NASA scientists are using space-based imaging technology to uncover the hidden world of flowers. By using advanced spectrometers to track wildflower blooms in California's natural preserves, researchers are revealing how flower color and timing reflect broader environmental changes. This new method could revolutionize the way we monitor ecosystems, predict superblooms, and support farmers and pollinators—all by detecting the spectral "fingerprints" of flower petals from the sky.

In this image, an imaging spectrometer on a research aircraft measures sunlight reflected from California's coastal shrublands. In the data cube below, the top panel shows a true-color view of the area. The lower panel depicts the spectral fingerprint of each point in the image, capturing the visible range (blue, green and red wavelengths) to the near-infrared (NIR) and beyond. The spatial resolution is approximately 16 feet (5 meters). Source: NASA

NASA has discovered that flowers can tell us more than what we can see with the naked eye. A recent study of California wildflowers shows that aircraft and satellite instruments can track blooms by detecting changes in color. This approach could provide farmers and land managers with a new way to monitor flowering plants that are critical to ecosystems and agriculture.

In this study, scientists used a high-tech imaging spectrometer developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California. The device captures detailed images of thousands of acres of nature preserves, recording hundreds of wavelengths of light as wildflowers emerge, bloom and fade over several months.

This is the first time the instrument has been used to continuously monitor vegetation throughout the growing season. Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist David Schimel said this makes the study a "first of its kind."

For many plant species, from crops to desert shrubs, flowering is closely tied to seasonal patterns of temperature, sunlight and rainfall. Scientists are studying this timing, known as vegetation phenology, to better understand how rising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns are changing ecosystems around the world.

In 2022, researcher Ann Raiho measured the interaction of sunlight with the flowers of the yellow giant coreopsis during fieldwork at the Jack and Laura Dangermond Conservation Area in Santa Barbara County, California. Image source: NASA/YoselineAngel

Typically, wildflower surveys rely on tools such as field observations and time-lapse photography. But these methods fail to capture the broader changes that may occur in different ecosystems around the world, said the study's lead author Yoseline Angel, a scientist at the University of Maryland, College Park and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

"One challenge is that flowers can be very short-lived compared to leaves or other parts of the plant," she said. "They may only survive for a few weeks." To track the flowers on a large scale, Angell and other NASA scientists are studying one of the flowers' signature characteristics: color.


NASA's AVIRIS sensor has been used to study wildfires, World Trade Center debris and critical minerals, as well as numerous airborne missions over the years. AVIRIS-3, currently conducting fieldwork in Panama, is helping analyze vegetation at multiple wavelengths invisible to the human eye. Image credit: NASA/ShawnSerbin

There are three main categories of floral pigments: carotenes and betalains (related to yellows, oranges and reds) and anthocyanins (related to many deep reds, purples and blues). The different chemical structures of pigments reflect and absorb light in unique patterns.

Spectrometers allow scientists to analyze the chemical "fingerprints" of plants and classify plant species based on their chemical "fingerprints." Because all molecules reflect and absorb unique patterns of light, spectrometers can identify a wide range of biological substances, minerals, and gases.

Handheld devices are used to analyze samples in the field or in the laboratory. To survey satellites and planets, including Earth, NASA has developed increasingly powerful imaging spectrometers over the past 45 years.

One of the instruments, called AVIRIS-NG (short for Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer-Next Generation), is built by JPL and can be installed on aircraft. In 2022, it was used in a large ecological field campaign to survey vegetation at the Jack and Laura Dangermond Reserve and Sedgwick Reserve in Santa Barbara County. From February to June, plants observed include two native shrub species - Giant Coreopsis and California Artemisia.

Scientists have developed a method to find flowers' spectral fingerprints among other landscape features crowding image pixels. In fact, they were able to capture 97% of the subtle spectral differences between flowers, leaves and background cover (soil and shadow) and identify different flowering stages with 80% certainty.

The findings open the door to more air- and space-based research on flowering plants, which make up about 90% of all plant species on land. Angel said one of the ultimate goals is to support farmers and natural resource managers who rely on these species, as well as insects and other pollinators. Fruits, nuts, many medicines, and cotton are a few commodities produced by flowering plants.

Angel is studying new data collected by the AVIRIS sister spectrometer, which operates aboard the International Space Station. It's called EMIT (Earth Mineral Dust Source Investigation), and it aims to map minerals around arid regions of the Earth. Combining its data with other environmental observations could help scientists study superflowering, a phenomenon in which large swaths of desert flowers bloom after heavy rains.

Angel said one of the joys of studying flowers is the enthusiasm of citizen scientists. “I have social media alerts on my phone,” she said, adding that it’s a way for her to keep up with wildflower activity around the world.

Compiled from /ScitechDaily