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To trace the dynamics around agricultural drought in the United States, Qiusheng Wu, a doctoral student and research assistant and Hongxing Liu, professor, both at the Department of Geography, University of Cincinnati, US, implemented an Event-based Spatial-Temporal Data Model (ESTDM) to detect, track and monitor drought conditions. The framework organised data into objects, sequences, processes and events. The data was collected from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite, which was the first of its kind dedicated to measure moisture near the surface of the soil. The researchers examined patterns of spreading drought to develop predictions for future drought events. The prediction tool is now being prepared to use data from NASA's soon-to-be-launched Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite.
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