Multi-sensor examination of hail damage swaths for near real-time applications and assessment

Abstract

Severe thunderstorms occurred across portions of South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, and Missouri on 18 August 2011, resulting in several swaths of large hail that caused significant damage to crops toward the end of the growing season. Changes with time in the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and truecolor imagery from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instrument aboard the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Terra satellite identify the damaged area, with corroboration by available radar data. Higher resolution satellite imagery from the public and private sector further identify both damage and NDVI changes within individual fields of planted crops that are susceptible to hail damage. Similar imagery can be developed for near real-time applications seeking to identify crop-damage areas during the growing season.