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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2018

New Crop Selection

For extended space flight, reliable food supplies are a necessity. Most of the food products consumed by astronauts today are stored for flight via freeze drying. Fresh food is needed to supplement known national deficiencies in the stored food diet (Cooper et al.). This is so because stored foods can lose nutritional value. Fresh food is the answer to the nutritional demands of space flight. Kennedy Space Center's Utilization and Life Sciences Office (UB-A), under the Exploration Research and Technology Program (UB), conducts research on plant growth and development under International Space Station (ISS) conditions. UB-A analyzes the growth responses of leafy greens in microgravity and through the manipulation of environmental conditions (CO2 levels, light intensity, relative humidity, and water delivery). By manipulating growing conditions researchers can optimize food production using minimal/restricted resources. The New Crop Selection experiments are testing the suitability of leafy crops to ISS conditions. Results from this study showed that 'Dragoon' Lettuce and 'Red Russian' Kale have the largest fresh mass.

Bhuiyan, Ruqayah H.↗
NASA NTRS1974

The economic value of remote sensing of earth resources from space: An ERTS overview and the value of continuity of service. Volume 3: Intensive use of living resources, agriculture. Part 2: Distribution effects

The results of an investigation of the value of improving information for forecasting future crop harvests are described. A theoretical model is developed to calculate the value of increased speed of availablitiy of that information. The analysis of U.S. domestic wheat consumption was implemented. New estimates of a demand function for wheat and of a cost of storage function were involved, along with a Monte Carlo simulation for the wheat spot and future markets and a model of market determinations of wheat inventories. Results are shown to depend critically on the accuracy of current and proposed measurement techniques.

Bradford, D. F.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Environmental microbiology as related to planetary quarantine

The mechanistic basis of the synergetic effect of combined heat and radiation on microbial destruction was analyzed and results show that radiation intensity, temperature, and relative humidity are the determining factors. Dry heat resistance evaluation for selected bacterial spore crops indicates that different strains of Bacillus stearothermophilus demonstrate marked differences in resistance. Preliminary work to determine the effects of storage time, suspending medium, storage temperature and spore crop cleaning procedures on dry heat survival characteristics of Bacillus subtilis var. Niger, and dry heat resistance of natural microflora in soil particles is also reported.

Pflug, I. J.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Enabling Space Biological Knowledge Discovery Through Image and Video Data Sharing

Increased biomedical risks and challenges associated with deep space missions and experiments (cis-Lunar, Mars transit/surface) require new knowledge discovery and development of novel ecosystems. Supporting distant and long-duration missions and experiments requires biological data (from yeast, microbes, fruit flies, C. elegans, plants, crops, rodents, humans) be findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable (FAIR), and maximally open-access. As data-intensive, bioinformatic, meta-analytical, and computer-assisted approaches continue to be a centerpiece of modern research, the NASA Biological and Physical Sciences division is expanding its Open Science capabilities beyond NASA GeneLab. The NASA Ames Life Sciences Data Archive (ALSDA) is a repository which is responsible for collecting and access to space biological imagery and video, alongside tabular and environmental data. In this presentation, we will discuss strategies dealing with archiving, curating, and accessibility of images from very distinct imaging modalities (e.g., micro-computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, photographic images of plants, fluorescence microscopy, behavioral videos, etc.). There are two main challenges: 1. Open-source data storage and 2. Metadata related to the imagery-video. Both have been solved by leveraging two existing open-source systems. For data storage, ALSDA is utilizing components through the Open Microscopy Environment (OME), which can read most imaging proprietary formats and display on a web interface complex multidimensional images (Z stack, multi-channel, temporal, spectral). Most technical metadata from imaging modalities are captured seamlessly. For metadata capturing experimental details, ALSDA (like GeneLab) uses the ISA-Tab specification which relies on the ISA data model to order and classify metadata. The ISA data model uses a tree structure with three files to capture the metadata: The top layer is the Investigations file, the second layer is the Study file(s), and the last layer is the Assay file(s). We believe such an approach may be useful for other types of image research data from other investigators in the AGU community.

imaging↗
NASA NTRS1973

Remote sensing for monitoring a water transportation project - The California Aqueduct

Land use changes were investigated on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, California, an arid region presently importing water via the California Aqueduct, utilizing airphoto mosaics (1957), high-altitude photography (1971), and Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS-1) data (1972). Attention was focused on land use characteristics for the three dates, changes which had occurred, and the sequence of land use category change. Research indicated that water importation was contributing to an overall pattern of regional change trending from an oil-producing and grazing area into a cropping region. Furthermore, the general pattern of specific category change was trending in the direction of higher economic intensity land use succession.

Estes, J. E.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Computer-aided boundary delineation of agricultural lands

The National Agricultural Statistics Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) presently uses labor-intensive aerial photographic interpretation techniques to divide large geographical areas into manageable-sized units for estimating domestic crop and livestock production. Prototype software, the computer-aided stratification (CAS) system, was developed to automate the procedure, and currently runs on a Sun-based image processing system. With a background display of LANDSAT Thematic Mapper and United States Geological Survey Digital Line Graph data, the operator uses a cursor to delineate agricultural areas, called sampling units, which are assigned to strata of land-use and land-cover types. The resultant stratified sampling units are used as input into subsequent USDA sampling procedures. As a test, three counties in Missouri were chosen for application of the CAS procedures. Subsequent analysis indicates that CAS was five times faster in creating sampling units than the manual techniques were.

Cheng, Thomas D.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Distinct Influences of Land Cover and Land Management on Seasonal Climate

Anthropogenic land use and land cover change is primarily represented in climate model simulations through prescribed transitions from natural vegetation to cropland or pasture. However, recent studies have demonstrated that land management practices, especially irrigation, have distinct climate impacts. Here we disentangle the seasonal climate impacts of land cover change and irrigation across areas of high agricultural intensity using climate simulations with three different land surface scenarios: (1) natural vegetation cover/no irrigation, (2) year 2000 crop cover/no irrigation, and (3) year 2000 crop cover and irrigation rates. We find that irrigation substantially amplifies land cover‐induced climate impacts but has opposing effects across certain regions. Irrigation mostly causes surface cooling, which substantially amplifies land cover change‐induced cooling in most regions except over Central, West, and South Asia, where it reverses land cover change‐induced warming. Despite increases in net surface radiation in some regions, this cooling is associated with enhancement of latent relative to sensible heat fluxes by irrigation. Similarly, irrigation substantially enhances the wetting influence of land cover change over several regions including West Asia and the Mediterranean. The most notable contrasting impacts of these forcings on precipitation occur over South Asia, where irrigation offsets the wetting influence of land cover during the monsoon season. Differential changes in regional circulations and moist static energy induced by these forcings contribute to their precipitation impacts and are associated with differential changes in surface and tropospheric temperature gradients and moisture availability. These results emphasize the importance of including irrigation forcing to evaluate the combined impacts of land surface changes for attributing historical climatic changes and managing future impacts.

Singh, Deepti↗
NASA NTRS2020

Projecting exposure to extreme climate impact events across six event categories and three spatial scales

The extent and impact of climate‐related extreme events depend on the underlying meteorological, hydrological, or climatological drivers as well as on human factors such as land use or population density. Here we quantify the pure effect of historical and future climate change on the exposure of land and population to extreme climate impact events using an unprecedentedly large ensemble of harmonized climate impact simulations from the Inter‐Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project phase 2b. Our results indicate that global warming has already more than doubled both the global land area and the global population annually exposed to all six categories of extreme events considered: river floods, tropical cyclones, crop failure, wildfires, droughts, and heatwaves. Global warming of 2°C relative to preindustrial conditions is projected to lead to a more than five‐fold increase in cross‐category aggregate exposure globally. Changes in exposure are unevenly distributed, with tropical and subtropical regions facing larger increases than higher latitudes. The largest increases in overall exposure are projected for the population of South Asia.

climate‐related extreme events↗
NASA NTRS1991

Compiling and editing agricultural strata boundaries with remotely sensed imagery and map attribute data using graphics workstations

The USDA presently uses labor-intensive photographic interpretation procedures to delineate large geographical areas into manageable size sampling units for the estimation of domestic crop and livestock production. Computer software to automate the boundary delineation procedure, called the computer-assisted stratification and sampling (CASS) system, was developed using a Hewlett Packard color-graphics workstation. The CASS procedures display Thematic Mapper (TM) satellite digital imagery on a graphics display workstation as the backdrop for the onscreen delineation of sampling units. USGS Digital Line Graph (DLG) data for roads and waterways are displayed over the TM imagery to aid in identifying potential sample unit boundaries. Initial analysis conducted with three Missouri counties indicated that CASS was six times faster than the manual techniques in delineating sampling units.

Cheng, Thomas D.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Hyperspectral Imagery Data for Remote Sensing

In order for remotely sensed data to be useful in a practical application for agriculture, an information product must be made available to the land management decision maker within 24 to 48 hours of data acquisition. Hyperspectral imagery data is proving useful in differentiation of plant species potentially allowing identification of non-healthy areas and pest infestations within crop fields that may require the farm managers attention. Currently however, extracting the needed site-specific feature information from the vast spectral content of large hyperspectral image files is a labor intensive and time consuming task prohibiting the necessary fast turnaround from raw data to final product. We illustrate the methods, techniques and technologies necessary to produce field-level information products from imagery and other related spatial data that are useful to the farm manager for specific decisions that must be made throughout the growing season. We also propose to demonstrate the cost effectiveness of an integrated system, from acquisition to final product distribution, to utilize imagery for decisions on a working farm in conjunction with a commercial agricultural services company and their crop scouts. The demonstration farm is Chesapeake Farms, a 3000 acre research farm in Chestertown, Maryland on the Eastern Shore and is owned by the DuPont Corporation.

Garegnani, Jerry↗
NASA NTRS1984

Remote sensing of rice fields and sea pollution by SIR-B

Sensor calibration, rice fields, and sea pollution are to be investigated with respect to shuttle imaging radar-B (SIR-B). It is planned that the resolution characteristics of the SIR-B be evaluated, the sidelobe characteristics of the SIR-B be investigated, and the relationship between backscatter cross section and image intensity be established. The microwave-scattering characteristics of rice fields are to be studied using SIR-B data. The possibility of classifying crops from SIR-B data is to be explored. The characteristics of the radar image of oil-like surface films under several sea surface conditions are to be determined. The absolute measurement capability of the sea surface scattering cross section is to be estimated using the SIR.

Fugono, N.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Developing a Customizable Composite Drought Index for Pakistan

Pakistan has experienced intense agricultural droughts in recent years, with the southern provinces experiencing the most severe drought conditions. These prolonged dry conditions often result in failed crop production, impacting families and communities. To reduce the impacts a drought may have on a community by identifying dry conditions, drought indices are used. A customizable composite drought index (CDI) is developed to improve the spatial and temporal understanding of historical agricultural droughts that have affected Pakistan. An in depth analysis using 9 input variables will provide information regarding the most important variables for differing locations. This framework can enhance drought monitoring and forecasting systems. The performance of the CDI will be evaluated by using production data from different crops that have significant economic value in Pakistan. These crops include wheat, rice, maize, cotton and barley. The expected relationship between the CDI and crop production would be to see production decrease when the CDI decreases, an indication that crops failed due to drought. The CDI is made more precise by evaluating only agricultural areas using the months of the growing season for each specific crop. This will allow for a custom drought index to be developed based on crop type and geographic location that only uses the most important variables, while still capturing the full extent of historical drought.

Caily Schwartz↗
NASA NTRS2023

Developing a Hail and Wind Damage Swath Event Database from Daily MODIS True Color Imagery and Storm Reports for Impact Analysis and Applications

Hail and damaging winds are two threats associated with intense and severe thunderstorms that traverse the Midwest and Great Plains during the primary growing season. In certain severe thunderstorm events, large swaths of agricultural crops are impacted, allowing the damage to be viewed from multiple satellite remote sensing platforms. Previous studies have focused on analyzing individual hail and wind damage swaths (HWDSs) using satellite remote sensing, but these swaths have never been officially archived or documented. This lack of documentation has made it difficult to analyze the spatial extent and temporal frequency of HWDSs from year to year. This study utilizes daily true color imagery from MODIS aboard NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites and daily local storm reports from the Storm Prediction Center to build a database of HWDSs occurring in the months of May through August, for years 2000 through 2020. This database identified 1,646 HWDSs in 12 states throughout the Midwest and Great Plains, confirmed through a combination of archived severe weather warnings, radar information, and official storm reports. For each entry in the HWDS database, a geospatial outline is provided along with the most likely date of first visible damage from MODIS imagery as well as the physical characteristics and time of occurrence estimated from available warnings. This study also provides a summary of the radar characteristics for a portion of the database. This database will further the understanding of severe weather damage by hail and wind to agriculture to help understand the frequency of these events and assist in mapping the impacted areas.

Climatology↗
NASA NTRS1996

Design of Plant Gas Exchange Experiments in a Variable Pressure Growth Chamber

Sustainable human presence in extreme environments such as lunar and martian bases will require bioregenerative components to human life support systems where plants are used for generation of oxygen, food, and water. Reduced atmospheric pressures will be used to minimize mass and engineering requirements. Few studies have assessed the metabolic and developmental responses of plants to reduced pressure and varied oxygen atmospheres. The first tests of hypobaric pressures on plant gas exchange and biomass production at the Johnson Space Center will be initiated in January 1996 in the Variable Pressure Growth Chamber (VPGC), a large, closed plant growth chamber rated for 10.2 psi. Experiments were designed and protocols detailed for two complete growouts each of lettuce and wheat to generate a general database for human life support requirements and to answer questions about plant growth processes in reduced pressure and varied oxygen environments. The central objective of crop growth studies in the VPGC is to determine the influence of reduced pressure and reduced oxygen on the rates of photosynthesis, dark respiration, evapotranspiration and biomass production of lettuce and wheat. Due to the constraint of one experimental unit, internal controls, called pressure transients, will be used to evaluate rates of CO2 uptake, O2 evolution, and H2O generation. Pressure transients will give interpretive power to the results of repeated growouts at both reduced and ambient pressures. Other experiments involve the generation of response functions to partial pressures of O2 and CO2 and to light intensity. Protocol for determining and calculating rates of gas exchange have been detailed. In order to build these databases and implement the necessary treatment combinations in short time periods, specific requirements for gas injections and removals have been defined. A set of system capability checks will include determination of leakage rates conducted prior to the actual crop growouts. Schedules of experimental events for lettuce and wheat are outlined and include replications in time of diurnal routines, pressure transients, variable pO2, pO2/pCO2 ratio, and light intensity responses.

Corey, Kenneth A.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Thailand national programme of the Earth Resources Technology Satellite

The author has identified the following significant results. Intensive interpretation of ERTS-1 scenes covering agricultural regions near Bangkok, backed up by ground surveys and low altitude reconnaissance flights, has established that the major agricultural crops of Thailand can be positively differentiated, and in most cases identified, after some experience has been gained, by examination of ERTS-1 imagery. A country-wide survey of remaining forest cover will be completed during 1974. MSS band 5 and band 7 and white positive transparencies were found to be the most desirable medium for identification of geological structure. The Royal Irrigation Department conducted a pilot study to examine the possibility of determining water reservoir capacity from surface area measurements derived from ERTS-1 images.

Cheosakul, P.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Modeling and control for closed environment plant production systems

A computer program was developed to study multiple crop production and control in controlled environment plant production systems. The program simulates crop growth and development under nominal and off-nominal environments. Time-series crop models for wheat (Triticum aestivum), soybean (Glycine max), and white potato (Solanum tuberosum) are integrated with a model-based predictive controller. The controller evaluates and compensates for effects of environmental disturbances on crop production scheduling. The crop models consist of a set of nonlinear polynomial equations, six for each crop, developed using multivariate polynomial regression (MPR). Simulated data from DSSAT crop models, previously modified for crop production in controlled environments with hydroponics under elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, were used for the MPR fitting. The model-based predictive controller adjusts light intensity, air temperature, and carbon dioxide concentration set points in response to environmental perturbations. Control signals are determined from minimization of a cost function, which is based on the weighted control effort and squared-error between the system response and desired reference signal.

NASA Discipline Life Support Systems↗
NASA NTRS1981

Combining land use data acquired from Landsat with soil map data

A method currently used to derive agrophysical units (APUs), i.e., geographical areas having definable/comparable agronomic and physical parameters which reflect a range in agricultural use and management, is discussed with reference to results obtained for South Dakota and an area in China. The method consists of combining agricultural land use data acquired from Landsat with soil map data. The resulting map units are soil associations characterized by cropland use intensity, and they can be used to identify major cropland areas and to develop a rating reflecting the relative potential of the soils in the delineated area for crop production, as well as to update small-scale soil maps.

Westin, F. C.↗
NASA NTRS2024

Assessing the effects of landcover and land use change on wildfire exposure and risk to communities and olive orchards in Mediterranean landscapes

A growing concern in the Mediterranean region is that recent landcover and land use change is increasing wildfire risk, or the exposure and impacts of wildfire to valued resources. However, the magnitude of these effects is not well understood given the widely diverse landscapes of communities, natural vegetation, and agricultural land. In this study, we use wildfire simulation modeling to assess how landcover and land use changes in three areas of southern Greece have affected exposure of- and fire risk to- communities and economically important permanent agriculture such as Olea europaea (European olive) orchards. We mapped agricultural and wildland fuel change from 2000 to 2020 and simulated fuel scenarios in agricultural land to assess the impacts of agricultural land practices, such as understory clearing, on fire risk. We show that wildfire exposure and risk to communities and permanent agriculture has increased in some areas due to natural fuel densification and decreased in other areas, mainly due to agricultural land expansion. These results highlight that wildfire exposure and risk are driven by local conditions including density and location of communities, spatial arrangement of natural fuels and agricultural land, and agricultural land use practices. Human settlement burn probability and modeled permanent crop loss increased with greater unmaintained agricultural area in all study areas, emphasizing the importance of agricultural land maintenance practices, such as understory clearing, to reduce fuel continuity and fire intensity. Ultimately, quantitative fire risk analyses such as this study provide a useful framework to identify areas of concern where either fuel mitigation or landowner incentives to maintain agricultural land in a less-burnable condition could be applied.

Aaron M Sparks↗