May 17, 24, & 31, 2023
10:00-11:30 EDT (UTC-4) or
15:00-16:30 EDT (UTC-4)
This training is focused on the introduction of the NASA Land Information System (LIS) output of soil moisture at various depths for drought analysis and monitoring. Traditional drought applications and indices focus on sensible weather (temperature, wind, etc.) and precipitation trends and their impacts on the hydrologic system. As a result of the NASA Short-term Prediction Research and Transition Center (SPoRT) program and its research-to-operations (R2O) work, this training will demonstrate how LIS output of soil moisture from a land surface model (LSM) can be included in traditional drought monitoring applications. The NASA SPoRT Program has implemented a version of NASA LIS (SPoRT-LIS) that utilizes near real-time Green Vegetation Fraction (GVF) from S-NPP/VIIRS retrievals, as opposed to static, climatology values of GVF.
This training will improve the user’s understanding of how soil moisture is modeled within LIS in order to improve the interpretation and application of this output for drought monitoring. Conducted by experts in LIS and operational drought monitoring, the overall course will enable users to interpret SPoRT-LIS soil moisture percentile products for drought applications. Examples from operational applications as well as practice exercises (for using LIS data for drought monitoring) will be included in this course. Access to the SPoRT-LIS products via online viewer, in GIS formats, and GIS-based display tools, will also be included. Moreover, self-paced microlessons will be available to help users confirm their understanding and improve their skill via homework lessons between live sessions.