TWCA Fall Conference 2018 - Thursday

1. NASA’s
Western Water Applications Office
Accelerating the application of NASA observations and scientific analysis
techniques to tangible, important, and timely water management problems
Presented by
Indrani Graczyk, WWAO Program Manager
Indrani.Graczyk@jpl.caltech.edu
October 18, 2018

2. NASA Earth Science
NASA Earth Science supports basic and
applied research on the Earth system
and its processes.
Characterize, understand, and improve
predictions of the Earth system to
advance knowledge and benefit society.
Technology
Flight Missions
Research
Data Systems
Education
Applications

3. NASA Earth Science Missions

4. NASA Airborne Sciences
Water and
Energy Cycle Weather
Carbon Cycle
and Ecosystems
Water and
Energy Cycle
Earth Surface and
Interior
Carbon Cycle and
Ecosystems
Climate Variability and Change
Atmospheric Composition
Water and
Energy Cycle
Soil moisture Carbon Cycle and
Ecosystems
Ecosystems
Aerosols, Clouds,
Ecosystems
Weather
Ecosystems

5. Water variables studied by NASA
NASA Observes Globally, WWAO Acts Locally

6. NASA Capabilities for Water Resource
Management
Topical Area NASA Remote Sensing Data
Agriculture & Evapotranspiration (ET) MODIS, Landsat, VIIRS, ECOSTRESS
(2018), ASTER, SMAP, AIRS, HyTES
Snow (SWE, Depth, Cover, Albedo) MODIS, ASO
Groundwater UAVSAR, GRACE-FO, NISAR (2020)
Forecasting & Precipitation SWOT (2020), JASON-2, JASON-3,
AIRS, GPM, IceSat-2
Subsidence & Infrastructure Monitoring UAVSAR, NISAR (2020)
Water Quality MODIS, Landsat, VIIRS, AVIRIS,
PRISM, HICO, HSI, PACE (2022)
Land Use MODIS, Landsat, VIIRS
MODIS
Instrument on
Terra
Landsat 8 Soil Moisture
Active Passive
Mission (SMAP)
Gravity Recovery
and Climate
Experiment
(GRACE Follow On)
Uninhabited Aerial
Vehicle Synthetic
Aperture Radar
(UAVSAR)
Airborne Snow
Observatory
(ASO)

7. WWAO: NASA’s Western Water Applications Office
A local western office helping to inform water decisions with NASA data
What is the WWAO?
An initiative from NASA’s Applied Sciences
Program to put NASA research, observations and
technology to work in support of Western US
water management challenges.
What Does the WWAO Do?
• Develop and maintain relationships with
western water stakeholders to identify water
resources needs.
• Develop and implement needs-driven
applications projects.
• Assist application transition from NASA to
stakeholder.
Why the NASA-WWAO?
• Innovate approaches to project development
and meeting stakeholder needs.
• Apply NASA’s wealth of science, remote
sensing data and expertise.
• Local western office to serve western U. S.
water resources needs.
Figure 1 - A 30-year climatology of annual U. S. Precipitation. The
red line denotes the 100th
meridian. (Source: C. Daly, Oregon State
University)
The Western United States is defined by the
Department of Interior (DoI) as those states
that are on or west of the 100th meridian
and encompasses the states represented by
the Western Governor’s Association (WGA).
It is roughly the divide between the “wet”
east and the “dry” west

8. WWAO Model
Building Partnerships to Help Answer Questions Like…
• When will my snowpack melt and how much inflow will I get?
• Where has land subsided? Are there subsidence hotspots near critical
water or other infrastructure?
• Over the past X years, how many times did an algal bloom form near my
intake? How has the frequency, duration changed?
• How can I optimize irrigation and fertilizer application?
Using Remote Sensing Data, Research, and Technology
Customized Activities, Products and Projects Driven by Needs
Water Resources
Needs Catalogue
How much
snow is there?
When will the
snow melt?
How much
water is used by
crops?
Are aquifers
being depleted?
Earth Observation
Capabilities

9. Current WWAO Projects
Operational Analysis & Modeling with ASO
(Partner: CA DWR) – T. Painter, NASA-JPL
• Enable 1-10 day streamflow forecasting with USDA ARS
Automated Water Supply Model (AWSM) + ASO data
• Work with CDWR and local agencies to include ASO and
AWSM products in calculation of seasonal hydro-forecast
for Water Supply Forecast and other stats
Higher Resolution Soil Moisture for USDA NASS -
R. Bindlish, NASA-GSFC
• Integrated SMAP and SMOS data to attain 1 km resolution
with accuracy of 0.06 m3/m3 and daily revisit
• Results to be integrated with USDA NASS VegScape tool
Operational Evapotranspiration for the State of New
Mexico - J. Fisher, NASA-JPL
• Daily, 1 km resolution, spatially consistent, statewide
coverage of ET and other drought indices (evaporative
stress index, land surface temperature, NDVI, albedo)
9

10. Current WWAO Projects
Navajo Nation Water Resources and Drought
Monitoring - A. McCullum, NASA-ARC
• Assist the NNDWR in drought reporting through improved
precipitation maps and data generation processes
• Supplement NN rain gauge data with remote sensing data
• Build on Drought Severity Evaluation Tool (DSET)
originally prototyped through NASA DEVELOP program
SIMS-Crop Manage - L. Johnson, NASA-ARC
• Integration of NASA Satellite Irrigation Management
System (SIMS) into CropManage
– CropManage (Univ of CA Coop Extension) provides
decision support for on-farm irrigation and fertilizer
management
– NASA Satellite Irrigation Management Support (SIMS)
provides NDVI, fractional cover, Kcb, and ETcb
mapping at daily, 30 meter resolution

11. New Water-Related Missions
GRACE FO
Ecostress
CYGNSS
https://ecostress.jpl.nasa.gov/
https://gracefo.jpl.nasa.gov/
• GRACE-FO successfully Launched
May 22, 2018
• Measures speed/distance between two
satellites to estimate gravitational pull
• Gets to total water storage (among
other variables)
• Extends 15 year GRACE record
• ECOSTRESS successfully Launched June
29, 2018
• NASA’s “Space Botanist” measures the
temperature of plants to better understand
how much water plants need and how they
respond to stress
• Deployed on the International Space Station
(ISS)

12. Upcoming Water-Related Missions
https://nisar.jpl.nasa.gov/
https://swot.jpl.nasa.gov/
• Surface Water and Ocean Topography
(SWOT) Mission launch planned in 2021
• Derives surface water extent and storage
change for lakes reservoirs, wetlands and
rivers
• Provides estimates of water volume or
river discharge from space.
• The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture
Radar (NISAR) Mission planned for
launch in 2020
• Observes many complex processes.
• Provides information about ecosystem
disturbances, water extent, surface
subsidence, etc.

13. Earth Decadal Survey
13
Significant efforts for applications-oriented users to engage
throughout the satellite mission lifecycle, especially planning,
formulation, and development phases.
NASA defines science to include research, applied research, and
applications.
Phrase “Science and Applications Objectives” is used throughout
the document in reference to questions, observations, priorities,
etc.
Missions & Applications
The 2007 Decadal Survey for Earth Sciences and Applications
promoted the proposition that the application of scientific knowledge
about the Earth system was as important as acquiring it in the first
place.
This Decadal Survey reinforces this view. The benefits to society of
Earth science research are the partners of scientific discovery and
progress; they are more than serendipitous by-products of basic
research, but are often co-equal in importance.
Pre-pub. p. 4-1, 4-2, 4-4
Potential WWAO Roles: Identifying Mission Applications, Collaborators, Requirements

14. One of three new initiatives for
NASA Applied Sciences
Applied Sciences Global Initiatives
Coordinating NASA efforts to support decision makers in critical
challenge areas
FOOD
SECURITY
WATER
AVAILABILITY
DISASTER
RESPONSE

15. Fact: NASA data, research results, etc. are freely
available for public use
Fact: NASA technology/assets can be deployed
for specific needs
Q: Can these become an asset in my work?
Food for Thought

16. Thank you!
16
WWAO Contact Information
Indrani Graczyk, WWAO Manager
Indrani.Graczyk@jpl.caltech.edu
Forest Melton, WWAO Program Scientist
Forrest.Melton@nasa.gov
Stephanie Granger, WWAO Program Strategist
Stephanie.L.Granger@jpl.caltech.edu
Mark Davidson, WWAO Alliance and Transition Lead
Mark.H.Davidson@jpl.caltech.edu
Judy Lai-Norling, Stakeholder Engagement Manager
Judy.Lai@jpl.Caltech.edu

17. Backup
17

18. Airborne Snow Observatory
18
• ASO: Airborne Snow Observatory
• Instruments: Near-Infrared Scanning
Lidar, Multi-spectral Imaging
Spectrometer
• Products: Basin-wide, spatially
distributed measurements of snow depth,
snow albedo, snow water equivalent
• Platform: King Air A90
• Regular flights in California & Colorado

19. Extent of Fallowed Lands in CA, NV, WA
PROJECT TEAM: NASA Ames Research Center, USGS, USDA National Ag. Statistics Service,
California Dept. of Water Resources, NOAA, California State University Monterey Bay
https://nex.nasa.gov/nex/projects/1372/
2016 Summer Idle
2011/2016 Idle
Cultivated
Landsat (TM / ETM+ / OLI)
+SPOT, DMC, Sentinel-2A
Terra / Aqua (MODIS)
250m / 15.5 acre
Daily overpass
Satellite Data
Land Classification Neural Network Algorithms
Data Validation via USDA Data and Field Surveys
Products: Maps and Summary Tables,
Comparisons against Baseline Periods