Droughts can have wide-spread environmental, societal and financial impacts. Monitoring drought events is complicated as they present themselves in different parts of the water cycle (i.e. soil moisture, groundwater, surface water) in different phases of the event. Accurate soil moisture estimates at a high spatial resolution can enhance drought monitoring and prediction. High resolution soil moisture data can be obtained from remotely sensed active microwave backscatter data. By making use of such earth observation data, this thesis discusses the link between soil moisture and vegetation droughts, it tests different strategies for obtaining high resolution soil moisture data over a field site, it tests the highest spatial resolution at which soil moisture can be accurately obtained, and it finally discusses how these data can be used to monitor droughts on larger scales.