Landsat: A Space Age Water Gauge
Water specialists Rick Allen, Bill Kramber and Tony Morse have created an innovative satellite-based method that maps agricultural water consumption. The team uses Landsat thermal band data to measure the amount of water evaporating from the soil and transpiring from plants' leaves. Evapotranspiring water absorbs energy, so farm fields consuming more water appear cooler in the thermal band. The Landsat observations provide an objective way for water managers to assess on a field-by-field basis how much water agricultural growers are using. Landsat is a joint program of NASA and the US Geological Survey.
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Agricultural Aquatic SciencesAgricultural EngineeringAgricultural Plant ScienceAgricultural scienceAgricultureAtmosphereAtmospheric Water VaporCrop/Plant YieldsEarthEarth ScienceEdited FeatureEvaporationevapotranspirationFarm StructuresHDTVIrrigationLand useLandsatNarratedSoil Moisture/Water ContentSoilsVoice Over Talent
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Stock Footage Courtesy of Visionaries, Inc.
Video editor
- Stefanie Misztal (UMBC)
Producer
- Jennifer A. Shoemaker (UMBC)
Narrator
- Jefferson Beck (KBRwyle)
Videographer
- Jennifer A. Shoemaker (UMBC)