AUSTRALIA PLAYS A SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN GLOBAL CARBON AND WATER CYCLES AS A RESULT OF ITS LARGE INTER-ANNUAL CLIMATE VARIABILITY. THOUGH WELL KNOWN FOR DROUGHTS AUSTRALIA HAS MOST OF ITS CONTINENT SEVERELY AND PERSISTENTLY AFFECTED BY THE RECENT MILLENNIUM DROUGHT WHICH IS REGARDED AS ONE OF EARTH S MOST SEVERE AND PERSISTENT DROUGHTS DURING THE SATELLITE ERA. TREE MORTALITY HAS BEEN WIDELY REPORTED DURING AND POST THE MILLENNIUM DROUGHT. GIVEN THE IMPORTANCE OF AUSTRALIAN ECOSYSTEMS IN THE GLOBAL CARBON CYCLE THE APPARENT VULNERABILITY OF THESE FORESTS TO DROUGHT-INDUCED DECLINE AND THE PROJECTION OF HOTTER AND DRIER CONDITIONS FOR MUCH OF THE CONTINENT IT IS CRITICAL TO ANALYZE THE IMPACTS OF RECENT CLIMATE EXTREMES AS AN INDICATOR OF THE POSSIBLE IMPACTS OF FUTURE TRENDS. HOWEVER LARGE-AREA MONITORING AND COMPREHENSIVE ASSESSMENTS OF VEGETATION DIEBACK AND RECOVERY AT CONTINENTAL SCALE TO THE SCALE OF VEGETATION PATCHES REMAIN LACKING. THIS PROPOSAL AIMS TO ASSESS VEGETATION DECLINE AND POSSIBLE RECOVERY FROM THE MILLENNIUM DROUGHT OVER AUSTRALIA USING MULTI-SENSOR (E.G. MODIS AVHRR QUICKSCAT) AND HIGHER RESOLUTION DATA (LANDSAT). THE CORE METHOD OF THIS WORK IS TO ANALYZE A SET OF AVAILABLE REMOTE SENSING DERIVED TIME SERIES OF VEGETATION ATTRIBUTES INCLUDING FRACTION OF ABSORBED PHOTOSYNTHETIC ACTIVE RADIATION (FPAR) PHOTOSYNTHETIC VEGETATION COVER (PV) CANOPY WATER CONTENT (E.G. VEGETATION OPTICAL DEPTH (VOD)) AND ABOVEGROUND BIOMASS (AGB) OR CARBON (ABC) TO ASSESS THE MAGNITUDE SENSITIVITY AND CUMULATIVE EFFECTS OF VEGETATION RESPONSE TO DROUGHT AND THE DEGREE OF RECOVERY POST-DROUGHT. OUR ANALYSIS WILL PROVIDE NOT ONLY CONTINENTAL OVERVIEW BUT ALSO REGIONAL DETAILS FOR DROUGHT IMPACTS; ADVANCE THE UNDERSTANDING OF VEGETATION SENSITIVITY ACROSS DIFFERENT ECOHYDROLOGICAL SETTINGS; AND CONTRIBUTE VALUABLE INSIGHTS INTO THE CUMULATIVE EFFECTS AND POST-DROUGHT RESPONSES. THESE IMPLICATIONS FOR ECOSYSTEMS WATER AND ENERGY CYCLES WOULD MAKE THIS WORK DIRECTLY RELEVANT TO THE SMD EARTH SCIENCE DIVISION S PROGRAM TO DETECT AND PREDICT CHANGES IN EARTH S ECOLOGICAL AND BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES.