Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/53167
local communities, agriculture now drives many facets of the global economy. Agriculture has become increasingly dependent A upon technology to help reduce costs, improve pro- ductivity and ensure quality. Improvements to crop- harvesting machinery, food-irradiation methodologies and improvements to crop strains are among some of the common technological improvements the general public often takes for granted. However, thanks to the historical "space age" investments from a few decades ago, improvements in geospatial technologies are playing an extremely important role in the agriculture industry. They're also aiding farmers in similar ways, as these same technol- ogies are supporting the U.S. military and intelligence organizations. Advancements in geospatial technology are enabling the agriculture industry to get a unique perspective of the environment that has far-reaching effects for industry and the economy. Initiatives such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) continue to drive requirements for high-resolution "leaf-on" data, allowing USDA to collect imagery for the lower 48 United States at least once every three years. Such initiatives help farmers forecast crop yields and USDA to ensure adherence to appropriate farming practices. Aerial collection plays an increasingly impor- tant role by being able to acquire one- and 0.5-meter cloud-free imagery during acquisition windows when other sources, such as satellites, would be unable to maneuver and mission plan to account for things such as cloud cover. Geospatial Technology in the Field Data from airborne sensors such as light detection and ranging (LIDAR), multispectral imagery (MSI), and hyperspectral imagery (HSI) aid USDA and the agricultural industry in many of the same ways that warfighters benefit from intelligence operations over- seas. These data provide information about large Imagery/LIDAR Special Issue griculture is one of the country's oldest and most important industries. Having previously been merely a means to provide food directly to areas of land more quickly, allowing farmers and the government to make predictions about that season's food supply. They also empower USDA and farmers to course-correct their practices if problems are found. This information even allows them to plan for future changing conditions. Using aerial photography is nothing new to USDA. Prior to the 1940s, the only way to take good mea- surements of farmlands was to perform field measure- ments via chains and hand-drawn maps. Realizing that there were more-efficient methods to acquire and document such data, USDA began to use aerial photographs to acquire data for entire states, counties and regions. A one-meter cloud-free image of St. Augustine, Fla., was taken during the NAIP 2007 season using an ADS40 digital airborne imaging sensor. The Castillo de San Marcos National Monument is shown in the image's left-central portion. JANUAR Y 2O12 / WWW . GEOPLA CE . COM 19 USDA FSA APFO