{"id":39625,"date":"2015-02-02T11:34:49","date_gmt":"2015-02-02T17:34:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=39625"},"modified":"2015-02-03T10:51:05","modified_gmt":"2015-02-03T16:51:05","slug":"nasa-satellite-will-improve-drought-forcasting-with-a-little-help-from-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2015\/02\/02\/nasa-satellite-will-improve-drought-forcasting-with-a-little-help-from-texas\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA Satellite Will Improve Drought Forcasting With a Little Help From Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_39628\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"The SMAP satellite will monitor drought levels around the globe. \" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2015\/02\/SMAP2.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-39628\" alt=\"The SMAP satellite will monitor drought levels around the globe. \" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2015\/02\/SMAP2-300x238.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"238\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2015\/02\/SMAP2-300x238.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2015\/02\/SMAP2-620x493.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2015\/02\/SMAP2.jpg 786w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Courtesy of NASA<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The SMAP satellite will monitor drought levels around the globe.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A satellite launched by NASA over the weekend could help people around the world tackle the challenges of drought. Researchers at the University of Texas will<a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/11\/24\/how-underground-sensors-in-texas-will-help-nasa-predict-drought-and-floods\/\"> play a part in that mission <\/a>that could also help forecast flooding and allow officials to better manage reservoir water supplies.<\/p>\n<p>The SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive)\u00a0satellite that launched on Saturday will carry two devices to track drought. One to measure heat from the earth\u2019s surface and the other a radar sensor to help pinpoint the location of the land surveyed. Researchers say that by using the two different technologies, they will get a clearer understanding of where the soil is parched and where it is well-saturated around the globe.<\/p>\n<p>That information will be complimented with data gathered by soil moisture monitors, some of them installed around the Texas Hill Country by UT&#8217;s Bureau of Economic Geology. These on-the-ground sensors will help validate and improve the satellite&#8217;s readings.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/177987440&amp;color=ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false\" height=\"166\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><!--more-->\u201cThese local measurements are very important. We may not be able to resolve many issues using satellite data,\u201d Nerendra\u00a0Das, a scientist at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Lab who is working on the project, said late last year.<\/p>\n<p>A better understanding of soil moisture is key to predicting drought, and the impacts of rain in different drought conditions.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;[When] it rains, it&#8217;s still got to saturate the soil before it runs off and fills up the reservoir,&#8221; said\u00a0Todd Caldwell with UT\u2019s Jackson School of Geosciences.\u00a0&#8220;There&#8217;s a time delay there. So to forecast the reservoir response, you really need to know what&#8217;s going on in the soil first.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Caldwell has been installing soil moisture monitors as part of the\u00a0the\u00a0<a style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beg.utexas.edu\/soilmoisture\/\">Texas Soil Observation Network<\/a>\u00a0with UT&#8217;s Bureau of Economic Geology. \u00a0Researchers also hope a better understanding of soil moisture may protect against floods. Destructive floods are more likely to occur when heavy rains hit soil that is either over-saturated or so dry that it cannot properly absorb the water.<\/p>\n<p>To learn more about how farmers and ranchers in the Hill Country are involved in the project <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/11\/24\/how-underground-sensors-in-texas-will-help-nasa-predict-drought-and-floods\/\">click here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A satellite launched by NASA over the weekend could help people around the world tackle the challenges of drought. Researchers at the University of Texas will play a part in that mission that could also help forecast flooding and allow officials to better manage reservoir water supplies. The SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive)\u00a0satellite that launched [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57],"tags":[140],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39625"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39625"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39642,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39625\/revisions\/39642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}