Latest Evapotranspiration Stories

NASA An image from an instrument aboard NASA's Landsat Data Continuity Mission or LDCM satellite may look like a typical black-and-white image of a dramatic landscape, but it tells a story of temperature. The dark waters of the Salton Sea pop in the middle of the Southern California desert. Crops create a checkerboard pattern stretching south to the Mexican border. If you looked at the Salton Sea in person, your eyes would not see anything presented in the LDCM image. Instead of showing...

WASHINGTON, June 7, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The public is invited to a free lecture about how water use is being mapped from space to be presented at the Library of Congress. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Research scientist Martha Anderson will discuss "Mapping Water Use from Space" at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, June 14, in the Mary Pickford Theater on the third floor of the James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington. The...

AgriLife Research study shows no yield impact, greater economic returns Loss of production may be one concern cotton producers have on the Rolling Plains when considering switching to reduced- or no-tillage systems, said Dr. Paul DeLaune, Texas AgriLife Research environmental soil scientist in Vernon. Not only will cotton growers not lose production with subsurface drip irrigation, their economics will improve, according to DeLaune's latest research article that will appear in the...

Those making land use decisions to reduce the harmful effects of climate change have focused almost exclusively on greenhouse gases – analyzing, for example, how much carbon dioxide is released when a forest is cleared to grow crops. A new study in Nature Climate Change aims to present a more complete picture – to incorporate other characteristics of ecosystems that also influence climate. "We know that forests store a lot of carbon and clearing a forest releases carbon dioxide into...

Researchers recommend best practices for commercial production in water-limited regions Loaded with antioxidants and phytochemicals, the artichoke is becoming more popular as consumer interest in specialty products swells. And while 90% of the artichokes grown in the United States come from California, growers in Texas are working to introduce globe artichokes as commercial specialty crop in their region. They say the healthy vegetable has the potential to provide new economic...

New strategies provide important irrigation information, promote water savingsAlthough water consumption and conservation are widely recognized as significant environmental concerns in the United States, most Americans are still unaware of the major impact of landscape irrigation on their regional water supplies. One startling example: a 2004 study of homeowners in College Station, Texas, estimated that more than 24 to 34 million gallons of excess water were used annually for landscape...

Once lost in the mists of time, the colonial hydrology of the northeastern United States has been reconstructed by a team of geoscientists, biological scientists and social scientists, including University of New Hampshire Ph.D. candidate Christopher Pastore.The results, which extend as far back as the year 1600, appear in the current issue of the journal Environmental Science & Technology in the article "Tapping Environmental History to Recreate America's Colonial Hydrology."...

The soils in large areas of the Southern Hemisphere, including major portions of Australia, Africa and South America, have been drying up in the past decade, a group of researchers conclude in the first major study to ever examine "evapotranspiration" on a global basis.Most climate models have suggested that evapotranspiration, which is the movement of water from the land to the atmosphere, would increase with global warming. The new research, published online this week in the...

Study addresses impact of deficit irrigation on quality and yieldTexas AgriLife Research scientists have recently completed a two-year study on the impact of deficit irrigation and plant density on the growth, yield and quality of short-day onions.Deficit irrigation is a strategy in which water is applied to a crop during its drought-senstitive stages of development and is either applied sparingly or not at all during other growth stages, particularly if there is sufficient rainfall, reducing...

Earth has a limited amount of water that recycles itself in what is called the "˜water cycle'. Climate change, weather and human life are highly affected by changes in this continuous, interconnected cycle.Observing and monitoring the key variables governing the global water cycle is essential to our understanding of the Earth's climate, forecasting our weather, predicting floods and droughts, and improving water management for human use. Recent advances in Earth observation (EO) satellite...