Eyes on Earth: Water
Monitoring water is vital for smart decisions around the world. Remote sensing satellites ensure decision makers and researchers have data that can directly help people and resources.
Episode 116 – Landsat Images the Twilight Zone
Landsat has documented changes all over the world for over 50 years. Changes in polar regions are happening especially rapidly. But it’s dark in polar regions much of the time. Therefore, a new acquisition scheme is adding more imagery of these dark, polar regions so these changes can be studied in more detail, even in polar twilight. In this episode, we learn about this project, called the Landsat Extended Acquisition of the Poles (LEAP).
Guest: Dr. Chris Crawford, USGS Research Physical Scientist
Host: Tom Adamson (contractor for USGS EROS)
Release date: Monday, April 8, 2024
Episode 114 – The Color of Water with Landsat
Typically, we use Landsat data to study changes on the land—you know, Landsat. In this episode, we learn how satellite images and pixels of water, along with actual water samples, are helpful in determining the productivity of lakes across the United States. We talk with Mendenhall Fellow and Research Geographer Dr. Michael Meyer about a recently released, freely accessible dataset that uses a metric called lake trophic state to validate the Landsat observations of thousands of lakes. The dataset was also named a USGS Open Science Success Story as part of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s 2023 “Year of Open Science” campaign.
Guest: Dr. Michael Meyer, Mendenhall Fellow and Research Geographer, USGS
Host: Tom Adamson (contractor for USGS EROS)
Release date: Monday, March 11, 2024
Episode 98 – EROS 50th: Conservation
In this episode, we talk about the 50-year history of EROS efforts to preserve the environment and conserve energy. EROS was born in the ’70s, the same decade as Earth Day, the EPA, and the oil crisis. Environmentally conscious decisions implemented by both the EROS Center and the employee association include reclaiming silver from photo processing, using solar panels to heat the water needed for that process, and starting a vanpool.
Guests: Brent Nelson, Information and Management Services Operations Work Manager and contractor for USGS EROS; Tim Smith Information Management Services Archive Task Lead and contractor for USGS EROS; and Tracy Michel, USGS Safety and Occupational Health Specialist
Host: Sheri Levisay (contractor for USGS EROS)
Release date: Monday, July 17, 2023
Episode 83 - ECOSTRESS and Burn Severity
ECOSTRESS, or ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station, data provides variables related to plant water stress, including evapotranspiration, evaporative stress index and water use efficiency. The NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC) at EROS provides storage and distribution of ECOSTRESS data. In this episode, we take a look at how these variables were useful for research that looked at predictors for spatial patterns of burn severity in recent California wildfires in the Sierra Nevada and the Southern California Mountains.
Guests: Madeleine Pascolini-Campbell, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Natasha Stavros, Earth Lab Analytics Hub, University of Colorado Boulder
Host: Jane Lawson
Release date: Monday, November 7, 2022
Episode 73 – Global Water Use
Some plants are simply better at making use of their water supply than others. More efficient plants can capture more carbon with less water, which has implications for carbon sequestration and ultimately for climate change modeling. In other words, the more we understand about water use efficiency, the more reliable our climate change models can be. And the only way to measure efficiency at the global scale is from space. On this episode of Eyes on Earth, we hear from a scientist who studied global water use using a sensor called ECOSTRESS, whose data are housed at the USGS EROS Center, in NASA’s Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC).
Guests: Savannah Cooley, Applied Science Systems Engineer, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Host: John Hult
Release date: May 2, 2022
Episode 71 – Blue Oak Forests of California
In this episode of Eyes on Earth, we zero in on the use of USGS Land Change Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection (LCMAP) products to examine the effects of drought on California’s Blue Oaks. LCMAP datasets are built from Landsat data and reveal the land cover and change of every pixel in the conterminous United States, dating back to 1985. In this case, LCMAP helped identify areas of declines and losses of the Blue Oak trees that are native to California and found in the foothills surrounding the central valley and along the coast.
Guests: Francis Dwomoh, contractor and landscape ecologist, USGS EROS Center
Host: Jane Lawson
Producer: John Hult
Release date: April 4, 2022
Episode 70 - ECOSTRESS and Aquatic Ecosystems
The Earth observation data archived here have plenty of value to the study of aquatic ecosystems. Landsat satellites can capture harmful algal blooms, for example. Spaceborne sensors can also record land surface temperatures, and that includes water surfaces. On this episode of Eyes on Earth, we hear about how a sensor called ECOSTRESS can be used to measure water temperatures at different times of day, and how those measurements could be useful in the monitoring and management of the endangered Delta smelt. ECOSTRESS data are available through the NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC), located in the USGS EROS Center.
Guests: Rebecca Gustine, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Cassandra Nickles, NASA JPL, Shruti Khanna, California Department of Water Resources
Host: John Hult
Release date: March 21, 2022
Episode 68 - Tracking Mangroves by Satellite
The sturdy root systems of mangrove forests act as buffer zones along the coastlines of some of the planet’s most vulnerable communities, protecting lives, ecosystems and property from the rigors of hurricanes and tsunamis. The dual stressors of climate change and man-made changes to the environment such as offshore aquaculture have damaged these critical buffer zones in recent years. Remote sensing scientists are using satellite data to understand the impact those changes will have on the communities they protect as temperatures continue to warm worldwide and extreme weather events become more frequent. On this episode of Eyes on Earth, we talk to one of those scientists, Dr. Lola Fatoyinbo.
Guest: Dr. Lola Fatoyinbo Agueh, Research Physical Scientist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Host: John Hult
Release date: February 21, 2022
Episode 67 - ECOSTRESS and Water Use
If you want to know how much rain fell yesterday, you can catch it and measure it. Water vapor? That's not so easy. Which is a problem if you want to know how quickly that rate is returning to the atmosphere. Water vapor is the single largest part of the water budget, but without space-based observations, it would be all but impossible to measure at wide scale. On this episode of Eyes on Earth, we learn how a sensor called ECOSTRESS helps improve the space-based measurement of evapotranspiration, or ET, which is the combined rate of evaporation from the Earth's surface and transpiration from plants.
Guest: Dr. Kerry Cawse-Nicholson, deputy science lead for ECOSTRESS at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Host: John Hult
Release date: February 7, 2022
Episode 63 - ECOSTRESS and Post-Fire Recovery
Fires can be destructive or healthy for a landscape—often both. Fires have grown larger and more destructive in recent years, though, thanks to human activity, climate change, and a host of other factors. Satellite data helps us to map and monitor fire activity, but the study of post-fire plant life using remote sensing data goes further than fire mapping. On this episode of Eyes on Earth, we hear from Dr. Helen Poulos, who used data from the ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station, (ECOSTRESS), to study Arizona Pine Oak forest 5-7 years after severe fire. Dr. Poulos and her collaborators at Northern Arizona University and the University of Maine at Farmington learned that post-fire shrublands had surprisingly high rates of water use. ECOSTRESS data are available through NASA’s Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center or LP DAAC, which is located at EROS.
Guest: Dr. Helen Poulos, forest ecologist, Wesleyan University
Host: John Hult
Release date: December 13, 2021
Episode 57 – Landsat and the Great Lakes
The Great Lakes represent roughly 20% of the surface freshwater in the world and 90% in the United States. The Great Lakes Basin supports more than 30 million people in the U.S. and Canada and 3,500 plant and animal species. The region faces threats that range from climate change and invasive species to pollution and development. Identifying and addressing those threats can be a daunting task, but for this episode of Eyes on Earth, we hear an example of how Landsat is helping address some of the restoration challenges.
Guests: Dr. Bob Shuchman, co-director and research professor at Michigan Tech Research Institute, and Dr. Mike Sayers, a research scientist at MTRI
Host: Jane Lawson
Release date: August 23, 2021
Episode 50 - Delaware River Basin
About 15 million people rely on the Delaware River Basin for drinking water, including residents of Philadelphia, PA, Camden, NJ, and Wilmington, DE. What might happen to the water supply if climate change and population growth continue unabated? How might that impact land cover and land use patterns? Those are the kinds of questions scientists at EROS looked to answer in a dataset built from Landsat satellite imagery, historical records, and scenario-based modeling across the basin. On this episode of Eyes on Earth, two of those scientists talk about how they looked back to 1680 and forward to 2100 and what sorts of questions the work may help answer.
Guest: Terry Sohl, Integrated Science and Applications Branch Chief, USGS EROS; Jordan Dornbierer, Scientist, USGS EROS Center contractor
Host: John Hult
Release date: May 17, 2021
Episode 44 – Landsat Water Atlas
Dr. Alan Belward has spent a lot of time thinking about the planet’s surface water. The former Landsat Science Team member uses satellite data to track changes to lakes, rivers, and streams, and recently published a book that uses Landsat data to tell some of those stories. In this episode of Eyes on Earth, we hear about some of the surprising things Belward and his team learned about how surface water has changed since the early 1980s and about the value and importance of remote sensing to the study of this critical resource.
Guest: Dr. Alan Belward, European Commission Joint Research Centre
Host: Jane Lawson
Release date: February 22, 2021
Episode 43 - U.S.-Canada Water Use
The St. Mary and Milk Rivers cross the U.S. and Canadian border and supply water to both countries. Managing that resource in the interest of both nations is a matter of international collaboration and cooperation, and Landsat data is helping offer objective information on water use. On today’s episode of Eyes on Earth, we hear from Roy Sando of the USGS, who’s working with EROS experts and the International Joint Commission to turn Landsat-based evapotranspiration (ET) estimates into a tool for farmers and land managers on both sides of the border.
Guest: Roy Sando, USGS Montana Water Science Center
Host: Jane Lawson
Release date: February 8, 2021
Episode 39 – Brazil’s Water Use
Brazil is a fascinating study in water use. Brazil uses roughly 72 percent of its water for irrigated agriculture, and its herds of cattle, pigs and poultry are among the largest in the world. Water management teams from that country’s National Water Agency have worked in recent years with researchers from the USGS EROS Center to learn how to map, and therefore more effectively manage, the South American country’s water resources. On this episode of Eyes on Earth, we hear from the Brazilian water experts and one of their collaborators at EROS.
Guest: Sérgio Ayrimoraes and Thiago Fontenelle, Brazilian National Water Agency; Mac Friedrichs, Contractor, USGS EROS
Host: Steve Young
Release date: November 30, 2020
Episode 35 – Watching the Water Supply with OpenET
Evapotranspiration is the process by which water transpires from the leaves and stems of plants and evaporates from the Earth’s surface. ET is an important metric for managing water use, but data availability has long been an issue. On this episode of Eyes on Earth, we talk about OpenET, a bold initiative whose goal is to improve water management by making that water consumption data more easily accessible to 17 western states. A consortium of agencies and organizations is working together to create a “one-stop shop” where users can access remotely sensed water consumption models on a single web-based platform.
Guests: Robyn Grimm, Environmental Defense Fund, Forrest Melton, NASA/Cal State University-Monterey Bay, Justin Huntington, Desert Research Institute, Gabriel Senay, USGS EROS
Host: Steve Young
Release date: October 5, 2020
Episode 25 - Rising Seas
Sea levels are rising globally. In some places, it is rising more than others, threatening communities and people as storm surges reach further inland and inundate more land. Landsat satellites used with other Earth-observing platforms enable EROS scientists to model the elevation of coastal shores, giving decision makers valuable information to use in preparing for the rising seas. In this episode of Eyes on Earth, we talk to one of the scientists about the utility of EROS’ elevation models.
Guests: Dean Gesch, USGS
Host: Steve Young
Release date: May 18, 2020
Episode 23 – Ecosystem Monitoring
Landsat satellites offer a wealth of information to scientists studying ecosystem health and recovery. Data products derived from Landsat open even more areas of inquiry. Landsat Burned Area products, for example, can help researchers identify previously unknown fires that took place from 1984 through the present. In this episode of Eyes on Earth, we talk to one of the scientists behind that product about Landsat’s role in monitoring ecosystem health and recovery.
Guests: Dr. Melanie Vanderhoof, USGS
Host: Steve Young
Release date: April 20, 2020
Episode 17 – Evapotranspiration
It’s easy enough to measure rainfall, and nearly as easy to measure streamflow. Calculating the efficiency of water use through the metric of evapotranspiration (ET) – evaporation off the Earth’s surface and transpiration from the leaves of plants – is a far trickier proposal. In this episode, we hear how scientists use satellites like Landsat to measure ET, and how those measurements help guide water management decisions in the U.S. and around the world.
Guests: Gabriel Senay, Research Physical Scientist, EROS
Host: John Hult
Release date: Feb. 24, 2020
Episode 10 – Landsat and Water Quality
We tend to associate Landsat satellites with what we see on solid Earth, but they can also tell us much about the health of our inland and coastal ecosystems. Landsat can be used to monitor harmful algal blooms, for example. Eyes on Earth guest Dr. Nima Pahlevan, a Landsat Science Team member, is part of a research team that tracks algal blooms worldwide using Landsat data.
Guest: Dr. Nima Pahlevan, Landsat Science Team
Host: Steve Young
Release date: Dec. 2, 2019
Episode 7 – Training Iraqi Scientists
EROS scientists track water availability and crop health around the world to help governments and non-profits manage resources and stave off food shortages. But EROS also teaches international scientists to track those resources themselves.
Guest: Saud Amer, USGS Water Resources Specialist
Host: John Hult
Release date: Nov. 4, 2019