Hello there!

Welcome to our April Newsletter! In this issue, we are bringing you the latest updates and insights from the NASA Acres Consortium.
April Spotlight
From Space to Farm to Impact: NASA's Listening Tour Touches Down in Illinois

In April, NASA Acres and NASA Earth Science leadership traveled to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a top agricultural research institution, as a part of NASA’s annual Space for Agriculture Listening Tour. The Illinois tour included an Earth Science and Agricultural Research Symposium, a two-hour roundtable discussion, and a visit to UIUC’s 320-acre Energy Farm.

As the nation’s leading producer of soybeans, the second leading producer of corn, and the producer of many other vital crops, the agriculture industry in Illinois plays a critical role in food and economic security in the United States. In 2023, Illinois’s 10.3 million acres of soybean planted produced nearly 649 million bushels– a production equivalent to over 8.2 billion dollars. Behind the success of Illinois’s thriving agriculture industry are farmers, industry experts, and researchers – and NASA had the chance to speak with a few of them.
Learning by Doing: A Howard Scholar Kennedy Williams' Journey with the BRAAG Program

Kennedy Williams recently graduated from Howard University and spoke with Basia Skudrzyk, NASA Acres program coordinator, about her life-changing experience with the BRAAG program (Boosting Representation of African Americans in Geoscience). The BRAAG program is led by Dr. Teamrat Ghezzehei, one of NASA Acres’ principal investigators and Professor at the University of California - Merced in the Department of Life and Environmental Sciences. NASA Acres sponsors the summer research collaborative which provides additional immersive and enriching research and professional development activities in collaboration with several UC Merced and neighboring research facilities.
NASA Acres in the News
Dr. Stephen Ogle of Colorado State University is Being Recognized for Leading Half of USDA Recent Update to Methods for Measuring Greenhouse Gas
The USDA has released updated methods to help farmers, ranchers and forest landowners estimate greenhouse gas emissions on their land. Three of the federal report’s six chapters were authored by Colorado State University (CSU) scientist Dr. Stephen Ogle, one of the world’s top experts in greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories. Under NASA Acres, the CSU group, led by Dr. Ogle, is developing improvements to the DayCent ecosystem model for reporting GHG emissions from agricultural lands. This project will enhance reporting by extending the time series of Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) Data for simulating crop and grassland forage production in the model. The new EVI data product will be used to drive DayCent simulations and estimate soil carbon stock changes and soil nitrous oxide emissions for croplands with major commodity crops as well as grasslands in the conterminous United States.

HabiTerre Hosts Workshop Addressing Gaps in Agricultural Carbon Modeling
Dr. Alyssa Whitcraft, participated in a workshop hosted by HabiTerre, an organization founded by Dr. Kaiyu Guan, who serves as the Chief Scientist at NASA Acres, focusing on tackling the challenges of agricultural carbon monitoring. Given agriculture's significant contribution of nearly 25% to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, reducing emissions from this sector is critical to achieving our net-zero goals. While insetting and offsetting approaches have emerged to decarbonize agriculture, accurate measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) of carbon outcomes are imperative for their success. Stay tuned for a white paper summarizing the workshop's key findings. Together, we're forging a path towards a more sustainable future in agriculture.

Events
NASA's ARSET (Applied Remote Sensing Training Program) is hosting a three day training on the use of Earth observation data for humanitarian applications. The training will feature strategies and techniques for flood risk assessments, gauging long-term heat risk in refugee camps, and monitoring drought effects on agricultural landscapes. The training is free and open to the public, and a recording will be available afterwards.