Identifying drought-prone areas and developing an early warning system for crop damage. Protecting biologically diverse areas of the National Park System with a trail monitoring tool. Confirming flooded areas to better inform decision-makers during a disaster.
Each program area supports a variety of projects that utilize Earth observations to identify challenges around the world and create innovative solutions. Our portfolio demonstrates the benefits of using NASA Earth observations to enhance decision-making and improve life on Earth.
Sort by program area to find specific projects or explore them all below.
Charon Birkett
Description: This project provides a range of surface water products related to lakes, reservoirs, and wetlands in a near real time framework. It also offers a longer-term set of observations via integration of historical data sets. Products include water level, water extent, hypsometry and bathymetry...
Eric Hunt
Project Description: We are using the methodology outlined in Christian et al. (2019) to develop a global flash drought climatology using evaporative stress anomalies from the NASA MERRA-2 and ERA-Interim reanalysis datasets. We are also examining specific case studies of flash drought that would...
Jack Eggleston
Project description: This primary goal of this project is to develop the workflow for operational space-based streamflow (discharge) measurement. The Alaska DOT and National Weather Service Alaska-Pacific River Forecast Center are long-term partners of the USGS and are representative of the hundreds of government...
Yu Zhang
Project description: Summary: Improve reservoir inflow forecasts by Texas river authorities and the Army Corps of Engineers by integrating NASA satellite precipitation estimates and soil moisture products. The goal is to improve precipitation estimates in areas NEXRAD coverage is poor and develop more reliable, real-time...
Rosemary Knight
Project Description: The goal of this work is to improve the quality and usefulness of groundwater models by incorporating information derived from interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data and airborne electromagnetic (AEM) data. These improved groundwater models can then be adopted by water agencies to...
McKenzie Skiles
Description: It is critical to accurately model the timing and magnitude of snowmelt in the Colorado River Basin, where melt of the seasonal mountain snowpack dominates regional hydrology, populations are increasing, and snow melt patterns are shifting. This project addresses the limitations of temperature...
Nazmus Sazib
Project description: The project aims at improving the accuracy and resolution of the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA-FAS) root-zone soil moisture (RZSM) information by utilizing alternative NASA resources, including hydrologic models, forcing data, and satellite-based soil moisture data sets. The main objective...
Enrique Vivoni
Project Description: An ongoing drought in the Colorado River Basin has reduced levels in Lake Mead to the extent of triggering a reduction in Arizona’s Colorado River supply allocation under the Drought Contingency Plan agreement. Arizona State University and the Central Arizona Project have partnered...
California's groundwater future: Relating long-term subsidence and consumption in the Central Valley
John Reager
Project description: The aim of this project is to develop a groundwater numerical model using groundwater depletion from GRACE, land subsidence from InSAR, and in situ hydrologic data from U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and California Department Water Resources (CA-DWR). The model, calibrated to GRACE groundwater...
Austin Troy