CATDS-PDC L4 DI Monthly global drought indices obtained from SMOS' satellite root zone soil moisture

The drought index (DI) is computed using SMOS derived root zone soil moisture (RZSM) monthly fields. The concept is to consider 13 years of SMOS data (2010-2022). The RZSM monthly mean and max over the period is iused to compute a soil water deficit to remove seasonal variability. from teh soil water deficit a soil moisture drought index is computed .The range of values for SMDI lies between -4 to +4, with -4 representing extreme dry conditions and +4 representing extreme wet conditions.