NASA technology can spot wine grape disease from the sky. The world's food supply could benefit

Cutting-edge NASA imaging technology can detect early signs of a plant virus that, if unaddressed, often proves devastating for wineries and grape growers, new research has found. While the breakthrough is good news for the wine and grape industry, which loses billions of dollars a year to the crop-ruining disease, it could eventually help global agriculture as a whole. Using intricate infrared images captured by airplane over California's Central Valley, researchers were able to distinguish Cabernet Sauvignon grape vines that were infected but not showing symptoms -- before the point at which growers can spot the disease and respond. The technology, coupled with machine learning and on-the-ground analysis, successfully identified infected plants with almost 90% accuracy in some cases, according to two new research papers. "This is the first time we've ever shown the ability to do viral disease detection on the airborne scale," said Katie Gold, an assistant professor of grape pathology at Cornell University and a lead researcher on the project.