A dataset of monthly VCI and TCI drought indices at a resolution of 1km in the Yellow River Basin (2003–2021)

The Yellow River Basin is located in the arid, semi-arid climate zone and semi-humid climate zones. According to the statistics of the Second National Comprehensive Water Resources Planning, its annual average water resources total 71.94 billion m3, accounting for 2.5% of the country's total water resources. However, it is the most severely affected by drought among the major river basins in China, and ecological protection faces severe challenges. With the global climate change, the drought problem in the Yellow River Basin has attracted more and more attention. Based on MODIS vegetation index products (MYD13A2, V6) and surface temperature radiation products (MYD11A2, V6). The dataset is obtained by approaches including projection conversion, cloud removal, mosaic clipping, time series interpolation and SG filter smoothing and other preprocessing. Using the calculation method proposed by Kogan in 1995, the VCI and TCI indices were calculated according to the corresponding MODIS products, respectively, and the monthly 1km resolution VCI and TCI drought index datasets in the Yellow River Basin from 2003 to 2021 were generated. Through data sharing, it is expected to provide important data support for drought monitoring and research in the Yellow River Basin under the background of global change.