Images

This early Landsat 1 image, acquired on July 31, 1972, captures the Kennicott, Nabesna, and Barnard Glaciers in southeastern Alaska—just a week after the satellite’s launch. Using bands 6, 5, and 4, the image reveals glacial ice, rugged mountain terrain, and braided rivers within the Wrangell–St. Elias region.

Within days of the launch, Landsat 1 acquired an image of an astounding 81,000-acre (327.8 square kilometers) fire burning in isolated, central Alaska. For the first time ever, scientists and resource management officials were able to see the full extent of damage from a fire in a single image while it was still burning.

Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, slid into Landsat 1's view on July 25, 1972. In this false-color image, shades of red indicate vegetated land and grays and whites are urban or rocky surfaces. The composite image is shown using the near-infrared, red and green bands (bands 7, 5, 4) at a 60 meter resolution.

The very first image in the Landsat archive is the MSS image above, showing the Dallas - Fort Worth area of Texas on July 25, 1972. The resolution is 60 meters per pixel in this false-color image, where shades of red indicate vegetated land and grays and whites are urban or rocky surfaces.

A Delta rocket containing Landsat 1, then called Earth Resources Technology Satellite, or ERTS, sits on the launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in July 1972. NASA photo

A view of the Forbidden City in Beijing, China, from declassified satellite imagery stored in the archive at the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center.

Pecora, a geologist, served as director of the U.S. Geological Survey from 1965 to 1971 and as under secretary of the Department of the Interior from 1971 until his death in 1972. Pecora advocated for the potential of remote sensing for Earth observation and led the development of the Earth Resources Observation Systems program in 1966.

An GAMBIT satellite image of Yucca Flat in Nevada, circa 1965.

A declassified 1964 satellite image from the CIA’s Project Argon shows two crescent-shaped lakes originally outlining the ancient impact zone of modern day Lake Manicouagan.

An aerial image of Yucca Flat in Nevada, circa 1952

A LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) instrument measures the 3-D structure of a ponderosa pine forest stand in Coconino National Forest near Flagstaff, Arizona, on July 13, 2009.