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Bradley DOORN
Program Manager
Agriculture Applied Research Program
Earth Science Division, Science Mission
Directorate
18 July 2022

Information & Insights Important to
Conservation and Land Management
Decisions
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Nevada farmer Denise
Moyle will use an open
data platform, OpenET,
to plan irrigation of her
alfalfa fields
NASA’s objective is to develop the
next generation of satellites,
instruments and data models to
help inform agriculture and other
land management decisions on:
• Global food supply conditions
• Water management
• In-season crop conditions
• Policy impact
• Severe weather
• Sustainability
• …among many others
Introduction by Dr. Karen St. Germain,
Director of the Earth Science Division, NASA
(NHQ_2022_0710_KSG for NACD.mp4)

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What NASA Observations do today …

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What NASA Observations do today …
Forecasting Poor Air
Quality Events in the
Caribbean
Saharan dust storms crossing the Caribbean
adversely impact air quality and human health.
Robust applied research and community
partnerships were developed in Puerto Rico to build
an air quality forecasting tool that will inform policy
decisions, educate the public on health risks related
to dust storms, and safeguard population health.
Data: MODIS, VIIRS, GOES-16 EAST
Credits: NASA/Pablo Méndez-Lázaro
Suomi NPP VIIRS data (AOD/dust concentration)
June 20, 2020
NASA Web Feature:
https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/spinoff/Saharan_Dust_Foreca
sts_Minimize_Health_Risks_in_the_Caribbean
PI: Pablo Méndez-Lázaro (Univ. Of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus)
June 23, 2020
Saharan Dust Plume
San Juan, PR

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Earth observations help U.S. state agencies
monitor and respond to harmful algal blooms
Partnership of US EPA, NASA, NOAA, USGS
CYANOBACTERIA
ASSESSMENT NETWORK
Mobile App – link
 Uses satellite data for changes in color of water
 Alerts users that a harmful algal bloom could be forming
 Swimmers, pet owners, boaters, and others have water
quality updates at their fingertips
 Supports more than 2,000 of the largest lakes and
reservoirs across the United States.
 Users can drop pins in locations of interest (left)
Oregon Dept of Environmental
Quality presents on use of CyAN
products at the 2019 National Water
Quality Monitoring Conference
CONUS
streetmap with
site data from
CyAN Field
Integrated
Exploratory
Lakes
Database.
What NASA Observations do today …

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NASA Provides New Looks at
Puerto Rico Post-Hurricane Maria |
NASA
Monitoring the Puerto
Rico Forest Impact from
Hurricane Maria
(GMS-3-D-Forest.mp4)
What NASA Observations do today …

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… but What Should We Do Next?

Moving Forward

SWOT – Surface Water Ocean Topography –
Launching later this year
Supported by NASA Applied Science Program, CNES-French Investment Program

Credit: facebook.com/altitude12
Buxton, NC, 8 Nov. 2021
• Sea level rise
• High tide flooding (nuisance flooding)
• Coastal erosion, ecosystem deterioration
(marshes, wetlands)
• Infrastructure risks (e.g. military installations,
power plants, roads)
Coastal Impacts

SBG Architecture SBG Constellation Pathfinder
SBG Light
Wide-swath VSWIR
spectrometer
Sun-sync orbit (late AM)
185 km swath
16 day revisit
10 nm, 200+ bands
30 meter GSD
High SNR and radiometric
performance
~5 deg off-nadir tilt
SBG Heat
Wide-swath TIR imager and
ASI VNIR camera
Sun-sync orbit (early PM)
5+ bands TIR, 2+ bands VNIR
935 km swath, 3 day revisit
60 meter GSD
0.2K NeDT
30 km
185 km
935 km

Presenter is responsible for correct marking
Agriculture / water resources
Expert Interview Quotes:
“If we can build field-scale maps
and models for monitoring crop
type, growth and health, we can
advise small holders and build
business in new ways. This will
improve farming practices and food
security in food-challenged
regions.” - Large Agri-Products Co.,
Digital Agronomist
“We are not good at forecasting
because we do not have great
models, and we have a hard time
making trade-offs without the
objective information we need” -
Ag Water Manager
Observations and impacts
● Input into SBG project: With the shift to precision farming and practice,
users need precise and timely data, and more advanced monitoring
and models. Temporal resolution is as important as spatial and near
daily monitoring is desired.
● For U.S. farmers who use Variable Rate Technology (VRT), SBG may
provide an increase of greater than $30M annually through improved
revenue and savings, where a conservative estimate is 10-20%
increase over current profits while using VRT.

The NASA-ISRO SAR
(NISAR) Mission
will measure Earth’s changing
surfaces, and ice masses providing
biomass, natural hazards, sea level rise,
groundwater, and will support a host of
applications.

NASA-ISRO
Synthetic
Aperture
Radar
(NISAR)
Mission
Groundwater and a Rapidly Changing Landscape
Reduced surface water capture and supply results in
more groundwater withdrawal, which in turn leads to
ground subsidence that can impact infrastructure and
even exacerbate future flooding in the very areas
hardest hit by the drought.
SAR-derived map of ground subsidence in the Central Valley, California, associated with groundwater pumping [Farr et al., 2015].
Contours of
Napoleonville
salt dome
nisar.jpl.nasa.gov

Ecological
Forecasting
Health and Air
Quality
NASA Harvest,
Global Agriculture
Consortium
ROSES2022 A.36,
Domestic Agriculture
Consortium
Climate and
Resilience
Applications
Agriculture
Water
Resources
NASA Applied
Sciences Program
Wildfires
Capacity Building
Satellite Missions
Engagement
Disasters
New Domestic Agriculture
Consortium
award expected Nov 2022
New 5-year Plan for Global
Agriculture expected Nov 2022

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Why a Domestic Ag Consortium?
The objectives of NASA’s A.36 solicitation
A program of activities (consortium) to enable more organizations to use Earth
science information for the benefit of agriculture, and expand the community of
domestic agriculture professionals skilled with using Earth science for agricultural
benefits.
 Advance use of Earth science information;
 Increase the adoption of Earth science applications;
 Expand the number of applications;
 Enable sustained applications of Earth science information;
 Enhance awareness;
 Advance impact assessment;
 Identify opportunities;
 Advance communication.

NASA Activities – Broadening our Community
• NASA Harvest Program (www.NASAHarvest.org)
• Commodity Classic
• Meetings with Corn and Soy Associations
• “Space for Ag” Tour
• NASA Domestic Ag Program