Nowadays, huge volumes of imagery and gridded data are accessible. However they vary in formats and are stored at various organizations leading to problems of data discovery, data interoperability and usability. ISO19115, Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata and some other norms don’t provide enough provision for imagery and gridded data. UML and XML schema of metadata also don’t pr...

The covariability between the interannual changes of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and actual evapotranspiration was examined. This study employed NDVI datasets from the Pathfinder AVHRR Land (PAL) data and the Global Inventory Monitoring and Modeling Studies (GIMMS) group to reduce the uncertainty that may be involved in the NDVI time series. The analysis was carried out for th...

Projections of extreme precipitation are of great importance, considering the potential severe impacts on society. In this study a recently developed regional, non-stationary peaks-over-threshold approach is applied to two transient simulations of the RACMO2 regional climate model for the period 1950–2100, driven by two different general circulation models. The regional approach reduces the est...

Gridded fields (analyses) of global monthly precipitation have been constructed on a 2.5° latitude–longitude grid for the 17-yr period from 1979 to 1995 by merging several kinds of information sources with different characteristics, including gauge observations, estimates inferred from a variety of satellite observations, and the NCEP–NCAR reanalysis. This new dataset, which the authors have na...

Abrupt and persistent changes in regional climate patterns have happened in the past, and according to models, may happen again in the future. These sudden and prolonged shifts have negatively impacted the well being of people and can compromise the ability of societies to sustain into the future in a desirable way. It is therefore important to determine which places might be vulnerable to abru...

This study explores long-term environmental fate of α-HCH in China from 1952 to 2007 using ChnGPERM (Chinese Gridded Pesticide Emission and Residue Model). The model captures well the temporal and spatial variations of α-HCH concentration in Chinese soils by comparing with a number of measured data across China in different periods. The results demonstrate α-HCH grasshopping effect in Eastern C...

Anthropogenic forcings have contributed to global and regional warming in the last few decades and likely affected terrestrial precipitation. Here we examine changes in major Köppen climate classes from gridded observed data and their uncertainties due to internal climate variability using control simulations from Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 5 (CMIP5). About 5.7% of the global total l...

Most studies on the responsiveness of maize production to various variables have dwelled on the responsiveness of maize production to variations in precipitation or temperature. This study seeks to verify the response of maize production in Cameroon to both climate trends and land use change. Therefore, for the first time, our study presents findings on the relative influence of both climate an...