How will climate change impact agriculture? This episode explores the need for accurate, continuous and accessible data and computer models to track and predict the challenges farmers face as they adjust to a changing climate. [Co-Producer, 2009]
This is the last installment of the Science for a Hungry World series.
Posted in Uncategorized
Water plays a crucial role in agriculture and food security. This episode shows how the water cycle works and examines the question of how changes in the water cycle could impact agricultural outputs and the role of irrigation. [Supervising Producer, 2009]
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Sponsored by USAID, the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) was designed to help governments and aid agencies assess the need for food aid before a famine develops. This episode describes FEWS NET and looks at how FEWS NET uses NASA data to make decisions on the ground. [Producer/Writer/Editor, 2009]
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NASA remote sensing data is used to measure how much land is used for agriculture and where farms are in relation to population density. This episode explores the transition between native vegetation, farms, and cities. Satellites show where land use changes have been most significant. [Producer/Writer/Editor, 2009]
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Satellites can reveal how many fields have been planted and how a crop is growing, providing a way to predict how much of a given commodity will be available at harvest. Governments and aid agencies use this information to help them make informed decisions about food prices, trade, and the possible need for aid long before harvest. [Producer/Editor credit to Jefferson Beck] [Supervising Producer, 2009]
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NASA satellite remote sensing data provide the world with essential information that enables government organizations to feed the hungry, policymakers to make informed decisions, and aid organizations to provide relief.
This series of videos illustrate the value of the unique perspective gained from space and enforces the need for global agricultural monitoring and accurate forecasting. The six episodes will define the global food system, look at NASA’s role in providing an uninterrupted supply of satellite remote sensing data for agricultural production monitoring, explore the successful partnerships and monitoring tools used to provide an understanding of the global perspective on agriculture, and examine the concepts of land cover and land use change, food security, the availability of water resources, and global agricultural production in a changing climate.
Agriculture is more than growing food and fuel and getting it to market. This first of six episode defines the global food system as an interconnected, dynamic, and complex structure. [Producer/Editor, 2009]
CHECK BACK EACH WEDNESDAY FOR A NEW INSTALLMENT IN THIS SERIES!
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This video was produced for Earth Science Week 2009 (Oct 9-16th). It was one of six videos. The rest of the videos produced by our team can be found here: http://climate.nasa.gov/esw/videoseries/
Water is all around us, and its importance to nearly every natural process on earth cannot be underestimated. It is vital to life, but it is also tightly coupled to climate, helping to carry heat from the tropics to higher latitudes. Changes to the water cycle affect climate and vice versa. The water cycle is the movement of water around the Earth in all its forms. Imagine the path a molecule of water might take after it evaporates from the salty ocean. It might condense and return to the ocean as rainfall, or it might move through the atmosphere as water vapor and fall onto the land surface as freshwater rain or snow. Snow may become part of an ice cap or glacier, where the water molecule could remain for centuries, or it might soon melt and enter the soil or a stream. Rain wets the soil, becoming available for plants to use. The water molecule may drain into an aquifer, where it could remain for many years before feeding into a stream. Streams flow into lakes and rivers, but along the way the water molecule might be captured for use industry, agriculture, or drinking and other domestic needs. Ultimately, the water molecule will return to the ocean where the journey begins anew. This video explains what the water cycle is and how important it is to life on earth.
Posted in NASA
This summer we are working on a few really interesting projects. In mid-September look for a six episode podcast series and Google Earth Tour about remote sensing and the global food system. We’ll talk to NASA scientists to find out how satellite images are helping farmers, businesses and governments around the world predict who will have productive yields, who won’t, when to harvest, and how to predict where to distribute food aid in the immediate future. The Google Earth Tour will present a case study of the Global Food Crisis of 2008, explaining why we saw such a sharp increase in commodity prices in 2008, what the contributing factors were, and how we can prevent such a thing from happening again. The podcast series will be published on nasa.gov, facebook, YouTube and the Earth Observatory. Check back in September!
October 11-17th is Earth Science Week! Sponsored by the American Geological Institute, the theme of this year’s Earth Science Week is “Understanding Climate.” To help celebrate, NASA Goddard is producing a podcast series about oceans and climate, plus a few other exciting activities like live webcasts and educational materials.
In the meantime, be sure to check out our YouTube channel, NASAexplorer. It has videos covering everything from Apollo to Earth Science. Also, check out the Earth Observatory blog, Journey to Galapagos, by NASA oceanographer Gene Feldman (http://tinyurl.com/kwjjbw).
Posted in NASA
Come to the National Academy of Sciences auditorium on Tuesday, June 23rd at 5:15 pm for an exciting evening with NASA scientists and a stunning performance by Bella Gaia violinist Kenji Williams.
This free event will feature lively discussion of four scientists, and will be moderated by Kathy Sullivan of Ohio State University. Featured scientists include Jim Yoder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Mass.; Waleed Abdalati, Colorado State University, Boulder, Colo.; Christopher Justice, University of Maryland at College Park, Md.; and J. Marshall Shepherd, University of Georgia, Athens, Ga.
The scientists will discuss new developments in research and benefits to society made possible by the Earth system science approach pioneered by the agency during the last 20 years. Topics covered will include oceans, wildfires, frozen areas of earth, weather and climate.
Contact me for more info!
Posted in NASA | Tags: Earth System Science, ESS@20, NAS, NASA
On April 29, 2009, NASA’s Earth Observatory (www.earthobservatory.nasa.gov) celebrated 10 years of sharing beautiful images of our home planet. This video commemorates the accomplishments of the Earth Observatory team and celebrates the success of the site. [Producer/Editor, 2009]
Posted in NASA | Tags: Earth Observatory, NASA
