When people hear the word “NASA,” they don’t typically think about agriculture, said Karen St. Germain, director of NASA’s Earth Science Division, during a visit to Nebraska earlier this week.
While most people might more immediately imagine shuttle launches and the Mars rover, the planet NASA studies more than any other is Earth, St. Germain said.
Currently, 25 NASA satellites ranging in size from a shoebox to a carry-on suitcase orbit the earth, measuring all kinds of things: including precipitation in atmosphere, soil moisture and pollutants in the atmosphere, she said. Two satellites fly together and measure tiny changes in Earth’s gravitational pull caused by water levels rising and falling. NASA scientists have used this data to create a two-week soil moisture outlook, among other tools.
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