This week, the NASA Applied Sciences Program and The World Bank co-sponsored an international workshop on Evapotranspiration Mapping for Water Security in Washington, D.C.. WGs’ Sonia Salas was invited to participate in the workshop and shared her perspectives on the current and potential use of ET in irrigation management. Evapotranspiration (ET) is the sum of evaporation from the land surface plus transpiration from plants and is the primary consumer of fresh water. It can be a great tool to determine when and how much to irrigate.

The workshop was designed to inform participants of ET applications, NASA activities over the next decade and to strengthen partnerships with users of satellite data applications. Bradley Doorn, manager of the NASA Applied Sciences Program, emphasized the importance of getting users involved in the development of applications from the earliest stages of development. He acknowledged the importance of communicating with different stakeholders, building capacity and enhancing coordination to boost the use of NASA processing capabilities and ET data applications in agriculture.

The workshop was recorded. The recordings are expected to be made available within the week. For more information, please contact Sonia Salas at (949) 885-2251.