2014 Global Drought from Space in Historical Perspective

The 2014 drought covered nearly 20% of the world land, affecting economies, environment, and human health. The most severely affected regions during the Northern Hemisphere summer included western USA, especially California, sub-Sahara Africa's Sahel, India, Russia's East Siberia and during the Southern Hemisphere summer – crops in Argentina, southern Brazil and eastern Australia. These droughts triggered intensive wild fires, losses in agricultural, shortages of water, deterioration of human health, destruction of ecosystems and other regional disturbances. This presentation is focused on analysis of 2014 global and regional droughts, their intensity, duration, area, origination and impacts on the environment and industries. We also present some aspects of drought early detection and modeling of losses in agriculture, reduction of water supplies and impact of heat waves on humans. The evidences will be presented based on global and regional data sets, including 35-year global satellite data up to 50-year regional in situ data.