NASA Acres Newsletter: August Recap

AUGUST SPOTLIGHT

On the Road with the NASA Space4Ag Tour: Listening to Agriculture Across Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas

NASA Acres and NASA Earth Science spent a week traveling across Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas, listening to producers, researchers, and agricultural organizations and strengthening the relationships that help turn Earth observations into practical value for American agriculture.

Through visits to farms, ranches, research facilities, universities, and community roundtables, the Space for Agriculture (Space4Ag) listening tour provided a firsthand look at the challenges, priorities, and opportunities shaping agriculture across the region.

LATEST SCIENCE

Multi-Model Ensembles in Ecosystem Modeling: Challenges and Best Practices for Decision-Making

Multi-Model Ensembles (MMEs) combine targeted predictions from multiple models with the expectation of improving robustness and quantifying predictive uncertainty. This NASA Acres-supported paper argues that robust, decision-making-relevant MMEs must be grounded in rigorous Model Intercomparison Projects (MIPs) and co-design by stakeholders and scientists. The research highlights actionable best practices to improve MME reliability and support environmental policy and decision-making. Led by NASA Acres Chief Scientist Dr. Kaiyu Guan, the paper includes NASA Acres Executive Director Dr. Alyssa Whitcraft and RD&E Project Leads Drs. Eric Potash and Stephen Ogle, among a broader team of authors.

WHAT'S NEW AT NASA ACRES

'Dirt, Data, Decisions' Connects Nebraska Agriculture Technology Leaders

Hosted by NASA Acres FIAT member Roric Paulman, more than 110 producers, agricultural technology leaders, researchers and public-sector partners gathered Aug. 25 at Paulman Farms near Sutherland for Dirt, Data, Decisions, a producer-focused event designed to connect people working on solutions for nitrogen and irrigation management in Nebraska.

NASA Acres Researcher Dr. Katie Gold Wins 2026 Hewitt Award

NASA Acres is pleased to share that RD&E partner Dr. Katie Gold of Cornell University has received the American Phytopathological Society’s 2026 Hewitt Award, recognizing outstanding and innovative early-career contributions to the control of plant disease.

Gold leads interdisciplinary research combining plant pathology, remote sensing and machine learning to detect crop diseases earlier and translate new sensing technologies into practical tools for growers. Through NASA Acres, her work is helping advance the use of Earth observations for agricultural disease detection and management, including efforts to improve early detection of grapevine diseases.

NGRA Brings Grape Perspective to NASA Meeting

The National Grape Research Alliance (NGRA) highlighted its participation in the 2026 NASA Acres Science Meeting in its most recent newsletter. NGRA President Donnell Brown and Research Chair Nick Dokoozlian of GALLO joined more than 100 researchers, farmers, extension professionals, and industry leaders at the University of Maryland to discuss scientific advances, emerging technologies, and opportunities for NASA Earth observations to better serve American agriculture.

OPPORTUNITIES

NASA's Applied Remote Sensing Training Program (ARSET)

Upcoming Trainings:

Agricultural Flash Drought Detection using Solar-Induced Fluorescence (SIF) and Soil Moisture Data

This ARSET training shows users how to detect and monitor flash droughts using OCO-2 Solar-Induced Fluorescence (SIF) and SMAP soil moisture satellite observations.

SEPT. 24-29, 2026

Geostationary Remote Sensing of Aerosols for Air Quality Applications in North America

This ARSET training provides an overview of TEMPO aerosol products for air quality applications using NOAA's AerosolWatch website.

OCT. 13-15, 2026

Monitoring Surface Water with SAR for Water Resource Management

This ARSET training demonstrates the use of NISAR SAR data and OPERA surface water products to detect, map, and monitor surface water.

OCT. 20-27, 2026

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