Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Sheffner, Edwin J..
The Earth Science Division supports research projects that exploit the observations and measurements acquired by NASA Earth Observing missions and Applied Sciences projects that extend NASA research to the broader user community and address societal needs.
Report describes 4-year cooperative project to develop procedures for mapping land used to grow major crops in California. Participants used images and data from Landsat Earth-observing satellite as well as ground survey data.
The USDA, the California Department of Water Resources (CDWR), the Remote Sensing Research Program of the University of California (UCB) and NASA have completed a 4-yr cooperative project on the use of remote sensing in monitoring California agriculture. This report is a summary of the project and the final report of NASA's contribution to it. The cooperators developed procedures that combined the use of LANDSAT Multispectral Scanner imagery and digital data with good ground survey data for area estimation and mapping of the major crops in California. An inventory of the Central Valley was conducted as an operational test of the procedures. The satellite and survey data were acquired by USDA and UCB and processed by CDWR and NASA. The inventory was completed on schedule, thus demonstrating the plausibility of the approach, although further development of the data processing system is necessary before it can be used efficiently in an operational environment.