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January 20, 2004
NASA Satellites Improve Response to
Global Agricultural Change
NASA’s Earth satellite observing
systems are helping the U.S. Department of
Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS)
improve the accuracy and timeliness of
information they provide about important crops
around the world. FAS information is crucial in
decisions affecting U.S. agriculture, trade
policy, and food aid.
NASA and the University of Maryland are
providing the FAS with observations and data
products from instruments on NASA’s Aqua
and Terra satellites and from the TOPEX/Poseidon,
Jason and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission
(TRMM) satellites. FAS analysts are using these
products to regularly assess global agricultural
conditions.
“The partnership between NASA and FAS is
an example of how we extend the benefits of Earth
science missions to meet the needs of our
operational partners,” said Ed Sheffner of
NASA’s Earth Science Enterprise.
NASA provides daily, high-quality,
observations of the Earth. The timeliness and
quality of these science data products are used
to support decision support tools employed by FAS
to assess crop productivity over large areas of
the world. NASA products allow FAS analysts to
distinguish between different crops such as wheat
and rice and permit analysts to measure other
features like surface temperature and snow cover.
Analysts can gauge the health of agriculture by
comparing recent and historic data. NASA
satellites collect data twice daily, Terra in the
morning and Aqua in the afternoon.
Frequent satellite observations are important
so analysts can assess how natural disasters such
as fires, volcanic eruptions, floods, storms, or
even extreme temperatures, affect crops. The
information is often crucial to international
food aid organizations. Earth Science products
quickly demonstrated their utility as they helped
analysts identify and monitor new areas of
irrigated agriculture in the Middle East.
NASA’s Rapid Response System processes
and delivers observations to FAS usually less
than four hours after it is collected. Scientists
at the University of Maryland are creating an
archive and an interface that enables analysts to
compare current and historical conditions.
Altimetry data from the TOPEX/Poseidon and
Jason satellites are used to monitor the water
level of 100 lakes and reservoirs around the
world. Innovative use of these data to measure
lake and reservoir water levels in an operational
manner has proven valuable. The information
allows FAS analysts monitor the duration of
droughts, assess how much water is available for
irrigated farmland in arid regions and, as a
result, how much of a crop the region is able to
produce.
The TRMM satellite provides near real-time
observations about precipitation for
mid-latitudes. Rainfall has a large impact on
both rain-fed and irrigated crops. TRMM data
helps analysts gauge planting and growing
conditions and predict the size of the harvest
with greater reliability.
Applications of NASA’s Earth Science
research enable the use of observations,
measurements and models to improve agency
partners’ decision-making capabilities. FAS
has benefited from incorporating products from
Earth observation systems into operational
procedures.
For more information and images on the
Internet, visit:
http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2004/ 0115agriculture.html
For information about FAS satellite data on
the Internet,
visit:
http://www.pecad.fas.usda.gov/cropexplorer/
For information about NASA’s Earth
Science Enterprise on the
Internet, visit:
http://www.earth.nasa.gov
For more information about NASA on the
Internet, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov
Contacts:
David E. Steitz
Headquarters, Washington
Phone: 202/358-1730
Rob Gutro/Holli Riebeek
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Phone: 301/286-4044/8724
Mary Rekas
Foreign Agricultural Services, Washington
Phone: 202/720-3415
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Seasons of Turkey’s Irrigated
Crops
The irrigated crops (green areas) in
Turkey’s Harran Plains flourish while the
surrounding countryside dries out. These images
compare the April’s wet season (top) and
August’s dry season (lower). Credit: Jeff
Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC.
Waiting for More Rain in South
Africa
These MODIS images contrast conditions in
South Africa in December 2003 with conditions in
December 2001. The region is coming out of a dry
winter, and a lack of rain forced many farmers
to delay planting summer crops. In December 2001,
bright green vegetation covers the region, but
in December 2003 broad pink and tan areas of bare
soil appear in its place. Many of the
reservoirs, shown as black spots in these
false-color images, appear to cover a smaller
area in 2003 than in 2001. Credit: Jeff Schmaltz,
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC
Dry Soils Delay Summer Planting in
Argentina
As summer begins in the Southern Hemisphere,
drought delays planting in some of
Argentina’s most important crop growing
areas. These true-color Moderate Resolution
Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) images show
the contrast between this year and last year.
Large tan regions in the image taken on November
20, 2003, indicate less vegetation than the image
taken on November 15, 2002. Credit: Jeff
Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA
GSFC.
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