Drought impact on wheat yield in Oklahoma and Nebraska: A remote sensing perspective

Abstract

The frequent occurrences of drought in the Great Plains of United States have led to significant crop loss. Timely monitoring of drought-induced agricultural impacts, especially at a large scale from remote sensing, is of great importance for ensuring food security. Following the authors' prior drought impact work in Kansas, based on MODIS data, this study investigated the impacts of drought on winter wheat in Oklahoma (OK) and Nebraska (NE) during the main growing season at 8-day intervals, both at the state and agricultural statistics district level, and then explored the spatial variability of drought impacts. Despite some variability, drought shows generally increasing impacts during winter wheat main growing season for both states, reaching the peak around Mid-Late April in OK and Mid-Late May in NE during their corresponding vegetative peaks. As compared to NE, winter wheat has higher planting density in OK and drought shows more significant impacts in OK.