NASA and USDA sign agreement to share Earth observation data with farmers

NASA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Oct. 24, 2026, at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa to increase collaboration using Earth observation, advanced data technologies, and geospatial analysis to support American agriculture.

NASA and USDA will jointly review algorithms for yield models, area estimates, and disaster impact assessments, along with crop-condition indicators, using statistically sound frames and observations from the ground. The goal is to make agricultural statistics more accurate and reliable by mixing satellite data with information collected on the ground.

They will also talk about giving USDA’s production operations scalable access to NASA data archives, cloud-native geospatial formats, and programming interfaces. The deal also calls for regular technical exchanges that match USDA’s statistical needs with NASA’s Earth science missions and satellite observations.

USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said on Oct. 24 that the agreement will use NASA’s technology and research to strengthen U.S. agriculture, improve acreage and yield estimation, and increase profitability for farmers and ranchers. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the same day that blending NASA’s Earth observation data and technical expertise with USDA’s agricultural knowledge will give farmers and ranchers better information, sharpen understanding of crops and natural hazards, and advance high-risk, high-reward scientific ideas.

“American farmers are the best in the world and deserve any solution we can leverage, even when it is out of this world,” Rollins said. Isaacman said NASA’s tools for sensing, computing, and analysis are among the most advanced available.

USDA’s data modernization plan, announced by Rollins in September 2026, seeks to lighten the load on producers and make agricultural data more timely, accurate, and useful. It puts producers ahead by reducing paperwork, rolling out modern tools, and giving farmers a stronger say in how the department gathers and shares information. The MOU takes effect immediately and aligns with those ongoing efforts, though it sets no funding levels, staffing commitments, or timelines for new data tools.

The agencies will study new ways to manage and study large datasets, boosting USDA’s data systems and giving farmers, ranchers, and policymakers faster, more dependable information. They will also explore ways to match Earth observation data and analysis tools to farming needs, supporting better crop monitoring, acreage and yield estimates, and reviews of drought and other disasters.

The new agreement builds on a partnership that reaches back to 1972, when NASDA, now USDA, signed an earlier MOU with NASA to strengthen agricultural and Earth science research. Since 2009, the National Agricultural Statistics Service has relied on Landsat data in its Cropland Data Layer program to follow dozens of crops across the lower 48 states. NASA’s Earth-observing satellites, including Landsat, MODIS, and SMAP, already track soil moisture, crop conditions, and planted fields.

Satellite imagery helps detect acreage and analyze crop health and yield across fields, while observations from the ground validate acreage figures and sharpen yield estimates. The Foreign Agricultural Service studies satellite images to track the condition and projected yield of foreign crops, including wheat and other commodities that matter to the United States.

President Trump’s Executive Order 14369, issued in December 2025 under the title Ensuring American Space Superiority, led NASA and USDA to look into better ways to support American and global agriculture, environmental observation, and human health. The order frames space superiority as a measure of national vision and willpower, with technologies contributing to national strength, security, and prosperity. The agencies also aim to close research gaps identified in the 2017 National Academies’ Earth Science Decadal Survey, building on a December 2020 agreement to explore innovative Earth observation systems for agriculture.

The signing took place during NASA’s Inspiration Tour at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, ahead of the Alabama-Texas A&M football matchup at Champions Lane. Before the game, an F-5 fighter jet piloted by Isaacman flew over the field with Rollins as his copilot. During the matchup, U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, Isaacman, Rollins, and the flyover crew gave University of Alabama President Peter J. Mohler a flag that had flown around the moon on Artemis II.

“Our farmers, for a long time, have been surviving and really just surviving,” Rollins said at the signing event. She said the MOU will advance USDA’s data modernization priorities through regular technical exchanges, broader access to NASA data, and technical reviews of field modeling and acreage estimation. Isaacman said the Tuscaloosa stop was part of the Inspiration Tour, which connects NASA with people, technologies, and organizations driving American leadership in space.

He added that the event brought together teams from Marshall Space Flight Center and Johnson Space Flight Center on a field, a chance the agency was not going to skip. An open-source software toolkit developed by Rohan Sood, an associate professor in the University of Alabama’s Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics, helped researchers calculate and design spacecraft trajectories during Artemis I and II.