Crops & Drought :: Related Web Sites

Agriculture Department, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
This portal site to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization provides information about global agriculture, water, and livestock. It also provides links to various programs run by the Food and Agriculture Organization in sectors that include animal production and health, economics and policy, education, engineering and technology, farming practices, fisheries and aquaculture, food security, food safety and human nutrition, forestry, geographical and regional information, government, information management, natural resources and environment, plant production and protection, and rural and social development.

United States Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service (Home Page)
The Foreign Agricultural Service monitors crops worldwide to provide information needed to make decisions affecting U.S. agriculture, trade policy, and food aid. By using NASA satellite data, crop analysts at the Foreign Agricultural Service have improved crop yield predictions. In particular, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua and Terra satellites provides daily images of crop regions across the globe, while data from the TOPEX/Poseidon and Jason-1 satellites are used to monitor reservoir heights. The Foreign Agricultural Service posts this information in the Crop Explorer. Satellite Information for Agricultural Monitoring provides additional information about the collaboration between NASA and the USDA.

Drought Information Center
The Drought Information Center is a warehouse of all drought sites created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, including current information for the United States and background information about drought and climate monitoring.

National Drought Mitigation Center
Based at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the National Drought Mitigation Center monitors drought across the United States and provides planning and mitigation information to federal, state, and local governments. In collaboration with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Drought Mitigation Center posts a weekly map showing drought-affected regions at the U.S. Drought Monitor.

FEWSNET
Funded by USAID, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET) uses a combination of remote sensing and ground reports to monitor developing countries for signs of approaching famine. FEWSNET was designed to give aid agencies and governments the information needed to respond to emerging food insecurity issues before a full crisis develops. The system focuses largely on African nations, but also monitors parts of Central America and Afghanistan. Current alerts are posted on the home page. In-depth analyses, including satellite maps, are available on regional pages, accessible from the home page.

Crops & Drought :: Related Earth Observatory Articles

Drought: The Creeping Disaster
Drought is defined as an extended period of deficient rainfall relative to the average for a region. This gradual phenomenon may not be as dramatic as an earthquake, a storm, or a flood, but it can have a far greater impact. Advanced planning and improved monitoring may help mitigate the impact of drought.

Dry Times in North America
Scientists are piecing together information from satellite sensors, ground-based rain gauges, shipborne measurements, and historical data from tree rings and dried rivers and lakebeds to build a picture of climate patterns in North America. By understanding when and where drought has occurred in the past, and by looking at the factors that may have caused drought, scientists hope to build better computer models that will allow them to predict drought in the future.

Measuring Vegetation (NDVI & EVI)
Satellite remote sensors have given scientists a way to monitor for drought or disease by measuring vegetation density from space. By watching for fluctuations from the average vegetation density, scientists can see where drought or disease has thinned vegetation or where extra rain has given plant life a boost.

Just Add Water
New irrigation projects in Turkey’s Southeast Anatolia region have brought life to the desert. Satellite images of crop areas taken after water was brought to the desert show fields of green in marked contrast to the brown arid land seen before the completion of the irrigation project. Such imagery are helping crop analysts monitor growing conditions across the world, providing an inexpensive way to detect unusual crop events.

Locust!
The desert locust is ordinarily a quiet, solitary insect, but when conditions are right, the locusts form highly destructive swarms. Locust swarms form when water moistens the desert soil, allowing eggs to hatch and providing extra vegetation for food. When large numbers of locusts are forced together in a small area, they form a swarm that can travel long distances consuming large swaths of vegetation. Remote sensing can identify verdant patches of desert where locust swarms can form, giving governments a way to stop a locust plague literally before it gets off the ground.

Precision Farming
Farmers are getting a boost from technology, including NASA satellite technology, that tells them exactly where their crops are thriving and where more fertilizer or pesticide might be needed. The goal of such precision farming is to improve crop yields (and profits) while reducing the negative impacts of farming on the environment that come from the over-application of chemicals.

Perspective on Plants
Managing land means monitoring its health. For most land managers, that means driving through the land checking on the health or plants or trees. For public land managers, who have charge of millions of acres of land, the task is a little more difficult. NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites offer land managers daily imagery that can reveal the status of vegetation over a broad area, showing managers exactly where problems may be.

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