Assessing the Spatiotemporal variability and trends of rainfall, temperature, and NDVI in Saudi Arabia from 1980 to 2011 using meteorological station data and google earth engine

Using data from Google Earth Engine, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) provides a thorough review of the health of Saudi Arabia's vegetation from 1981 to 2011. In order to examine the effects of temperature and rainfall fluctuations over a three-decade period on vegetation dynamics nationwide, the research incorporates geographical and temporal differences in these patterns. In order to record the climatic fluctuation, more than twenty meteorological stations were used, spread out over Saudi Arabia. Rainfall results indicated different variation, while only Jeddah has positive trend, Abha, Hail and Arar have decreasing trend and no trend for the remaining stations. Temperature results have shown increasing trend for all the stations. The trend of annual change from mean for the study period (1980 – 2011) was also investigated and plotted using the inverse-distance-weighted (IDW) interpolation technique to determine rainfall and temperature spatial variation in the country. Both negative and positive trend were observed at temporal and spatial scales in rainfall. The annual change from mean in rainfall showed maximum decrease in Khamis Mushait (-153 mm) and maximum increase (341.6 mm) in Abha, whereas the temperature showed increasing trend for all the stations. The Maximum NDVI result from 1995 increased, despite a rise in temperature; nevertheless, there was no significant trend in rainfall throughout that period, according to NDVI. Further research is needed to examine the mechanisms behind these connections in order to gain a deeper understanding of the complex relationships between climatic conditions and ecosystem responses in this arid and hyper environments.