The usual droughts developed gradually with the seasons, but with climate change came the era of flash drought, when the land dries up within weeks due to evaporation accelerated by wind and heat. This phenomenon causes great damage to agriculture, and due to its rapid nature, it is difficult to predict or at least detect it in a timely manner.
Flash drought threatens 35% of the agricultural lands in our region in the coming decades. But it's also a global problem: In the summer of 2012, a sudden drought struck large areas of the United States.
Staff at NASA's JPL Rocket Science Division found a solution to the problem, and it was published in the journal Geophysical in April. Approaching drought can be seen in the light emitted by plants and can be detected with the help of satellites.
It is known that plants carry out photosynthesis, that is, they produce energy from the sunlight that strikes them. However, chlorophyll, which performs photosynthesis, does not work with all wavelengths of light, it emits the unabsorbed frequency as a distinct electromagnetic signal. Induced fluorescent light accounts for less than 2% of reflected light, but its changes can be easily monitored from space using sufficiently sensitive instruments.
NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory, OCO-2, has been measuring this light since 2014, and when compared with data from another US soil monitoring satellite, Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP), a pattern emerged: fading plant light
6-12 weeks in advance,
Where the drought is headed.
With the arrival of warm, dry weather, the plants felt well, which was well demonstrated by the power of natural microwave emission. However, when soil moisture began to decrease, its light dimmed.
Plant fluorescence appears to be a reliable early warning signal of lightning droughts, giving enough time to act
– said Nicholas Barrazo of JPL, author of the study.
In practice, this gives farmers several weeks to prepare irrigation equipment and prevent drought damage.
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