Sun Seekers

Zaragoza | Unlocking the Secrets of the Sun

Plant a Tomato

High-Level Project Summary

We developed an interactive map of the most suitable areas according to their solar radiation levels for planting tomatoes as well as the least suitable areas, depending on a specific moment in time (we will use a daily/monthly scale).The challenge is to teach people how important solar discoveries are through the different satellites orbiting and studying the Sun. We chose how this information provided by the satellites will impact the growth of tomatoes which will be helpful for small farmers.We found out that tomatoes can benefit but also be harmed by solar radiation so knowing the levels of radiation will benefit agricultural growth and therefore avoiding farm food loss.

Link to Project "Demo"

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1T0mWENCYsDLTefSifSudvoPboBwK4xMx/view?usp=sharing

Link to Final Project

https://github.com/lara-ferrer/tomato-map

Detailed Project Description

What does it do?

Our project provides information about the optimal moment in time to grow tomatoes according to the solar radiation that reaches the Earth.

How does it work?

We have developed an interactive map where the user can see if their area is affected by high solar radiation levels (red sun) and therefore it won't be an optimal time for tomato growth.

During our research, we found out that tomatoes are highly affected by solar radiation. It can be beneficial because tomatoes need solar radiation to grow but radiation can also be harmful at high levels. We had to do some calculations in order to obtain the desired data that worked for NASA's POWER API. We found the values in Mj/m2 and we converted them into Mj/m2. So we discovered that:

Low radiation

Random Values (between 0 to 2 Mj/m2)

0.3 Mj/m 2 = 300 W/m 2

0.8 Mj/m 2= 800 W/m 2

1.5 Mj/m 2= 1500 W/m 2

1.25 Mj/m 2= 1250 W/m 2

1.89 Mj/m 2= 1890 W/m 2

0.9 Mj/m 2= 900 W/m 2

1.7 Mj/m 2= 1700 W/m 2

1.6 Mj/m 2= 1600 W/m 2

0.4 Mj/m 2= 400 W/m 2

0.65 Mj/m 2= 650 W/m 2

Medium radiation (optimal)

Random Values (between 2 to 14 Mj/m2)

2.3 Mj/m 2= 2300 W/m 2

4.5 Mj/m 2= 4500 W/m 2

6.8 Mj/m 2= 6800 W/m 2

9.3 Mj/m 2= 9300 W/m 2

10.11 Mj/m 2= 10110 W/m 2

3.58 Mj/m 2= 3580 W/m 2

12.79 Mj/m 2= 12790 W/m 2

11.89 Mj/m 2= 11890 W/m 2

9.86 Mj/m 2= 9860 W/m 2

5.48 Mj/m 2= 5480 W/m 2

4.74 Mj/m 2= 4740 W/m 2

High Radiation

Random Values (above 14 Mj/m2)

15.8 Mj/m 2 = 15800 W/m 2

17.32 Mj/m 2 = 17320 W/m2

16.11 Mj/m 2=16110 W/m 2

19.23 Mj/m 2=19230 W/m 2

17.81 Mj/m 2=17810 W/m 2

18.59 Mj/m 2=18590 W/m 2

19.6 Mj/m 2=19600 W/m 2

21.58 Mj/m 2=21580 W/m 2

22.68 Mj/m 2=22680 W/m 2

16.58 Mj/m 2=16580 W/m 2

14.19 Mj/m 2=14190 W/m 2

We translated these values into the API so it could show us the different suns (red or green) according to the radiation levels: red for harmful and green for beneficial. The API offered us to work with UVA and UVB radiations, which are the main radiations that reach the Earth. In this project, the data that we can see in the map comes from an average calculation of the month of April for each area so we can compare how radiation affects different areas in the same country.

The website was built to showcase a prototype of the project, how we would market it for farmers. It had to be very intuitive and easy to use. They had to understand from the very first moment, the advantages of understanding solar radiation for their crops. This information may come easy for big corporations but not for small farmers and agricultural businesses.

What benefits does it have?

Farmers will have the opportunity to know whether it is beneficial to grow tomatoes at that moment in time or not. Therefore, it will reduce all the risks that come from solar radiation in agricultural production such as rotting, and avoid agricultural waste and farm food loss. It helps farmers to be more mindful of how solar radiation is affecting their crops and work on measures that will protect their crops when the solar radiation is on a high level.

What do we hope to achieve?

Our main goal is to do a prototype about the cultivation of tomatoes that could be (possibly) implemented worldwide and be added to different types of crops such as vineyards. However, we decided to narrow down the data to just tomato crops and three points in Spain and the month of April for this project so the data we worked with was easier to work with.

Solar radiation is one of the many issues that affect agriculture and it will also help us to understand how agricultural needs are changing not only because of global warming but also because the sun is evolving in every solar cycle.

Also, because of pollution, the ozone layers are getting thinner and the ozone layer does not filter the UV radiation properly, making it easy for other types of radiation such as UV-C to approach the Earth's surface.

Coding Languages and tools

We used OpenLayers which is a JavaScript library for the main workings of the map page and jquery with AJAX methods to obtain the API data (NASA's POWER project API).

For the landing page, we have used React and Gatsby, both areJavaScript frameworks.

Prototype · Landing page · Github landing

Space Agency Data

For the map, we needed to obtain radiation data so we have used the API provided by NASA Prediction Of Worldwide Energy Resources (The POWER project). We chose the UVA and UVB radiation data that will help us to find out about the radiation levels in each area.

Hackathon Journey

It has been an enriching experience. A good opportunity to understand how NASA is studying solar radiation and other important values from the sun and how it can affect our lives.

We learned how to work in a very diverse team and to help each other whenever it was possible.

We chose this challenge because the Sun affects every aspect of our lives whether it is for good or bad and we wanted to make people aware of this situation.

Our approach was a practical view of the solar information that satellites such as the Parker Solar Probe can give us and how can this information be applied to our everyday life.

In order to resolve the setbacks and challenges, we discussed them between us so we had a different point of view even when we weren't working in that area. It is important that we communicate all these problems because it will help us to develop a stronger mindset as a group.

Our city's organization has been very helpful. We could reach to them whenever we were stuck and made everything much more interesting and fun.