Research and Applications
The ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS), will monitor one of the most basic processes in living plants: the loss of water through the tiny pores in leaves. When people lose water through their pores, the process is called sweating. The related process in plants is known as transpiration. Because water that evaporates from soil around plants also affects the amount of water that plants can use, ECOSTRESS will measure combined evaporation and transpiration, known as evapotranspiration (ET). The original ECOSTRESS mission used these ET measurements to address 3 questions:
- How is the terrestrial biosphere responding to changes in water availability?
- How do changes in diurnal vegetation water stress impact the global carbon cycle?
- Can agricultural vulnerability be reduced through advanced monitoring of agricultural water consumptive use and improved drought estimation?
ECOSTRESS is meeting these objectives by measuring the thermal infrared brightness temperatures (BT) of plants and using that information to derive their evapotranspiration (ET). These measurements are being made globally between +/- 52 degrees latitude. As of January 2025 over half a million ECOSTRESS scenes, each approximately 400 x 400 km in size have been acquired.
ECOSTRESS continues to provide the highest spatial measurements of the surface brightness temperature available from Space. These measurements are now used for a broad range of science and applications including:
- Food security and agriculture: maximizing food production and more efficient irrigation practices (crop per drop)
- Wildfire and Volcanic hazards: Understanding the dynamics of volcanoes and wildfires
- Improving urban development and infrastructure: Keeping cities cool.
- Critical minerals: Discovering critical mineral resources
The technology developed by ECOSTRESS is now being used to develop the NASA SBG-TIR mission.
The Science Team Members can be viewed here.