sustainability Article Meteorological Drought Analysis in the Lower Mekong Basin Using Satellite-Based Long-Term CHIRPS Product Hao Guo 1,2,3,4, Anming Bao 1,4,*, Tie Liu 1,4, Felix Ndayisaba 1,2,5, Daming He 6, Alishir Kurban 1,4 and Philippe De Maeyer 3,4 1 State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China;
[email protected] (H.G.);
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[email protected] (F.N.);
[email protected] (A.K.) 2 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, China 3 Department of Geography, Ghent University, Gent 9000, Belgium;
[email protected] 4 Sino-Belgian Joint Laboratory of Geo-information, Urumqi 830011, China and Ghent 9000, Belgium 5 University of Lay Adventists of Kigali (UNILAK), 6392 Kigali, Rwanda 6 Asian International Rivers Center, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, China;
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[email protected]; Tel.: +86-0991-788-5378 Academic Editor: Audrey Mayer Received: 9 May 2017; Accepted: 25 May 2017; Published: 29 May 2017 Abstract: Lower Mekong Basin (LMB) experiences a recurrent drought phenomenon. However, few studies have focused on drought monitoring in this region due to lack of ground observations. The newly released Climate Hazards Group Infrared Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS) with a long-term record and high resolution has a great potential for drought monitoring. Based on the assessment of CHIRPS for capturing precipitation and monitoring drought, this study aims to evaluate the drought condition in LMB by using satellite-based CHIRPS from January 1981 to July 2016.