Eyes on Earth: Agriculture
Farmers, land managers, researchers, and others in the agriculture industry can use remote sensing satellites to make data-driven decisions. These in turn can affect the food supply for people around the world.
Episode 111 – Mendenhall Fellow’s Drought Forecasting
In this episode, we spoke to Mikael Hiestand, a Mendenhall Postdoctoral Fellow. Using algorithms developed at EROS, Mikael is working on near-term drought forecasting. With synthetic Landsat data, he found that predicting evapotranspiration could be used as a means of drought prediction and monitoring. The Mendenhall Fellowship allows people who have just completed their PhD an opportunity to work on research with USGS scientists and prepare for their career.
Guest: Mikeal Hiestand, USGS Mendenhall Postdoctoral Fellow and Research Physical Scientist
Host: Tom Adamson (contractor for USGS EROS)
Release date: Monday, January 22, 2024
Episode 109 – Fall 2023 EROS Poster Session
In this episode, we hear from several EROS staff members and university graduate students who took part in our Fall Poster Session. Lively conversations filled the EROS atrium during the hour-long event. Participants got to learn from one another as they shared their work. We talked to a few of them to get quick summaries of their research.
Guests: Belinda Apili (graduate student, South Dakota State University), Khushboo Jain (graduate student, University of South Dakota), Naeem Malik (graduate student, South Dakota State University), Stefanie Kagone (ASRC Federal Data Solutions, contractor to USGS EROS), Abby Miller (C2G, contractor to USGS EROS), Steve Boyte (USGS EROS), Sakshi Saraf (graduate student, University of South Dakota), Zack Schild (graduate student, University of South Dakota), Ubaid Janjua (graduate student, South Dakota State University)
Host: Tom Adamson (contractor for USGS EROS)
Release date: Monday, December 4, 2023
Episode 42 – Rangelands of the U.S.
In this episode, we hear how Landsat helps monitor vulnerable rangelands in the Western U.S. The extensive rangelands across the Western United States are threatened by invasive grasses, climate change, and altered fire regimes that can disturb the landscape. The largely semi-arid lands are also important for the survival of species that need undisturbed sagebrush ecosystems to thrive. But most satellite-based land cover datasets don’t offer the kind of detail needed to track small but ecologically meaningful shifts in vegetation that can alter fire regimes and improve habitats. In this episode of Eyes on Earth, we hear about how new EROS data products help fill in that gap.
Guest: Matt Rigge, Research Physical Scientist, USGS EROS Center
Host: John Hult
Release date: January 25, 2021
Episode 37 – Insuring West Africa’s Crops
In this episode, we hear how EROS data streams could be used to encourage agriculture production in West Africa.The Green Revolution leaned on fertilizers, drought-resistant seeds and other modern innovations to boost agricultural production across much of the planet in the second half of the 20th Century. But many of those innovations never reached West Africa, partially because the lack of social safety nets and crop insurance made such investments too risky. On this episode of Eyes on Earth, we hear about a new product called index insurance that could help encourage yield-boosting investments by small holder farmers in West Africa, and how EROS data might be used to refine and improve the product.
Guest: Chris Funk, USGS EROS, Sari Lucille Blakeley and Greg Husak, University of California-Santa Barbara
Host: John Hult
Release date: November 2, 2020
Episode 12 – Plant Health via Satellite (NDVI)
In this episode of Eyes on Earth, we talk to Jesslyn Brown about the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), a tool that uses the broader electromagnetic spectrum to estimate plant health. A farmer at the foot of a corn stalk can tell how well the plant is faring. That same farmer might survey his entire field for crop health. But assessing the health of crops or forests at regional, national, and international scales requires remote sensing, most often via satellite.
Guests: Jesslyn Brown, Research Physical Scientist
Host: John Hult
Release date: Dec. 16, 2019
Episode 9 – Famine Early Warning
In this episode of Eyes on Earth, we hear from an EROS climate scientist who works with the Network to predict drought and famine. Nearly 85 million people around the world are currently considered “food insecure,” and that figure continues to grow. Remote sensing technology enables scientists to feed data into the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), which in turn can issue alerts that guide the distribution of humanitarian aid.
Guest: Chris Funk, USGS EROS Research Geographer
Host: Steve Young
Producer: Brian Hauge
Release date: Nov. 18, 2019
Episode 8 – Assessing America’s Cropland
In this episode, Dave Johnson with NASS discusses how Landsat can identify different crops, providing a valuable economic tool for agriculture. Every year, the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) uses data from satellites like Landsat to estimate crop types and crop yields in the United States. The result is the Cropland Data Layer (CDL), which offers an annual look at more than 100 crop categories across the country.
Guest: Dave Johnson, USDA Senior Geographer with NASS
Host: Steve Young
Release date: Nov. 6, 2019
Episode 7 – Training Iraqi Scientists
In this episode, we hear about a recent training session at EROS for Iraq’s Ministry of Water Resources. EROS scientists track water availability and crop health around the world to help governments and non-profits manage resources and stave off food shortages. But EROS also teaches international scientists to track those resources themselves.
Guest: Saud Amer, USGS Water Resources Specialist
Host: John Hult
Release date: Nov. 4, 2019