1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,000 Kathleen: Welcome to Snacktime with NASA![barking] [laughs] 2 00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:08,000 Okay… Welcome to Snacktime with NASA! I’m your host, Kathleen 3 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:12,000 Gaeta, and this is my dog Buoy, and we both really love cheese. 4 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:16,000 So this past year at home, I think we’ve all learned to appreciate the little things in life, and again, 5 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:20,000 one of those things for us is a nice, big cheese board. So today, 6 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:24,000 I’m gonna show you how I like to prepare my own, and where NASA actually fits 7 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:28,000 on the board. Many people don’t know that NASA has a lot to do with the food 8 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:32,000 on your plate, so we’re gonna highlight some of the foods NASA helps grow, 9 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:36,000 using data from space. Now, when you think of NASA and dairy, especially 10 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:40,000 you might think of freeze-dried ice cream for astronauts, but 11 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:44,000 the connection actually goes a lot deeper. So, why a cracker and cheese board? 12 00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:48,000 When we’re talking about food, it all comes down to water. 13 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:52,000 Corn, soy, alfalfa, it all needs water too grow, 14 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:56,000 whether it’s being fed to humans or dairy cows. So when farmers 15 00:00:56,000 --> 00:01:00,000 are better prepared for a water shortage in advance, they can make more sustainable 16 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:04,000 decisions, like what crops to grow, how to irrigate them, 17 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:08,000 and where and what to feed their livestock. So here to help explain the connection between 18 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:12,000 space and plate is Matt Rodell, NASA hydrospheric scientist. 19 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:16,000 Hey Matt, how’s it going? 20 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:20,000 Matt: Hey Kathleen, how are you? Thanks for having me. Kathleen: Good, thanks for being here. So while I attempt to cube some cheese, can you tell 21 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:24,000 me what NASA has to do with irrigation for agriculture? 22 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:28,000 Matt: Absolutely. So, agriculture requires a nice, wet 23 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:32,000 soil for growing crops. In order to know how well the crops 24 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:36,000 are gonna grow, the farmers need to have a better idea of how much water there is in 25 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:40,000 the soil, and so we’ve been coming up with better ways for monitoring 26 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:44,000 soil wetness from space. One of the ways we do this is 27 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:48,000 we use a NASA satellite called SMAP, which is an acronym, 28 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:52,000 and SMAP actually measures the wetness in the top of the soil 29 00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:56,000 worldwide, every day. And this information is vital 30 00:01:56,000 --> 00:02:00,000 for understanding how much water is available for the plants, how much water is 31 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:04,000 needed for irrigating the crops, and so it’s useful for farmers 32 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:08,000 and land managers and others. It’s also useful for monitoring 33 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:12,000 drought. Another mission that NASA has is called GRACE, 34 00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:16,000 which is another acronym, and GRACE is really incredible, because it 35 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:20,000 uses measurements of Earth’s gravity field to understand 36 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:24,000 the amount of water on and in the land surface. 37 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:28,000 So we can even measure things like the amount of water in the 38 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:32,000 underground aquifers, deep underground. This is vitally important, 39 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:36,000 because groundwater is one of the main sources of water for agriculture. 40 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:40,000 It’s also a source of water for people who have wells in their backyard, like I do, 41 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:44,000 so when I turn the faucet on, that’s groundwater coming out. And in fact, 42 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:48,000 about half the produce that we eat we have groundwater 43 00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:52,000 to thank for that. Because it’s used for that much irrigation. This includes things like 44 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:56,000 the wheat in your crackers, soy, fruits and vegetables 45 00:02:56,000 --> 00:03:00,000 on your platter, etc. So all these things 46 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:04,000 NASA’s doing are really contributing to our understanding of the water 47 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:08,000 availability that’s critical for irrigating all these crops. 48 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:12,000 Kathleen: Interesting…and a good reminder that this cheese board needs dressing up. So I have 49 00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:16,000 edamame in front of me, and what I believe to be the most underrated part of a cheese board, 50 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:20,000 which are carrots and olives. 51 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:24,000 Matt: Yeah, those are pretty water-intensive crops, and they’re grown in the Central Valley, 52 00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:28,000 which is some place where proper water management is really critical. 53 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:32,000 I see you have some grapes there, too. Speaking of grapes, NASA has an ongoing 54 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:36,000 project with the US Department of Agriculture and vintners 55 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:40,000 in California called GRAPEX, where we’re using data from Landsat 56 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:44,000 satellite, along with multiple other space and ground- 57 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:48,000 based observation sources, and advanced computer models, to help 58 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:52,000 to schedule irrigation for these vineyards, and therefore, preserve 59 00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:56,000 the precious resource: water. It’s really precious in California, 60 00:03:56,000 --> 00:04:00,000 where there’s an ongoing drought right now, as well as most of the American West. 61 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:04,000 We use data from multiple satellites 62 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:08,000 to monitor drought. This helps the end-users like the farmers and the ranchers 63 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:12,000 and others that are interested in agriculture to better 64 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:16,000 prepare for drought, and to better plan how to mitigate 65 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:20,000 the effects of drought. Drought’s gonna become even more important in the future 66 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:24,000 we believe, with climate change. It’s likely that in some parts of the world, 67 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:28,000 droughts are going to become more frequent and more intense, 68 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:32,000 and it’s possible that the dry parts of the world will get drier, 69 00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:36,000 wet parts of the world will get wetter. That’s where NASA comes in. So we’re helping with 70 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:40,000 not only the current monitoring drought, but the forecasting 71 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:44,000 of near-current drought, and then predictions 72 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:48,000 of how climate is gonna change in the future, and how it’s going to affect our water resources. 73 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:52,000 Kathleen: Well, Matt, it looks like my cheese board’s done. What do you think? 74 00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:56,000 Matt: I think it looks delicious, and I can’t wait to go start my own lunch. 75 00:04:56,000 --> 00:05:00,000 Thanks so much for having me, Kathleen! Kathleen: Thank you for joining me! And thank you everyone for watching; 76 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:04,000 I hope you learned a lot, I know I did. And I hope this episode 77 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:07,000 wasn’t too cheesy for you. 78 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:11,000 [laughs]Okay... 79 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:15,968 Good?