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Landsat In Action

By Landsat Missions

The Landsat Program provides over 40 years of calibrated medium spatial resolution data in support of a range of applications in areas such as global change research, agriculture, forestry, geology, land cover mapping, resource management, and water and coastal studies. 

This page contains examples of regional and global Landsat data applications that can assist policy makers and land managers in making informative decisions about our environment and Earth's natural resources.

 

The glacier positions on this NPS map of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska, were updated based on recent Landsat images.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain.

National Park Service Cartographer Tom Patterson Talks Landsat

 

 

 

 

 

Corn and Soybean Map Using Landsat
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. Visit Media to see details.

Satellites, supercomputers, and machine learning provide real-time crop type data

 

 

 

 

 

 

Screenshot of the Satellite Forest Monitoring in Canada interface
Sources/Usage: Public Domain.

Landsat Data Valuable in the Assessment of Forest Change in Canada

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Google Earth Engine’s Timelapse Viewer
Sources/Usage: Public Domain.

Google Powers Platform for Earth Science Data and Analysis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Composited Tasseled Cap brightness, greenness, and wetness image of the Bale Mountains, Ethiopia
Sources/Usage: Public Domain.

LandsatLinkr - Harmonizing the Landsat Archive

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Geospatial Data Analysis in-season crop type map for the United States
Sources/Usage: Public Domain.

Landsat Provides Near Real-Time Global Agricultural Analysis

 

 

 

 

 

Brown Marsh in Southeast Louisiana

Landsat Maps Global Surface Water and its Long-Term Changes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image: Sheridan Glacier from the Air
Sources/Usage: Public Domain.

Landsat 8 Tracks the Velocity of Glaciers and Ice Sheets in Near Real-Time

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Global Forest Watch Interface screenshot
Sources/Usage: Public Domain.

Monitoring the World's Forests

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related Content

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Landsat in Action - Infrastructure of Landsat Data with Matt Hansen
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Landsat in Action - Google's Earth Engine with Noel Gorelick
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Landsat in Action - Advocating for Landsat with Kass Green
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Landsat in Action - Forestry Research with Warren Cohen
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Landsat in Action - Monitoring Crop Land with Martha Anderson
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Landsat in Action - Minnesota Lakes with Leif Olmanson
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Landsat in Action - Free & Open Landsat Archive with Barbara Ryan
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Landsat in Action - Monitoring Canada's Forest with Mike Wulder
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Landsat in Action - Changing Forest Phenology with Andrew Elmore
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Landsat In Action - Assessing Global Impact with Alan Belward

Urban planners and urban geographers turn to Landsat for answers

Government organizations that manage and mitigate the continued growth of cities are looking increasingly to the sky for assistance.
Authors
By
Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center

Landsat plays a key role in reducing hunger on earth

The United Nations’ Department of Economic and Social Affairs predicts 9.7 billion people will sit down every day to the global dinner table by 2050. If this prediction is correct, the world is going to need more crops, more livestock, and more efficient and sustainable agricultural practices.
Authors
By
Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center , Landsat Missions

Landsat helps bolster food security

One of the cruelest, most complex narratives in the world today (2019) is written in the hunger of sub-Saharan Africa. When famine is the only yield from the scorched Earth, survival often depends on a heart-rending calculation—how far is the distant feeding center and how close is the nearest well?
Authors
By
Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center , Landsat Missions

Landsat brings understanding to the impact of industrialization

In his 1963 book, “The Quiet Crisis,” former Interior Secretary Stewart Udall lamented what he called the decline of natural resources in the United States under the advancements of industrialization and urbanization.
Authors
By
Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center , Landsat Missions

When wildfire damage threatens humans, Landsat provides answers

A wildfire’s devastation of forest and rangeland seldom ends when the last embers die. In the western United States, rain on a scorched mountainside can turn ash into mudslides. Debris flows unleashed by rainstorms can put nearby homes into harm’s way and send people scrambling for safety. The infrared capabilities of Landsat satellite imagery provide vita information about potential dangers after
Authors
Steven Young
By
Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center , Landsat Missions

Landsat—The watchman that never sleeps

In western North America, where infestations of mountain pine beetles continue to ravage thousands of acres of forest lands, Landsat satellites bear witness to the onslaught in a way that neither humans nor most other satellites can see.
Authors
Steven Young
By
Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center , Landsat Missions

Mapping water use—Landsat and water resources in the United States

Using Landsat satellite data, scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey have helped to refine a technique called evapotranspiration mapping to measure how much water crops are using across landscapes and through time. These water-use maps are created using a computer model that integrates Landsat and weather data.Crucial to the process is the thermal (infrared) band from Landsat. Using the Landsa
Authors
Rebecca L. Johnson
By
Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center , Landsat Missions

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