[Applicability of five drought indices for agricultural drought evaluation in Jilin Province, China.]

Drought is a severe meteorological disaster on agriculture in Jilin Province. Agricultural drought can be represented by drought indices, but there is no universal applicable index. It is of great significance to examine the applicability of drought indices for agricultural drought evaluation. Based on daily meteorological data, soil moisture data, and drought statistical information from 1961 to 2014, we selected typical drought years and typical drought zones. The applicability of five drought indices was evaluated, including precipitation anomaly percentage (PA), relative moisture index (MI), crop water deficit anomaly index (CWDIa), Palmer drought severity index (PDSI) and meteorological drought comprehensive index (MCI). The results showed that agricultural drought evaluation of MI was consistent best with drought information for two typical drought years of 1997 and 2007, followed by PA and MCI. For typical drought zones (Tongyu in the west, Lishu in the center and Helong in the east), MI and PDSI performed much better than other ones. During growing season, PA was more applicable in April, July and August, MI was applicable to April, May and September, CWDIa only performed well in May, PDSI could be an indicator to agricultural drought in June, July, August and September, MCI was useful in May, June, July and August. For different regions with agricultural drought, MI, PDSI and MCI were applicable in western region, PDSI in central region, and PA, PDSI and MCI were suitable for eastern region.