A new tool makes satellite data on field conditions available to producers.

Soil moisture data are used to plan crop planting, forecast yields, track droughts or floods, and improve weather forecasts, and can also be used to track changing conditions for U.S. agriculture over time. A new tool developed by USDA makes soil moisture data from NASA available to farmers, researchers, and other users.

The Crop-CASMA (Crop Condition and Soil Moisture Analytics) tool uses high-resolution satellite data from NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission to map soil moisture across the United States. Crop-CASMA provides access to data that can help producers plan spring plantings, guide predictions of moisture conditions and water availability, track damage after natural disasters, and monitor crop health and field conditions. The tool is formatted to be accessible to the public, including farmers, researchers, and students. Crop-CASMA was developed by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service in collaboration with NASA and George Mason University.