And now increasingly they are using NASA Earth science data to help make their decisions. While NASA satellites primarily support scientific understanding, the data can also be applied for societal benefits like agriculture.
In our skies, NASA’s Earth-observing satellites help farmers track rainfall amounts, soil moisture, crop health, and more. On the ground, NASA partners with agencies and organizations around the world to help farmers use that data to care for their own fields. Here are a few ways NASA helps put food on the table, from planting to harvest.
Wrapping seeds in wet paper towels is a classic science lesson to show how seeds sprout and grow. Moisture is critical for germinating seeds; they like a moist but not soggy environment. Farmers can use satellite data taken from hundreds of miles above their fields to “see” how moist their soil is across large fields.
“When you’re not sure when to water your flowers or your garden, you can look at the soil or touch it with your hands. We are sort of ‘feeling’ the soil, sensing how much water is in the soil – from a satellite, 685 kilometers above the Earth [just over 537 miles],” said John Bolten, the associate program manager of water resources for NASA Earth Science Division’s Applied Sciences Program.
This spring, NASA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and George Mason University released Crop-CASMA, a tool that shows 1-kilometer [247 acres] resolution soil moisture and vegetation conditions for the United States. With Crop-CASMA, instead of relying on soil moisture reports for large regions, farmers can see differences in moisture between much smaller areas – about the size of a couple of golf courses or half of a section.
The USDA also uses Crop-CASMA to power their monthly Crop Progress Reports, which update farmers on their state’s soil moisture, crop health and growing progress.
