JPL
Careers
Education
Science & Technology
JPL Logo
JPL Logo
Earth
.

NASA Soil Moisture Data Advances Global Crop Forecasts

Jun 01, 2018
With data from NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive satellite, researchers can monitor the amount of water in soils to identify areas prone to droughts or floods. In this map created with SMAP data from May 16-May 18, 2018, soils that are wetter than normal are seen in greens, while those that are drier than normal are seen in browns.
Credit: Joshua Stevens/NASA Earth Observatory
NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive satellite takes global measurements, allowing researchers and resource managers to identify and compare regions that are drier (brown) and wetter (green) than normal, even if they are far from weather radar or water gauges.
Credit: Joshua Stevens/NASA Earth Observatory

Data from a JPL-managed NASA satellite that measures soil water content is now used by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to monitor croplands and make commodity forecasts.

Data from the first NASA satellite mission dedicated to measuring the water content of soils is now being used operationally by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to monitor global croplands and make commodity forecasts.

The Soil Moisture Active Passive mission, or SMAP, launched in 2015 and has helped map the amount of water in soils worldwide. Now, with tools developed by a team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, SMAP soil moisture data are being incorporated into the Crop Explorer website of the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service, which reports on regional droughts, floods and crop forecasts. Crop Explorer is a clearinghouse for global agricultural growing conditions, such as soil moisture, temperature, precipitation, vegetation health and more.

"There's a lot of need for understanding, monitoring and forecasting crops globally," said John Bolten, research scientist at Goddard. "SMAP is NASA's first satellite mission devoted to soil moisture, and this is a very straightforward approach to applying that data."

Variations in global agricultural productivity have tremendous economic, social and humanitarian consequences. Among the users of these new SMAP data are USDA regional crop analysts who need accurate soil moisture information to better monitor and predict these variations.

"The USDA does crop forecasting activities from a global scale, and one of the main pieces of information for them is the amount of water in the soil," said Iliana Mladenova, a research scientist at Goddard.

The USDA has used computer models that incorporate precipitation and temperature observations to indirectly calculate soil moisture. This approach, however, is prone to error in areas lacking high-quality, ground-based instrumentation. Now, Mladenova said, the agency is incorporating direct SMAP measurements of soil moisture into Crop Explorer. This allows the agriculture analysts to better predict where there could be too little, or too much, water in the soil to support crops.

These soil moisture conditions, along with tools to analyze the data, are also available on Google Earth Engine. There, researchers, nonprofit organizations, resource managers and others can access the latest data as well as archived information.

"If you have better soil moisture data and information on anomalies, you'll be able to predict, for example, the occurrence and development of drought," Mladenova said.

The timing of the information matters as well, she added -- if there's a short dry period early in the season, it might not have an impact on the total crop yield, but if there's a prolonged dry spell when the grain should be forming, the crop is less likely to recover.

With global coverage every three days, SMAP can provide the Crop Explorer tool with timely updates of the soil moisture conditions that are essential for assessments and forecasts of global crop productivity.

For more than a decade, USDA Crop Explorer products have incorporated soil moisture data from satellites. It started with the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-E instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite, but that instrument stopped gathering data in late 2011. Soil moisture information from the European Space Agency's (ESA) Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity mission is also being incorporated into some of the USDA products. This new, high-quality input from SMAP will help fill critical gaps in soil moisture information.

SMAP is managed for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington by the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, with instrument hardware and science contributions made by Goddard.

To learn more about SMAP, visit:

https://smap.jpl.nasa.gov

The USDA's Crop Explorer tool is at:

https://ipad.fas.usda.gov/cropexplorer/

For information about SMAP data products in Google Earth Engine, visit:

https://explorer.earthengine.google.com/#detail/NASA_USDA%2FHSL%2FSMAP_soil_moisture

News Media Contact

Written by Kate Ramsayer, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Alan Buis

818-354-0474

alan.buis@jpl.nasa.gov

2018-121

Related News

Weather .

A Pioneering NASA Mini Weather Satellite Ends Its Mission

Climate Change .

NASA Satellites Help Quantify Forests’ Impacts on the Global Carbon Budget

Mars .

NASA’s Perseverance Pays Off Back Home

Climate Change .

Warming Seas Are Accelerating Greenland’s Glacier Retreat

Earth .

NASA, US and European Partner Satellite Returns First Sea Level Measurements

Technology .

NASA Confirms New SIMPLEx Mission Small Satellite to Blaze Trails Studying Lunar Surface

Earth .

New Data Confirm 2020 SO to Be the Upper Centaur Rocket Booster From the 1960's

Earth .

Follow Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich in Real Time As It Orbits Earth

Climate Change .

US-European Mission Launches to Monitor the World's Oceans

Climate Change .

Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich Satellite Prepared for Launch

Explore More

Image .

Mt. Etna--February 26, 2021

Image .

Mt. Etna February 2021

Image .

Tumbiana Stromatolite

Image .

Banjul, The Gambia

Image .

Lake Salda Rocks

Image .

Lake Salda Beach

Image .

Serabit el-Khadim, Egypt

Image .

Glacier Undercutting in Action

Image .

Hulhumale, Maldives

Topic .

Earth

About JPL
Who We Are
Executive Council
Directors of JPL
JPL History
Documentary Series
Virtual Tour
Annual Reports
Missions
All
Current
Past
Future
News
All
Earth
Mars
Solar System
Universe
Technology
Galleries
Images
Videos
Audio
Podcasts
Infographics
Engage
JPL and the Community
Lecture Series
Public Tours
Events
Team Competitions
JPL Speakers Bureau
Topics
Solar System
Mars
Earth
Climate Change
Stars and Galaxies
Exoplanets
Technology
JPL Life
For Media
Contacts and Information
Press Kits
More
Asteroid Watch
Robotics at JPL
Subscribe to Newsletter
Universe Newsletter
Social Media
Get the Latest from JPL
Follow Us

JPL is a federally funded research and development center managed for NASA by Caltech.

More from JPL
Careers Education Science & Technology Acquisitions JPL Store
Careers
Education
Science & Technology
Acquisitions
JPL Store
Related NASA Sites
Basics of Spaceflight
Climate Kids
Earth / Global Climate Change
Exoplanet Exploration
Mars Exploration
Solar System Exploration
Space Place
NASA's Eyes Visualization Project
Voyager Interstellar Mission
NASA
Caltech
Privacy
Image Policy
FAQ
Feedback
Site Manager: Veronica McGregor
Site Editors: Tony Greicius, Randal Jackson, Naomi Hartono