Richard de Jeu, from VanderSat, comments, “When compared to the average, or what we consider ‘normal’ conditions, a 30% difference in spring can be considered catastrophic for agriculture and nature if this drought persists throughout the summer.”

Climate change is exacerbating drought in many parts of the world – increasing its frequency, severity, and duration. With 2020 expected to be one of the hottest years on record, drought monitoring is crucial.

VanderSat uses data from ESA’s SMOS satellite and the EU’s Copernicus Sentinel missions, combined with data from NASA and the Japanese space agency JAXA missions, to measure soil moisture across the globe. These data can help farmers to insure and protect themselves against the impact of agricultural drought for specific regions of interest.

Klaus Scipal, ESA’s SMOS Mission Manager, says, “It is impressive to see that even after 10 years of operations, SMOS is still in a very healthy condition and it keeps on delivering high-quality data to support sectors like the agribusiness and many others. SMOS delivers 96% of its data in less than three hours of sensing, which allows companies like Vandersat to make their observations instantly available to the agribusiness sector.”

Launched in 2009, SMOS is one of ESA’s Earth Explorer missions – which form the science and research element of the Living Planet Programme. The SMOS satellite carries a novel interferometric radiometer that captures ‘brightness temperature’ images. These images are used to derive global maps of soil moisture every three days, achieving an accuracy of 4% at a spatial resolution of about 50 km – comparable to detecting one teaspoon of water mixed into a handful of soil.