Images

Hurricane Irma crossed the Florida Keys the morning of September 10, 2017, as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 130 miles per hour. Besides damage done to structures on the islands, the storm also stirred the waters.

The dramatic changes to the island caused by Irma, the strongest Atlantic hurricane on record, are shown in this pair of images from Landsat 8. Landsat uses shortwave-infrared, near-infrared, and green wavelengths to reveal those changes. The August 27 image shows healthy vegetation as bright green.

It may seem surprising that wildfires burn in Greenland, a huge island of ice and glaciers. But fires do happen there. Earth-observing satellites detected a fire in a remote area of western Greenland in August 2017.

A wildfire ignited by lightning in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge on April 6, 2017, is persisting into May. Hot, dry weather and extremely dry fuels are making the fire difficult to contain. As of May 22, the blaze, also called the West Mims Fire, had burned 152,478 acres.

Solar energy is booming worldwide, and these Landsat 8 images show three large solar energy farms.

Landsat's shortwave infrared (SWIR) band measures reduced moisture content in soil and vegetation. When combined with its near-infrared (NIR) band, which helps reveal actively growing vegetation, Landsat produces highly accurate images and maps of burned areas.

Landsat 8’s shortwave infrared (SWIR) band is useful in viewing recent eruptions at Erta Ale volcano in northern Ethiopia near the Eritrea border.

Wildfires fueled by dry conditions, high temperatures, and strong winds are scorching central Chile at a level Chilean officials say they haven’t seen in decades.

A decade of drought in California has eased after the first month of 2017 thanks to heavy rains and snow, a fact that Landsat images are helping to confirm.

The Operational Land Imager (OLI) onboard Landsat 8 captured this image an eruption from Ethiopia's Erte Ale volcano in late January of 2017.

Large areas within the Amazon rain forest have undergone large-scale deforestation over the past few decades, and Landsat has helped record this widespread land change.

The end of Kaskawulsh Glacier lies at a drainage divide. Before spring 2016, the majority of the glacier's meltwater flowed north by way of the Slims River into Kluane Lake, and from there into the Yukon River and to the Bering Sea.

Heavy rains that began falling during Memorial Day weekend in late May 2016 pushed the Brazos River, 30 miles southwest of Houston, Texas, toward a near-record flooding stage that hasn’t been seen since 1913, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).

Earth Science reminds us that the study of Earth and its biological processes can occur anywhere—whether we realize it or not.

This false-color Landsat 8 image shows valleys and snow-covered mountain ranges in southeastern Tibet. It was captured on August 4, 2014.

The roughly west-east trail of destruction from the April 27, 2011, Tuscaloosa-Birmingham tornado is clearly visible in these Landsat images. This was one of 358 recorded tornadoes during the April 25-28, 2011, tornado outbreak, the most severe in U.S. history.

Example of the Landsat 4-5 TM Collection 2 level-1 product. This Landsat 5 image was acquired on October 6, 2010 near Seattle, Washington and is shown as a natural color composite using the red, green, and blue bands (bands 3,2,1).

Example of the Landsat 7 ETM+ Collection 2 level-1 product. This Landsat 7 image was acquired on January 1, 2003 near Ciudad Obregón, Mexico and is shown as a natural color composite using the red, green, and blue bands (bands 3,2,1).

Natural color Landsat 5 image of the Great Salt Lake acquired on July 1, 1986. In 1986, the lake was at a record high and covered approximately 2,300 square miles and contained 30 million acre-feet of water (an acre-foot is the amount of water necessary to cover 1 acre of land with water 1 foot in depth or about 326,000 gallons).

One of the first clear Landsat 5 images shows an icy Lake Superior, northern Minnesota, and the Wisconsin's Apostle Islands. The Thematic Mapper (TM) image is shown as a false color composite using the near infrared, red and green bands (bands 4,3,2) and was acquired on March 6, 1984, just 5 days after the launch.

One of the first Landsat 5 images in the archive shows Corpus Christi and Padre Island National Seashore. The image was acquired on March 6, 1984 and is shown as a false color composite using the near infrared, red, and green bands (bands 4,3,2).

Learn more about the mission on the Landsat 5 web page