NASA SMD EO Advancing Agriculture, Flood, Fire, Hurricane, Disaster Preparedness and Extreme weather

Policy Hooks

High-Impact Questions for the Panel

Strategy and transition

• How is NASA SMD prioritizing EO investments and research-to-operations pathways so applications for flooding and extremes move rapidly into operational use via DAACs like GES DISC?

Observation gaps and interoperability

• Which missions/products will be emphasized to close gaps affecting floods and agriculture (e.g., PACE terrestrial/atmospheric products, ICESat‑2 inland water, SWOT water levels, SMAP soil moisture, NISAR land dynamics)?
• How will space-based observations interoperate with ground networks and hydromet testbeds envisioned in the Weather Act for extreme precipitation and inundation mapping (NOAA Water)?

Flooding and water risk

• What is the plan to integrate near real-time flood mapping (e.g., LANCE MODIS/VIIRS flood products) with OPERA surface-water/inundation services into a unified, low-latency pipeline for emergency use?

Modeling and prediction

• What investments and partnerships are needed to expand NLDAS‑3 and related land data assimilation for regional flood and drought risk, and how will value be demonstrated to user communities?

Agriculture and drought

• How will SMAP‑informed soil moisture, FLDAS/NLDAS products, and PACE‑derived terrestrial products be scaled into decision tools for crop stress and water management?

Disasters (wildfire and landslides)

• Landslides: How will Goddard’s mapped polygons and 1‑km predictions be integrated with utility and infrastructure risk mapping?
• Wildfire — NASA FIRMS reporting and event tracking:
  • FIRMS active fire (Ultra Real-Time MODIS/VIIRS) is complemented by the Earth Information System wildfire efforts. How will these be operationalized with NASA Disasters and government stakeholders?
  • The Fire Event Explorer provides near real-time progression context. What are plans to scale access via APIs/dashboards for emergency managers, utilities, and county wildfire plans?
  • FIRMS is widely used by media and local governments and in peer-reviewed research. How will NASA expand training, guidance (e.g., filtering low-confidence detections), and best practices?
  • Roadmap question: how can FIRMS event tracking be blended with weather, fuels, and topography to provide short-term fire spread layers suitable for operations?

Access, training, and equity

• What steps will ensure cloud‑native, low‑latency access through NASA DAACs and expand practitioner training (e.g., ARSET) for local agencies in vulnerable regions (floods, heat, wildfire smoke, water scarcity)?