New study shows how satellites detect changing tillage practices
A new research project by NASA Acres and university partners has shown how satellite technology can help track soil management practices across farm fields.
The study combined more than a decade of roadside “windshield surveys” from central Kansas with high-resolution satellite images to understand how often farmers switch between low-intensity conservation tillage and high-intensity conventional tillage.
Conservation tillage leaves crop residue on the soil surface, helping protect soil structure and moisture. Conventional tillage involves deeper plowing and more residue removal, which can help control weeds but may reduce soil health over time.
Researchers found that although conservation tillage increased overall, about 16 percent of fields returned to high-intensity tillage each year. Not surprisingly, many farmers changed their methods depending on crop rotations, soil conditions, and management needs.
To study these changes, scientists paired windshield surveys from more than 1,200 fields with Harmonized Landsat-Sentinel (HLS) satellite imagery. Using machine learning, they tested how well satellites could identify tillage intensity by analyzing residue levels during the off-season months.
The study included fields growing corn, soybeans, and wheat, making the analysis more realistic and complex.
The results showed that satellite data can successfully detect tillage changes, even across different crop types. Researchers discovered that tillage choices often followed crop patterns. For example, low-intensity tillage was more common after soybeans, while wheat and corn fields more frequently returned to intensive tillage because they produce more residue.
Ritvik Sahajpal, Climate Risk Assessments Co-Lead for NASA Harvest and Project Lead at NASA Acres explained, “This work shows that satellite data can track how farmers manage their fields with surprising precision when it is matched with field data.”
The study also highlighted the importance of recognizing “intermittent tillage,” where farmers shift between methods over time. These changes influence soil carbon, fertility, and long-term productivity, and cannot be measured accurately by adoption rates alone.
Researchers recommend future studies include better residue measurements, more cross-disciplinary surveys, and improved labeling standards for satellite-verified conservation programs.
This approach will help scientists, policymakers, and farmers understand how soil management changes across large landscapes and how these decisions affect both productivity and climate outcomes.
Photo: The maps show tillage patterns during the study period. The left map indicates the percentage that a given field used low intensity tillage during the study period, while the right map indicates how frequently the given field changed from low- to high-intensity or high- to low-intensity tillage during the study period.
Photo Credit: NASA Acres