A Multiscalar Global Drought Dataset: The SPEIbase: A New Gridded Product for the Analysis of Drought Variability and Impacts

A new multiscalar drought dataset, \nthe SPEIbase, made available to the scientific and management community is presented. The multiscalar \ncharacter of the dataset allows finding the \nmost appropriate time scale of interest for a specific application, so potential uses of the dataset range over a wide variety of disciplines. The dataset (in three file \nformats) is distributed under an open license. Further work includes updating the dataset past December 2006, depending on the data availability.