Half-dry NDVI: Average vegetation indices of the month for rain-fed and grassland areas

The series of raster maps of monthly mean vegetation indexes of dry NDVI (Standard Difference Vegetation Index) of the study of Monitoring the Annual Evolution of Crops and Harvests contains the maps of vegetation indexes with the average value of each month, obtained for each agricultural season and each month of study, for the entire dry and grassland area of the regions studied. These average monthly indices for each agricultural campaign, after crossing them with thematic mapping, are compared with the average monthly data of the historical series. To obtain these results, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment (MAPAMA) has a system for monitoring the evolution of dry and grassland crops, based mainly on the information provided by vegetation indexes (NDVI) generated with daily satellite images NOAA-AVHRR. This system has been in operation since 1993, paying particular attention to the detection and tracing of drought situations throughout successive agricultural campaigns, in order to provide for the necessary measures to mitigate their effects. The system is in operation between the months of January and June, a period in which the studied crops are developed. The study is carried out in the autonomous communities of Navarra, Aragon, Catalonia, Castile and Leon, La Rioja, Madrid, Castilla-La Mancha, Valencian Community, Andalusia, Murcia Region, Extremadura and Balearic Islands, as they comprise almost all dry crops and grasslands.