Monitoring California's forage resource using ERTS-1 and supporting aircraft data

NASA's Earth Resource Technology Satellite (ERTS-1) launched July 23, 1972, offers for the first time the unique capabilities for regional monitoring of forage plant conditions. The repetitive coverage every 18 days, the synoptic view and the real-time recovery of the imagery for immediate analysis, combine to make the ERTS satellite a valuable tool for improving the evaluation of our rangeland resources. Studies presently underway at the University of California, Berkeley (sponsored jointly by NASA and the Bureau of Land Management), seek to determine if imagery obtained from high altitude aircraft and spacecraft (ERTS) can provide: (1) a means for monitoring the growth and development of annual and perennial range plants in California, and for determining the time and the rate of initial plant growth (germination) and terminal plant growth (maturation and senescence); (2) a means for determining or predicting the relative amount of forage that is produced; and (3) a means for mapping rangeland areas having different forage producing capabilities.