NASA Harvest News
As COVID-19 continues to touch nearly every aspect of our daily lives, the impacts that the virus is having on agriculture and food production are a primary concern given the global, interconnected nature of the food system. A need exists for easily-accessible tools that enable agricultural stakeholders to gain a comprehensive understanding of COVID-19 impacts as they relate to food availability. Under P.I. Dr. Mike Humber, NASA Harvest developed the NASA Harvest COVID-19 Dashboard in an effort to help stakeholders quantify the pandemic’s impact on agricultural production and food security worldwide. Supported by NASA’s Rapid Response and Novel Research in Earth Science Program and backed by multiple COVID-19 and satellite datasets, the system will be maintained over the coming months and is currently accepting additional data submissions.
Learn more and email info@nasaharvest.org to contribute.
Published this month in Nature Food by NASA Harvest partners Dr. Jillian Deines, Dr. David Lobell, and Stefania Di Tommmaso of Stanford University, “Changes in the drought sensitivity of US maize yields” explores the impacts of climate change on drought frequency and maize production in key agricultural areas throughout the U.S.
The El Nino/La Nina climate cycle has a massive impact on the temperature and precipitation of many regions throughout the world. A recent study by NASA Harvest partner Dr. John Bolten looked specifically at the impact of the cycle on agricultural productivity in Africa and the possibility of using the cycle's timeline to predict future crop yields.
The ongoing military conflict in Eastern Ukraine has caused significant amounts of agricultural and industrial change in the region. Harvest Partner, Dr. Sergii Skakun, was recently awarded a grant to use EO data to study the scale of the change over the life of the conflict while also quantifying the extent of crop rotation and accompanying environmental impacts.
Improvements in remotely-sensed data availability and computational capabilities has led to a plethora of new applications in the agricultural field. Advancements in the field are being curated by Drs. Mehdi Hosseini, Ritvik Sahajpal, and Hannah Kerner in Remote Sensing Special Issue Recent Advances for Crop Mapping and Monitoring Using Remote Sensing Data.
Spearheaded by Dr. Catherine Nakalembe in coordination with international collaborators, Discoveries in Remote Sensing is seeking innovative work on “remote sensing applications, methods, technology, theory, discussions, and ethics” produced by research teams embodying the Section’s goal of trans-disciplinary research and diverse perspectives.
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Requests for Manuscripts
Edited by Dr. Alyssa Whitcraft and Dr. Ritvik Sahajpal, the Special Issue "Cropland Carbon" in the journal Land will focus on cropland carbon and how it can be impacted by regenerative agriculture (RA) techniques. This Special Issue is seeking submissions focused on the modeling of carbon in RA systems; the use of EO to monitor how crop productivity is affected by RA management techniques; linking climate change, food security, and soil degradation in traditional vs RA systems; and creating baseline spatio-temporal datasets on RA management practices.
Manuscripts are accepted through March 31, 2021.
"Recent Advances for Crop Mapping and Monitoring Using Remote Sensing Data" is a Special Issue being published in Remote Sensing and edited by Dr. Mehdi Hosseini, Dr. Ritvik Sahajpal,and Dr. Hannah Kerner. This special issue is accepting submissions that demonstrate recent advances in EO applications in agriculture including "crop type mapping; crop yield prediction; cover crop mapping; crop residue monitoring; and crop water stress and disease monitoring." Papers utilizing advanced remote sensing techniques like multiresolution data fusion; SAR and optical data integration; and SAR polarimetry and interferometry are particularly welcome.
Manuscripts are accepted through Feb 28, 2022
The new Section "Discoveries in Remote Sensing" was created with the goal of promoting diversity in science. It seeks innovative work on "remote sensing applications, technology, discussions, and ethics" produced by research teams embodying the Section's goal of transdisciplinary research and diverse perspectives. In an effort to broaden the field of submitted papers, the co-editors are offering a “Get one, Give one” where they match every paid manuscript accepted in the section with a processing fee waiver for another article. The editorial board is comprised of: Dr. Catherine Lilian Nakalembe, Dr. Karen Joyce, Ms. Morgan A. Crowley, Dr. Kate C. Fickas, Dr. Cristina Gómez, Dr. Meghan Halabisky, Dr. Michelle Kalamandeen, and Dr. Gopika Suresh.
The submission deadline for the “Get one” paper is August 31, 2021 and the submission deadline for the “Give one” paper is December 31, 2021. To get involved with the “Get one, Give one” offer, email cris.wang@mdpi.com.
Upcoming Events
Dr. Catherine Nakalembe (NASA Harvest Africa Lead), gave a presentation and participated in a discussion on climate adaptation measures at the UN's FCCC 2020 Climate Dialogues on November 30th. The virtual meeting continues this week and registration for the remainder of the 10 day conference is still open and free of charge.
The AGU 2020 Fall Meeting will be held virtually this year. NASA Harvest's Alyssa Whitcraft will co-convene a session on "Remote sensing applications for assessing the impacts of COVID-19 on the UN Sustainable Development Goals and helping with mitigation response", our Africa Lead Catherine Nakalembe is co-convening a session titled "Earth Observation Applications to Agriculture and Food Security System Shocks" with partners at SERVIR, FAO, and USAID, and Harvest's Hannah Kerner is leading the "Machine Learning for Planetary Science" session. NASA's Applied Sciences Water Resources Program is also sponsoring the "Remote Sensing Applications for Water Management" session.