This AustralianDroughtMonitorreadme.txt file was generated on 2022-04-27 by Jillian Jackson, Centre for Applied Climate Science, University of Southern Queensland, Australia, jillian.jackson@usq.edu.au. GENERAL INFORMATION This dataset contains NetCDF4 files of pre-processed data from the Australian Drought Monitor. It contains sets of the following files: CDI SPI SPEI Z-Index Palmer Drought Indices Overview Drought is one of the most severe natural disasters Australia faces, inflicting serious impacts on the agricultural industry. An Australia-wide drought monitor is being developed to provide detailed and timely data regarding drought conditions that will aid producers and policy makers alike. The Drought Monitor development is an integral part of the Northern Australia Climate Program (NACP), a major partnership between Meat & Livestock Australia, the Queensland Government and the University of Southern Queensland. The Australian Drought Monitor is based on the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM) concept, which was developed by Mark Svoboda and his team at the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the late 1990s. The Composite Drought Indicator (CDI) used for the NACP project is a scaled down version of the U.S. Drought Monitor, using only four selected indices. While the U.S. Drought Monitor depends on observations from more than 350 contributors around the U.S, the Australian Drought Monitor is designed to limit the impact of human opinion on its results. The CDI is based on the combination of four different indices/indicators: 3-month Standard Precipitation Index (SPI), Soil Moisture (SM), Evapotranspiration (ET) and Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Each dataset is percentile ranked over a baseline period and the results combined using a weighted average. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is used to determine the optimal weighting for the CDI for each grid cell for every month over Australia. 1. Title of Dataset: Australian Drought Monitor 2. Author Information A. Principal Investigator Contact Information Name: Thong Nguyen-Huy Institution: Centre for Applied Climate Science, University of Southern Queensland Address: 487-535 West Street, Darling Heights, Queensland, Australia 4350 Email: Thong.Nguyen-Huy@usq.edu.au B. Associate or Co-investigator Contact Information Name: David Cobon Institution: Centre for Applied Climate Science, University of Southern Queensland Address: 487-535 West Street, Darling Heights, Queensland, Australia 4350 Email: David.Cobon@usq.edu.au C. Alternate Contact Information Name: Duc-Anh An-Vo Institution: Centre for Applied Climate Science, University of Southern Queensland Address: 487-535 West Street, Darling Heights, Queensland, Australia 4350 Email: duc-anh.an-vo@usq.edu.au 3. Date of data collection: Date range: CDI files: 1992-04-01 to present, updated monthly. Z Index files: 1900-01-01 to present, updated monthly. Palmer Modified Drought Index (pmdi): 1900-01-01 to present, updated monthly. Palmer Hydrological Drought Index (phdi): 1900-01-01 to present, updated monthly. Palmer Drought Severity Index (pdsi): 1900-01-01 to present, updated monthly. Self-Calibrated Palmer Drought Severity Index (scpdsi): 1900-01-01 to present, updated monthly. Standardised Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index Gamma Distribution (spei_gamma): 1900-01-01 to present, updated monthly. Standardised Precipitation Index Gamma Distribution (spi_gamma): 1900-01-01 to present, updated monthly. 4. Geographic location of data collection: All datasets are in the NetCDF gridded format with a resolution of 0.05 degrees latitude by 0.05 degrees longitude (approximately 5km x 5km) spanning 112 to 154 degrees East, 10 to 44 degrees South, covering the whole Australian Continent 5. Information about funding sources that supported the collection of the data: Meat and Livestock Australia Queensland Government Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (Drought and Climate Adaptation Program) University of Southern Queensland SHARING/ACCESS INFORMATION 1. Licenses/restrictions placed on the data: The database of netcdf4 files accessed via AgReFed is licensed under a Creative Commons, Attribution-Non-Commercial-ShareAlike 4.0, International Public License. Information about usage under licence is available from https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ Access to this dataset can be requested by contacting duc-anh.an-vo@usq.edu.au or david.cobon@usq.edu.au 2. Links to publications that cite or use the data: https://nacp.org.au/resources/reports_publications Pudmenzky, C. Guillory, L. Cobon, D. Nguyen-Huy, T., 2020. Methodology for producing the drought monitor, Northern Australia Climate Program (NACP). **Others In Prep** 3. Links to other publicly accessible locations of the data: Maps that are generated from this dataset are publicly available at: https://nacp.org.au/drought_monitor 4. Links/relationships to ancillary data sets: The Metadata record for this dataset is held at USQ e-Prints at: https://doi.org/10.26192/dmek-v625 5. Was data derived from another source? Yes Monthly rainfall & Evapotranspiration: Queensland Government Department of Environment and Science url = http://silo.longpaddock.qld.gov.au metadata_url = http://qldspatial.information.qld.gov.au/catalogueadmin/catalog/main/home.page reference = "Jeffrey, S.J., Carter, J.O., Moodie, K.B.A. and Beswick, A.R.. \"Using spatial interpolation to construct a comprehensive archive of Australian climate data\", Environmental Modelling and Software, Vol 16/4, pp 309-330, 2001\n"; raster_source = "Gridded surface was created by interpolating observational data provided by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology copyright = "Copyright - the State of Queensland Department of Environment and Science 2018"; Soil Moisture: Australian Bureau of Meterology Data for this service is supplied by AWRA-L version 6.0. The dataset used is 'Root Zone Soil Moisture'. http://www.bom.gov.au/metadata/catalogue/19115/ANZCW0503900503 http://www.bom.gov.au/water/landscape Datasets earlier than year 2000 must be requested from the Bureau of Meteorology at above link. Normalised Difference Vegetation Index: Copernicus Global Land Service EU Global 10-daily Normalized Difference Vegetation Index 1km https://www.copernicus.eu/en/access-data/copernicus-services-catalogue/global-10-daily-normalized-difference-vegetation-index-0 Global 10-daily Normalized Difference Vegetation Index 333m https://www.copernicus.eu/en/accessing-data-where-and-how/copernicus-services-catalogue?combine=&cc_source_service_target_id%5B2775%5D=2775&page=1 A free account is required to access these datasets from Copernicus EU, create one at their website www.copernicus.eu. 6. Recommended citation for this dataset: Cobon, D., Gacenga, F., An-Vo, D., Pudmenzky, C., Nguyen-Huy, T., Stone, R., Guillory, L., Jackson, J., Svoboda, M., & Swigart, J. Australian Drought Monitor. [Collection Record (Dataset)]. doi:10.26192/dmek-v625 DATA & FILE OVERVIEW 1. File List: All files listed are NetCDF4 files, with the file extension .nc unless otherwise specified. ReadMe: AustralianDroughtMonitorreadme.txt Australian Combined Drought Indicator (CDI) (uses a combination of precipitation, soil moisture, evapotranspiration and NDVI data to produce a drought indicator tailored for Australia): cdi_1.nc - based on a 1 month period cdi_3.nc - based on a 3 month period cdi_6.nc - based on a 6 month period cdi_12.nc - based on a 12 month period cdi_24.nc - based on a 24 month period cdi_36.nc - based on a 36 month period Palmer Z Index (zindex) is used to track short-term agricultural drought on a monthly scale because it responds quickly to changes in soil moisture: _zindex.nc Palmer Modified Drought Index (pmdi): _pmdi.nc Palmer Hydrological Drought Index (phdi): _phdi.nc Palmer Drought Severity Index (pdsi): _pdsi.nc Self-Calibrated Palmer Drought Index (scpdsi) (uses surface air temperature, soil data, physical water balance models to create robust long-term drought indicator): _scpdsi.nc Standardised Precipitation Index (spi) (a widely used index to characterise meteorological drought. It shows the actual precipitation compared to typical precipitation). _spi_pearson_01.nc - precipitation over 1 month _spi_pearson_02.nc - precipitation over 2 months _spi_pearson_03.nc - precipitation over 3 months _spi_pearson_06.nc - precipitation over 6 months _spi_pearson_09.nc - precipitation over 9 months _spi_pearson_12.nc - precipitation over 12 months _spi_pearson_24.nc - precipitation over 24 months _spi_pearson_36.nc - precipitation over 36 months _spi_gamma_01.nc - precipitation over 1 month _spi_gamma_02.nc - precipitation over 2 months _spi_gamma_03.nc - precipitation over 3 months _spi_gamma_06.nc - precipitation over 6 months _spi_gamma_09.nc - precipitation over 9 months _spi_gamma_12.nc - precipitation over 12 months _spi_gamma_24.nc - precipitation over 24 months _spi_gamma_36.nc - precipitation over 36 months Standardised Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (spei) (based on the SPI) but includes a temperature component, allowing the index to account for the effect of temperature on drought development): _spei_gamma_01.nc - conditions over 1 month _spei_gamma_02.nc - conditions over 2 months _spei_gamma_03.nc - conditions over 3 months _spei_gamma_06.nc - conditions over 6 months _spei_gamma_09.nc - conditions over 9 months _spei_gamma_12.nc - conditions over 12 months _spei_pearson_01.nc - conditions over 1 month _spei_pearson_02.nc - conditions over 2 months _spei_pearson_03.nc - conditions over 3 months _spei_pearson_06.nc - conditions over 6 months _spei_pearson_09.nc - conditions over 9 months _spei_pearson_12.nc - conditions over 12 months 2. Relationship between files, if important: each file is stand-alone, but to see a time series download of the conditions over monthly 3. Additional related data collected that was not included in the current data package: Raw data as listed above from Queensland Government, Bureau of Meteorology and Copernicus EU. 4. Are there multiple versions of the dataset? No. This dataset is cumulative in that, the files are updated each month with the new month's data. The file is overwritten each month with the update. This dataset accumulates at approximately 450MB per month in size. The dates at which each file starts can be found in section 'Date of Data Collection'. The file is updated at the 10th day of the month. METHODOLOGICAL INFORMATION 1. Description of methods used for collection/generation of data: A python software package 'DroughtMonitor' was developed for the production of the CDI. The source code for the calculation of the Drought Indices are available on GitHub at https://github.com/jillianjackson/DroughtMonitor and https://github.com/Laura-Guillory/DroughtMonitor. For access to view the repository, please contact jillian.jackson@usq.edu.au. Features of the software package include: downloading data from source, preprocessing data, percentile ranking datasets, calculating CDI, generating maps of Australia. The detailed readme for running the drought monitor is available at the above repository. Download of raw data requires the file download.py, available at the above repository. Download requires an internet connection. For speed of download, it is done through the High Performance Computer at University of Southern Queensland. Download takes approximately 8 hours and must be commenced on the 2nd day of the Month of later, for a full dataset to be available from Copernicus EU. Generation of data is done through the High Performance Computer at University of Southern Queensland. Access to a HPC is recommended for this calculation process. Calculations source code is available at the above Github repository. Requirements for calculations: Python 3 Anaconda 7zip Python packages: python-dateutil xarray dask netCDF4 numpy Pillow matplotlib scipy rasterio rioxarray Cartopy cython gdal fiona toolz bottleneck requests h5netcdf shapely descartes 2. Methods for processing the data: See above. Also: Australian Drought Monitor Methodology can be accessed at: https://nacp.org.au/static/pdf/Drought%20Monitor%20Documentation.pdf Pudmenzky, C. Guillory, L. Cobon, D. Nguyen-Huy, T., 2020. Methodology for producing the drought monitor, Northern Australia Climate Program (NACP). 3. Instrument- or software-specific information needed to interpret the data: Any software that can read NetCDF4 files. A list of software that is compatible can be found at https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/software.html 4. Standards and calibration information, if appropriate: please see methods above. A second paper is in-prep for journal Hydrology. 5. Environmental/experimental conditions: n/a 6. Describe any quality-assurance procedures performed on the data: Raw data is checked for corruption monthly prior to upload. Accuracy of the CDI is checked through a validation process. For information about the validation process, contact david.cobon@usq.edu.au The CDI is validated against the AussieGrass Pasture Growth Percentile (https://www.longpaddock.qld.gov.au/aussiegrass/products-information/rainfall-and-pasture-growth-maps/), the New South Wales Drought Monitor (https://edis.dpi.nsw.gov.au/), Grazing Trials and on-ground observers. 7. People involved with sample collection, processing, analysis and/or submission: From USQ: David Cobon (Data Owner) ORCiD = 0000-0002-8034-6196 Christa Pudmensky (Principal investigator) ORCiD = 0000-0003-0157-6178 Thong Nguyen-Huy (Principal investigator) ORCiD = 0000-0002-2201-6666 Roger Stone (Principal investigator) ORCiD = 0000-0003-3931-2661 Laura Guillory (Data collector) ORCiD = 0000-0002-7757-3654 Francis Gacenga (Data collector) ORCiD = 0000-0003-3021-1012 Duc-Anh An-Vo (Data collector) ORciD = 0000-0001-7528-7139 Jillian Jackson (Data collector) ORCiD = 0000-0002-4611-7349 From US National Drought Mitigation Centre Mark Svoboda John Swigart DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: [FILENAME] 1. Number of variables: 2. Number of cases/rows: 3. Variable List: 4. Missing data codes: n 5. Specialized formats or other abbreviations used: