Contact: Ellen Gray
Ellen.t.gray@nasa.gov
301-286-1950
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Landsat 5 Scene of Gary Wagner's Farm

Caption: This set of satellite images comes from the same Landsat 5 scene of Gary Wagner's farm on July 13, 2005. In the left panel, four of his fields are shown in natural color (› Larger image). The bottom left is a bare field. The top left is a spring wheat field. The top right two fields are sugar beets, and the bottom right is a confectionary sunflower field. The center panel shows the fields in bands 4-3-2 (the near infrared, red, and green bands), the standard near infrared composite combination used for vegetation where darker patches show stressed plants (› Larger image). The right panel shows just the near infrared band processed so that the yellow, green and teal colors show stressed plants and the blue and purple show healthier plants (› Larger image). Focusing on the sugar beet field, the magenta color shows areas with excess nitrogen and the lighter green zones are sugar beets under stress--what Wagner wants so his beets maximize their sugar production.

Credit: NASA and USGS

Usage Restrictions: None

Related news release: Landsat satellites find the 'sweet spot' for crops