{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,8]],"date-time":"2026-01-08T08:43:02Z","timestamp":1767861782690,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":50,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,5,27]],"date-time":"2018-05-27T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1527379200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"the Funds from Major Consulting Project of Chinese Academy of Engineering","award":["2016-ZD-08-02"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2016-ZD-08-02"]}]},{"name":"The National Key Research and Development Program of China","award":["2016YFC0401301 and 2016YFC0400204"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2016YFC0401301 and 2016YFC0400204"]}]},{"name":"The Open Research Fund of the State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin at the China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research","award":["IWHR-SKL-201601"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["IWHR-SKL-201601"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Rainfall gauges are always sparse in the arid and semi-arid areas of Northwest China, which makes it difficult to precisely study the characteristics of drought at a large scale in this region and similar areas. This study used the TRMM (The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) multi-satellite precipitation data to study the spatial-temporal evolution of drought in the Loess Plateau based on the SPI (Standardized Precipitation Index) drought index for the period of 1998\u20132014. The results indicate that the monthly TRMM precipitation data are well matched with the observed precipitation, indicating that this remotely sensed data set can be reliably used to calculate the SPI drought index. Based on the study findings, the average precipitation in the Loess Plateau is showing a significant increasing trend at the rate of 4.46 mm\/year. From the spatial perspective, the average annual precipitation in the Southeast is generally greater than that in the Northwest. However, the annual precipitation in the Southeast area is showing a decreasing trend, whereas, the annual precipitation in the northwest areas is showing an increasing trend. Through the SPI analysis, the 3-month SPI and 12-month SPI were both showing an increasing trend, which indicates that the drought severity in the Loess Plateau was a generally declining trend at a seasonal to annual time scale. From the spatial perspective, the SPI values in the Central and Northwest of the Loess Plateau were significantly increasing, whereas, the SPI values in the southern area of the Loess Plateau were slightly decreasing. From the seasonal characteristics, the high-risk area for drought in the spring was concentrated in the northeast and southwest part, and in the summer and autumn, the high-risk area was transferred to the south part. Through this study, it is concluded that the Loess Plateau was likely getting wetter during the time period since the Grain-for-Green Project (1999\u20132012) was implemented, which replaced much farmland with forestry. This is a positive signal for vegetation recovery and ecological restoration in the near future.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs10060838","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,5,29]],"date-time":"2018-05-29T02:58:18Z","timestamp":1527562698000},"page":"838","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":58,"title":["The Temporal-Spatial Characteristics of Drought in the Loess Plateau Using the Remote-Sensed TRMM Precipitation Data from 1998 to 2014"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"given":"Qi","family":"Zhao","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"College of water Resources and Architectural Engineering, Northwest A&amp;F University, Yangling 712100, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Qianyun","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of water Resources and Architectural Engineering, Northwest A&amp;F University, Yangling 712100, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Mengyan","family":"Jiao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of water Resources and Architectural Engineering, Northwest A&amp;F University, Yangling 712100, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Pute","family":"Wu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Northwest A&amp;F University, Yangling 712100, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9985-9995","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Xuerui","family":"Gao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Northwest A&amp;F University, Yangling 712100, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Meihong","family":"Ma","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Geographic and Environmental Sciences, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yang","family":"Hong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,5,27]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"378","DOI":"10.1038\/nature09763","article-title":"Human contribution to more-intense precipitation extremes","volume":"470","author":"Min","year":"2011","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Perkins, D., Uhl, E., Biber, P., Toit, B., Carraro, V., Rotzer, T., and Pretzsch, H. 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