Assessing potential of MODIS derived temperature/vegetation condition index (TVDI) to infer soil moisture status

High-resolution soil moisture holds the key to improving weather forecast, drought monitoring and hydrological modelling. Therefore, the present study investigates the potential of the temperature/vegetation dryness index (TVDI) from the MODIS to assess soil moisture status in sub-humid parts of India (western Uttar Pradesh). The TVDI was calculated by parameterizing the normalized difference vegetation index-surface temperature space from 8 day MODIS reflectance and surface temperature products. Correlation and regression analysis was carried out to relate the TVDI against in-situ measured soil moisture during early (April) and peak (October) stages of growth in sugarcane crop. Spatio-temporal patterns in the TVDI shows that northern areas had more surface wetness compared to southern areas. The results further reveal that a significantly strong and negative relationship exists between the TVDI and in-situ soil moisture, particularly when vegetation cover is sparse. The dryness index was also found satisfactory to capture the temporal variation in the surface moisture status in terms of antecedent precipitation index.