Space agency partnership protects greenhouses and crops

Greenhouses around the world nurture and protect the crops that feed the world’s growing population. Just like people, greenhouses need protection from the sun’s intense UV rays. That protection varies depending on very specific geographical and atmospheric conditions. BASF has been working with international space agencies to optimize greenhouse films to local conditions.

BASF has partnered with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center to create tools that calculate the level of UV-radiation in all regions of the world. The new and exclusive mapping combines historical and real-time data to identify meteorological and atmospheric trends that may vary with the time of day, time of year, geographic location, terrain, weather patterns and atmospheric ozone.

Developing these new mapping tools means BASF can design greenhouse roofs for their environment – making them perform better and last longer. For farmers around the world, this can mean a more reliable greenhouse and a more reliable harvest.

“It’s been a privilege working with scientists at NASA and DLR and translating some of their big picture data to make a very practical difference to life at a very local level,” said Hermann Althoff, Senior Vice President, of BASF Performance Chemicals in Asia Pacific, “When you consider that parts of China and India need to withstand conditions similar to the solar radiation levels in the Sahara desert, understanding the data in order to introduce the BASF light stabilizer that is exactly right for your specific conditions, accurate right down to a farmer in a particular region, can have a huge impact.”

Global UV radiation mapping unlocks a wide array of possible advancements, in industries as diverse as agriculture construction, and automotive.