Improvements to the quality and usability of Landsat satellite data have been made with the release of a new USGS product called Landsat Analysis Ready Data (ARD), which will help reduce the time needed to process and analyze data and imagery, a significant advantage to scientists studying landscape changes, including changes from wildfires, hurricanes, vegetation cover, drought and other events.
Utah's Snow-Covered Bryce Canyon
Utah's Bryce Canyon is not the deepest canyon in the United States; its largest amphitheater of naturally eroded rock drops 240 meters. Arizona's Grand Canyon, for comparison, measures more than 1,800 meters deep in places. But photographers who visit Bryce Canyon National Park typically aren't looking for dizzying heights and depth; they're often trying to capture images of the delicate spires called hoodoos that rise from the canyon.
Landsat Looks at Europe's Largest Glacier
Glaciers cover 11 percent of Iceland's landscape, and the Vatnajökull (Vatna Glacier in English) is 8,000 square kilometers and the largest in Europe. The Landsat-8 satellite captured this false-color image over Iceland's southeastern coast and the Vatnajökull glacier.
Despite Drought, Satellite Data Shows Rapid Recovery for Some California Forests
According to aerial surveys conducted by the U.S. Forest Service in summer 2015, the recent California drought resulted in millions of dead trees, mainly in the state's Sierra Nevada mountain regions. NASA researchers found that years of California's drought conditions, however, have not slowed the regrowth of tree and shrub cover in some areas burned by wildfires.
Landsat Data Document Pavement Increase in D.C.
A study recently published in the Remote Sensing of Environment journal used Landsat data from 1984 and 2010 to show how paved surfaces in the Washington, D.C., area have increased dramatically.
Landsat Satellite Spots Sunken Ships
Using data from the NASA/USGS Landsat 8 satellite, researchers have detected sediment plumes extending as far as four kilometers downstream from shallow shipwreck sites, demonstrating how satellites may be used to locate the watery graves of coastal shipwrecks.
Patagonia Ice Fields Shrinking
Reports and studies of shrinking glaciers and ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica come in regularly, but an additional ice field can be added to the list: Patagonia, the mountainous area at the southern end of South America shared by Argentina and Chile.
Landsat Sees Eye of the Sahara
July 20, 2015 — Located near the western edge of the Sahara Desert, the Eye of the Sahara is a feature that resembles a large eye when viewed from space. Also known as the Richat Structure or Guelb er Richat, the Eye is a symmetrical dome of eroded sedimentary and...
Amazon Makes Landsat Data Even More Available
March 20, 2015 — As part of Amazon Web Services (AWS) commitment to White House’s Climate Data Initiative, the company announced today that 85,000 Landsat 8 scenes are now conveniently accessible in AWS Public Data Sets. Landsat, managed by U.S. Geological Survey...