By Maria-José Viñas, NASA’s Earth Science News Team

NASA’s satellite imagery and model forecasts regularly help agricultural and aid agencies to monitor the performance of crops worldwide and prepare for food shortages.

“In the 1970’s the U.S. realized that drought impacts on global agriculture were severely affecting trade and food aid decisions, while ground based information and forecasting of drought was very limited,” said Brad Doorn, water resources program manager in the Earth Science Division at NASA Headquarters, Washington. “Earth observations from space provide the persistent, global information needed to detect precipitation, temperature, soil moisture, and vegetation conditions that give us a more complete picture of conditions that lead to drought, as well as its impacts.”

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