NASA Harvest / Earthdata
Agriculture · Weather & Environment
NASA Harvest and NASA Earthdata together form a satellite-based agricultural monitoring and data access ecosystem managed by NASA, providing researchers, governments, development organizations, and food security analysts with access to Earth observation data products specifically designed to support agricultural monitoring, crop assessment, and food security analysis globally, with particular programs focused on African agricultural systems including Nigeria.
Global crop assessment and food security applications
NASA Earthdata is completely free but requires a free account registration for API access and large data downloads. Data quality is exceptional — used by researchers, food security agencies, and commercial agritech globally. Nigeria is well-covered.
Key Highlights
- MODIS and Landsat satellite imagery freely available for all of Nigeria — decades of historical data for trend analysis
- Vegetation index products (NDVI, EVI) calculated from raw satellite data enable crop health monitoring at no cost
- Historical archive going back to the 1970s allows long-term climate, land use, and agricultural yield trend analysis
- NASA Harvest programme specifically applies satellite data to food security and crop assessment in Africa including Nigeria
- Free and open access — no commercial licence required, suitable for research, NGOs, and government agricultural programmes
Required Access Documents
- NASA Earthdata LoginRequiredFree NASA Earthdata account required to access satellite data.
Use Cases
- Crop Monitoring:Monitor crops globally using satellite data from NASA.
- Food Security:Assess food security and crop conditions for vulnerable regions.
- Yield Prediction:Use satellite data for yield estimation and forecasting.
- Drought Detection:Monitor drought conditions using vegetation indices.
- Research Applications:Access satellite data for agricultural research and studies.