Agricultural Geography

Dark green lines form the forested windbreaks in Hokkaido, Japan. Image: NASA.

A View of Hokkaido’s Lattice Windbreaks From Space

October 18, 2020May 7, 2020 by Caitlin Dempsey

The landscape of the Konsen Plateau viewed from above looks like a lattice with crisscrossing lines of narrow strips of forest.

Three moments in a tumultuous year for farming north of St. Louis, MO, as seen in NASA-USGS Landsat 8 data. On the left is May 7, 2019, as heavy rains delayed planting for many farms. Sept 12, 2019, in the middle, shows bright green signifying growing vegetation, although with a fair amount of brown, bare fields. On the right, Oct. 14, 2019, the light brown indicates harvested fields while darker brown are fields that have not been seeded or fallow all summer. Credits: NASA

Monitoring Crop Production Via Satellite

December 6, 2020December 28, 2019 by Elizabeth Borneman

To cope with ever-changing agricultural needs and conditions, the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (or NASS) uses data from Landsat to monitor crops in the contiguous United States.

Satellite Data Shows That Tilling Less Leads to Healthier Soils

March 12, 2021December 7, 2019 by Caitlin Dempsey

Researchers applied machine learning to satellite-derived datasets to to analyze tillage practices and crop yields in the US Corn Belt between 2005 and 2017.