Assessment of agricultural drought status using visible infrared imaging radiometer suite land products

The Moderate Solution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is a multispectral sensor that has been actively researched in various fields using diverse land and atmospheric products. MODIS was first launched over 20 years ago, and the demand for novel sensors that can produce data comparable to that obtained using MODIS has continuously increased. In this study, land products obtained using the visible infrared imaging radiometer suite (VIIRS) of the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite launched in 2011 were introduced, including land surface temperature and vegetation indices such as the normalized difference vegetation index and enhanced vegetation index. These land products were compared with existing data obtained using MODIS to verify their local applicability in South Korea. Based on spatiotemporal monitoring of an extreme drought period in South Korea and the application of VIIRS land products, our results indicate that VIIRS can effectively replace MODIS multispectral sensors for agricultural drought monitoring.