NASA Acres Showcases Cutting-Edge Agricultural Science at Living Planet Symposium in Vienna

NASA Acres Research, Development, and Extension Partners took the global stage at the 2025 Living Planet Symposium in Vienna, Austria, presenting groundbreaking work on Earth observation applications for both U.S. and international agriculture. Hosted by the European Space Agency, this triennial event brings together scientists, policymakers, and technology leaders from around the world to explore the future of satellite data and its role in addressing global challenges.

At the symposium, NASA Acres teams highlighted collaborative projects that translate satellite data into actionable tools for farmers, ranchers, and resource managers, and also brought our important work on ag data governance to the international audience. Presentations spanned innovations in soil moisture monitoring, drought resilience, and EO-based decision support systems tailored to the unique needs of U.S. producers.

The event provided a valuable opportunity to share progress, build new partnerships, and reinforce NASA Acres’ commitment to co-developing solutions that drive sustainable, productive, and climate-resilient agriculture—from space to the farm gate.

Stay tuned as NASA Acres continues to elevate U.S. agricultural innovation on the world stage!

Below, we highlight a few examples of research shared by NASA Acres as well as our NASA Harvest sister consortium!

• Whose data are "open" and which science is "free"? Data governance in the era of Earth observation, big data, and AI (Whitcraft et al.)

• Using satellites to monitor and measure the impacts of agricultural adaptations around the world (Lobell et al.)

• Using Satellites to Assess the Impacts of Large-Scale Cover Crop Expansion (Di Tommaso and Lobell)

• Connecting Satellite Earth Observations to Agricultural Supply Chains: NASA Harvest Tools for Contextualizing Agricultural Production and Food Security (Humber et al.)

• Essential Agriculture Variables for GEOGLAM: building a bridge between satellite remote sensing and policy communities to support global agriculture monitoring for food security, productivity, and sustainability (Whitcraft et al.)

• Contrasting the Ability of MODIS and VIIRS Surface Reflectance in the ARYA Crop Yield Model Across Different Spatial Scales: Applications in the USA and Europe (Kalecinski et al.)

• Rapid Agricultural Assessments in Support of Policy and Food Security (Becker-Reshef et al.) 

• Operational EO-based commodity crop mapping to support land-use regulation: the case of soy (Song, Hansen, et al.)

Published On: July 23, 2025

Author: Allison Bredder (NASA Acres)