(NAFB) – Farmers now have access to high-resolution NASA data on soil moisture thanks to a new tool developed by the National Agricultural Statistics Service in collaboration with NASA.

The tool, Crop Condition and Soil Moisture Analytics, provides access to high-resolution data from NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive mission. Soil moisture data are critical for professionals in the agriculture and natural resource sectors who use soil moisture in tandem with other data to plan crop planting, forecast yields, monitor droughts or floods, and improve weather forecasts.

According to Rajat Bindlish, a research associate in Earth science remote sensing at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, the tool provides more thorough spatial coverage and consistency than other soil moisture measurement methods.

Bindlish says, “This will provide a means of using NASA remote sensing data to guide predictions of moisture conditions and water availability. The tool is available for free online, here.