Science
The Landsat Program has been a boon to the study of the Earth's land resources, shorelines, and inland waters. Five decades of imagery revealing the land surface's visible and invisible features have sparked or advanced innovations in science that are now folded into the way we understand our planet, inside and outside of the research community.
Today, for example, agricultural producers take for granted the ability to track and measure the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values of the crops in their fields. Fifty years ago, the notion of tracking crop health from space was a distant dream, if pondered at all.
NDVI is measurement of crop health (greenness) built from a mathematical equation that factors in visible and near infrared light reflected from the Earth’s surface. It’s just one of several vegetation indices made possible by the recording of reflected light in the near infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum—something every Landsat satellite since 1972 has done, and something that simply wasn't possible prior to the land remote sensing era. The Multispectral Scanner (MSS) onboard the first Landsat marked the first time a civilian satellite recorded repeat, near-infrared information at the global scale.
Landsat was the driving force behind the first space-based global crop assessment project in the 1970s. Today, geospatial information system (GIS) software applications—even online-only tools for satellite data viewing—often allow users to calculate NDVI values with the click of a button, using data from Landsat or a host of other satellite sources for which visible and near-infrared data collection is standard.
Landsat imagery also serve as the backbone of another agriculture tool producers in the U.S. now take for granted: the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Cropland Data Layer (CDL), which tracks crop types across the U.S.
The program’s contributions to agriculture, of course, represent just one of countless examples of the ways the longest continuously collected satellite data source in history has improved our understanding of our planet’s form and function over the past 50 years.
The first National-scale land cover maps, the land cover and fuel-mapping information made available by the LANDFIRE program, global forest health monitoring, and much, much, more owe their existence to the Landsat program and its consistent, reliable record of the Earth's surface.
Click the “Societal Benefits,” “Stories,” and “Innovations” tabs at your left to explore just a few of the examples of how Landsat has improved our understanding of Earth.
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Explore more Landsat Science!
Filter Total Items: 33Landsat and the Private Tech Sector: Direct and Complementary Uses of Imagery
Landsat is a key data input for many products developed and used in water resources, agricultural monitoring, land use and land cover monitoring, forest management, and development planning. Yet, Landsat’s contribution goes beyond its use solely as a primary data input. The products and processes developed by the Landsat program provide tools for data accuracy and visual communication improvement...Land Cover Mapping: Australia
Australia’s agricultural industry has evolved significantly within the last decade. Change in agriculture, whether it is an increase in land used for production or the types of crops being produced, has an impact on land-cover soil properties and water availability. Landsat imagery is used in monitoring irrigation areas and dry land agricultural areas to detect changes in agricultural practices...Water from 'Landsat Imagery: A Unique Resource'
Landsat satellites provide high-quality, multi-spectral imagery of the surface of the Earth. These moderate-resolution, remotely sensed images are not just pictures, but contain many layers of data collected at different points along the visible and invisible light spectrum.Humanitarianism from 'Landsat Imagery: A Unique Resource'
Landsat satellites provide high-quality, multi-spectral imagery of the surface of the Earth. These moderate-resolution, remotely sensed images are not just pictures, but contain many layers of data collected at different points along the visible and invisible light spectrum.National Flood Risk Information Program, Australia
On July 1, 2012, Australia commenced the National Flood Risk Information Program (NFRIP), which includes mapping of flood extents from the entire historical archive of Landsat data over Australia (National Flood Information Portal, 2013). The Australian Government’s Natural Disaster Insurance Review highlighted the lack of consistency across the country in the way flood-risk information was...Mapbox: Innovating with Landsat
Mapbox* is a cloud-based map platform startup that creates custom maps with open source tools. The team at Mapbox consists of over fifty cartographers, data analysts and software engineers, located in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco, California. One of the open-source tools used by Mapbox is Landsat imagery. The company has a satellite team consisting of five employees dedicated to projects...Forestry from 'Landsat Imagery: A Unique Resource'
Landsat satellites provide high-quality, multi-spectral imagery of the surface of the Earth. These moderate-resolution, remotely sensed images are not just pictures, but contain many layers of data collected at different points along the visible and invisible light spectrum.Environment from 'Landsat Imagery: A Unique Resource'
Landsat satellites provide high-quality, multi-spectral imagery of the surface of the Earth. These moderate-resolution, remotely sensed images are not just pictures, but contain many layers of data collected at different points along the visible and invisible light spectrum.Global Food Security-Support Analysis Data at 30 m (GFSAD30)
Using remote sensing data, especially Landsat data to map cropland extent, and crop types, to support managing water supplies for both energy and food production to ensure global food security.By - News
Read about Landsat science, Landsat milestones and more!
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