Abstract
Vapor pressure deficit (VPD) is a critical variable in assessing drought conditions and evaluating plant water stress. Gridded products of global and regional VPD are not freely available from satellite remote sensing, model reanalysis, or ground observation datasets. We present two versions of the first gridded VPD product for the Continental US and parts of Northern Mexico and Southern Canada (CONUS+) at a 1 km spatial resolution and daily time step. We derived VPD from Daymet maximum daily temperature and average daily vapor pressure and scale the estimates based on (1) climate determined by the Köppen-Geiger classifications and (2) land cover determined by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme. Ground-based VPD data from 253 AmeriFlux sites representing different climate and land cover classifications were used to improve the Daymet-derived VPD estimates for every pixel in the CONUS+ grid to produce the final datasets. We evaluated the Daymet-derived VPD against independent observations and reanalysis data. The CONUS+ VPD datasets will aid in investigating disturbances including drought and wildfire, and informing land management strategies.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 256 |
| Journal | Scientific Data |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 2025 |
Funding
This work expanded upon exploratory analysis conducted by Sarah Marmolejos, a former undergraduate student in the Lowman Lab. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Award Number 2228047. The MODIS MCD12Q1 data were retrieved online from A\u03C1\u03C1EEARS and distributed by NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC), http://appeears.earthdatacloud.nasa.gov/ . Computations were performed using the Wake Forest University (WFU) High Performance Computing Facility, a centrally managed computational resource available to WFU researchers including faculty, staff, students, and collaborators. Data from this material is stored by CUAHSI via HydroShare ( http://www.hydroshare.org/resource/de74b0a457c74deca09f9a41afa03c8f ) with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Cooperative Agreement No. EAR-1849458. We acknowledge the following AmeriFlux sites for their data records: CA-Ca3, CA-DSM, CA-ER1, CA-Gro, CA-Qfo, CA-TP1, CA-TP3, CA-TP2, CA-TP4, CA-TPD, MX-Aog, MX-Tes, US-Act, US-ADR, US-Akn, US-ALQ, US-AR1, US-AR2, US-ARb, US-ARc, US-ASH, US-ASL, US-ASM, US-Bar, US-Bi1, US-Bi2, US-Blo, US-Bo1, US-Bo2, US-BWa, US-BWb, US-CC1, US-CdM, US-Ced, US-CF1, US-CF2, US-CF3, US-CF4, US-Cop, US-CPk, US-CRK, US-CS1, US-CS2, US-CS3, US-CS4, US-CS5, US-CS6, US-CS8, US-Cst, US-Cwt, US-DFC, US-DFK, US-Dia, US-Dix, US-Dk1, US-Dk2, US-Dk3, US-Dmg, US-DPW, US-EA4, US-EA5, US-EA6, US-EDN, US-Elm, US-Esm, US-EvM, US-Fmf, US-Fuf, US-Fwf, US-GBT, US-GL1, US-GLE, US-Ha2, US-HB1, US-HB2, US-HB3, US-HB4, US-HBK, US-Ho1, US-Ho2, US-Ho3, US-Hsm, US-INa, US-INb, US-INc, US-INd, US-INe, US-INg, US-INi, US-INj, US-INn, US-INp, US-Jo2, US-KFS, US-KL1, US-KL2, US-KL3, US-KLS, US-KM1, US-KM2, US-KM3, US-KM4, US-Kon, US-KS1, US-KS2, US-KS3, US-KUT, US-LA1, US-LA2, US-Lin, US-LL1, US-LL2, US-LL3, US-Los, US-MC1, US-MC2, US-Me1, US-Me4, US-Me5, US-Men, US-MH1, US-MH2, US-Mj1, US-Mj2, US-MMS, US-MN1, US-MN3, US-Mo1, US-Mo2, US-Mo3, US-Mpj, US-MSR, US-MtB, US-MVF, US-MVW, US-Myb, US-NC1, US-NC2, US-NC3, US-NC4, US-NMj, US-NR1, US-NR3, US-NR4, US-ONA, US-OWC, US-PAS, US-PFa, US-PFf, US-PFo, US-PHM, US-Pnp, US-PSH, US-PSL, US-RC1, US-RC2, US-RC3, US-RC4, US-RC5, US-Ro1, US-Ro2, US-Ro3, US-Ro4, US-Ro5, US-Ro6, US-RRC, US-SdH, US-Seg, US-Ses, US-Slt, US-Snd, US-Sne, US-Snf, US-SP1, US-SP2, US-SP3, US-SP4, US-SRC, US-Srr, US-SRS, US-Sta, US-StJ, US-Syv, US-TaS, US-TEF, US-Ton, US-Tur, US-Tw1, US-Tw2, US-Tw3, US-Tw4, US-Tw5, US-Twt, US-UiA, US-UiB, US-UiC, US-UiD, US-UM3, US-UMB, US-UTB, US-UTN, US-Var, US-Vcm, US-Vcp, US-Vcs, US-WCr, US-Wi0, US-Wi1, US-Wi2, US-Wi3, US-Wi4, US-Wi5, US-Wi6, US-Wi7, US-Wi8, US-Wi9, US-Wjs, US-Wrc, US-WT1, US-xAB, US-xAE, US-xBL, US-xBR, US-xCL, US-xCP, US-xDC, US-xDL, US-xDS, US-xGR, US-xHA, US-xJE, US-xJR, US-xKA, US-xKZ, US-xLE, US-xMB, US-xML, US-xNG, US-xnQ, US-xNW, US-xRM, US-xRN, US-xSB, US-xSC, US-xSE, US-xSJ, US-xSL, US-xSP, US-xSR, US-xST, US-xTA, US-xTE, US-xTR, US-xUk, US-xUN, US-xWD, US-xWR, US-xYE. Funding for AmeriFlux data resources was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy\u2019s Office of Science.