(University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment) The growing threat of drought and rising water demand have made accurate forecasts of crop water use critical for farmland water management and sustainability. But limitations in existing models and satellite data pose challenges for precise estimates of evapotranspiration — a combination of evaporation from soil and transpiration from plants. A new high-resolution mapping framework called BESS-STAIR can provide accurate, high-resolution information on a daily basis, for farmers around the globe.

Original source: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-03/uoia-nsa032020.php