Hello there!
Welcome to our September Newsletter! As the seasons change, so do the opportunities and challenges in the agricultural landscape. In this issue, we are bringing you the latest updates and insights from the NASA Acres Consortium.
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Earlier this month, the Los Angeles Times highlighted how NASA's cutting-edge imaging technology is being used to detect early signs of wine grape disease. When plants, such as grapevines, become infected with certain diseases, their physiological processes and metabolism can change. These changes can lead to alterations in the temperature or thermal properties of infected plants compared to healthy ones. Researchers used high resolution infrared imagery, captured by airplanes, over the Central Valley of California to assess the subtle variations in radiation between healthy and infected grapevines. They were successful in disguising Cabernet Sauvignon grapevines that were infected, before they exhibited visible symptoms.
“This is the first time we’ve ever shown the ability to do viral disease detection on the airborne scale,” said Katie Gold, an assistant professor of grape pathology at Cornell University and scientist with NASA Acres. “The next step is scaling to space.”
For the wine and grape industry, which has suffered substantial economic losses due to this plant virus, this development is a game-changer. By detecting infections sooner, wineries and grape growers can implement targeted strategies to contain the spread of the disease and protect their valuable crops. Beyond its implications for the wine industry, this research has the potential to transform global agriculture. Early detection of plant diseases using advanced technology could become a key tool in safeguarding crops worldwide, ensuring food security, and minimizing the economic impact of crop diseases on a broader scale.
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NASA Harvest has been tasked by the US Agency for International Development Feed the Future Initiative (USAID FTF) to evaluate the yield modeling landscape in smallholder settings to inform future interventions and investments.
To get a sense of the landscape beyond academic literature review, we appreciate input from organizations in the commercial and non-governmental sectors on relevant portfolios. The data collected in this survey will be presented to USAID stakeholders in a white paper that may be available for public viewing. Given potential sensitivities of disclosing intellectual property, any part of this survey is optional. Please feel free to contact us with any queries at https://nasaharvest.org/form/contact.
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This week Dr. Alyssa Whitcraft, Executive Director of NASA Acres, attended the World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit in London. At the conference, Dr. Whitcraft gave a Lightning Talk on her work with NASA Acres, NASA Harvest, and Harvest Sustainable and Regenerative Agriculture (SARA) Initiative and chaired a panel on "Measuring and Monitoring Soil Health to Build Sustainable Farming Practices". The panel discussed the latest in digital innovations, best practices, state of adoption, and the vital role that soil health plays in agricultural sustainability. Read more about the panel in our blog, linked below.
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Dr. Kaiyu Guan, NASA Acres Chief Scientist, has been awarded the prestigious James B. Macelwane Medal by American Geophysical Union. Guan is being recognized for his research using satellite data and computational modeling for agriculture. "We are striving to build solutions to make our agricultural system both more productive and more sustainable," says Guan. We would like to commend Dr. Guan and his team for their invaluable contributions to the field!
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NASA Acres is featured in this article, exploring how aerial imagery from drones and satellites are increasingly being used in the agricultural field.
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Interested in how NASA Acres is using satellite data to support U.S. agriculture? In an interview with the National Cotton Council, Dr. Alyssa Whitcraft, Executive Director of NASA Acres, shares how the program is using working across the U.S. agriculture spectrum.
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A recent study, directed by Dr. Kaiyu Guan and his research group at University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, synthesized more than 25 of the group’s previous studies to understand and quantify field level greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) produced by U.S. farmland. The study, "A scalable framework for quantifying field-level agricultural carbon outcomes" develops an integrative and scalable framework for quantifying GHG emissions over farmland using remote sensing and artificial intelligence.
Our map of the month features the figure, above, from the article. This figure is a conceptual diagram of their framework for quantifying agroecosystem carbon outcomes at the field level. (a) Agricultural carbon outcome is determined by three factors, i.e. environment condition (E), management practices (M), and crop condition (C), as well as their interactions. (b) Accuracy of the quantification methods improves significantly as more information is constrained at the field level. The example shown here focuses on quantifying net ecosystem exchange (NEE), which is the net CO2 exchange between land and atmosphere that can be measured directly with the eddy-covariance flux tower sites in the U.S. Midwest
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Online, Free & Open to Public
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Want to know more about spectral indices? Register to attend this NASA ARSET training! Use cases from Earth Action projects will highlight how spectral indices can provide essential information about land and aquatic environments.
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Hybrid, Free & Open to Public
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The Corteva Symposia Series is an opportunity to interact with digital ag experts, students’ presentations, poster sessions, panel discussions and networking opportunities. Join Dr. Michael Humber, NASA Acres Deputy Director, and Hannah Kerner, NASA Acres Scientists, among other talented digital ag experts to learn how the most advanced technology is revolutionizing agriculture!
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Please take a moment to fill out this brief survey to let us know what kind of content you would like to see in the monthly NASA Acres Newsletter. |
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