MODIS-based national drought monitoring information system with remote sensing

The droughts occur frequently in China, and it is urgent requirement for drought monitoring in a large region. Real-time monitoring and timely reporting of drought is important decision information for drought disaster prevention and mitigation. From the view of business process, the paper proposes the method to build system using remote sensing data, which includes MODIS data access, data processing, indices calculation, drought monitoring and analysis, and information dissemination. As a case, the system is used to monitor drought in early spring 2009 in the north of China, and the monitoring results well reflect the spatial and temporal changes of the drought, so it could provide the data support and drought information of drought for policy-making departments.