A new app has been developed using high-resolution NASA data on soil moisture to help researchers, meteorologists and farmers track droughts and floods, and to better forecast agricultural yields.
The Crop Condition and Soil Moisture Analytics (Crop-CASMA) app provides access to high-resolution data from NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument.
The free-to-use tool has been developed by the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), NASA and George Mason University. It is accessible to private users, including farmers, researchers and students, and has been designed with an easy-to-use interface.
Rajat Bindlish, a research associate in Earth science remote sensing at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said, “Soil moisture is a very important piece of information for agricultural yield and productivity. This will provide a means of using NASA remote sensing data to guide predictions of moisture conditions and water availability. Information on the field conditions is important for agricultural operations.”
In addition to supporting agricultural operations, it will enable research into sustainability and the impact of extreme weather events.