Rowland, Andrew Hoell, Gregory J. Husak, Nicholas Novella
A climate trend analysis of Ethiopia: Examining subseasonal climate impacts on crops and pasture conditions
Ethiopia experiences significant climate-induced drought and stress on crop and livestock productivity, contributing to widespread food insecurity. Here, we present subseasonal crop water stress analyses that indicate degrading, growing conditions along Ethiopia’s eastern highlands, including productive and populated highland regions. These seasonally shifting areas of increasing water...
Authors
Molly E. Brown, Chris Funk, Diego Pedreros, Diriba Korecha, Melesse Lemma, James Rowland, Emily Williams, James Verdin
The climate hazards infrared precipitation with stations—a new environmental record for monitoring extremes
The Climate Hazards group Infrared Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS) dataset builds on previous approaches to ‘smart’ interpolation techniques and high resolution, long period of record precipitation estimates based on infrared Cold Cloud Duration (CCD) observations. The algorithm i) is built around a 0.05° climatology that incorporates satellite information to represent sparsely...
Authors
Chris Funk, Pete J. Peterson, Martin F. Landsfeld, Diego Pedreros, James Verdin, Shraddhanand Shukla, Gregory J. Husak, James Rowland, Laura Harrison, Andrew Hoell, Joel C. Michaelsen
Drought monitoring and assessment: Remote sensing and modeling approaches for the Famine Early Warning Systems Network
Drought monitoring is an essential component of drought risk management. It is usually carried out using drought indices/indicators that are continuous functions of rainfall and other hydrometeorological variables. This chapter presents a few examples of how remote sensing and hydrologic modeling techniques are being used to generate a suite of drought monitoring indicators at dekadal...
Authors
Gabriel B. Senay, Naga Manohar Velpuri, Stefanie Bohms, Michael Budde, Claudia Young, James Rowland, James Verdin
Mapping irrigated areas in Afghanistan over the past decade using MODIS NDVI
Agricultural production capacity contributes to food security in Afghanistan and is largely dependent on irrigated farming, mostly utilizing surface water fed by snowmelt. Because of the high contribution of irrigated crops (> 80%) to total agricultural production, knowing the spatial distribution and year-to-year variability in irrigated areas is imperative to monitoring food security...
Authors
Shahriar Pervez, Michael Budde, James Rowland