Images

Example of Landsat Provisional Actual Evapotranspiration for agricultural fields near Sterling, Colorado in the South Platte Basin, using data acquired by Landsat 8 (Path 32 Row 32) on July 31, 2018; Left: Natural Color Surface Reflectance Image, Right: Actual Evapotranspiration Image.

The Landsat archive has added its 8 millionth scene. This stunning image was captured by Landsat 8 on July 28, 2018. It shows the coastline of Nordaustlandet, the second-largest island in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago.

This image showing the Black Hills and Badlands, South Dakota is a mosaic of multiple Landsat 8 scenes acquired in 2015 and 2016. 

The Lake Eyre Basin is one of the driest places in Australia. But this image features a rare green flush to this otherwise parched landscape. Streams and creeks that drain into the basin are usually dry, but storms in March 2018 delivered water to these braided channels. By April, the floodwater had receded and left a green expanse behind.

Imagery collected over Antarctica by satellites like Landsat is typically marked by highly reflective snow and ice, but isolated pockets of wind-swept glacial ice glow with a distinct blue.

Ivanpah Playa Radiometric Calibration Site

Learn more about this Test Site at https://calval.cr.usgs.gov/apps/ivanpah.

Soft colors contrast with harsh terrain in southwestern Saudi Arabia, near the border with Yemen. Calming blues and purples seem to collide with an angry orange in this rich tapestry of colors, which are the result of the region’s complex geology. The wild shapes in this busy landscape lie in a region known as the Asharah fault zone.

Artist's concept of Landsat 8 orbting the Earth. 

Image Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

In September 2017, Landsat 8's Operational Land Imager (OLI) Landsat 8 captured this image of a large phytoplankton bloom in Lake Erie, near Toledo, Ohio. 

How many pictures have you taken with your smartphone? Too many to count? However many it is, Landsat 8 probably has you beat. Landsat 8 acquires images at a rate of about 750 per day, and just a little over 4 years after launch in February 2013, the Earth-observing satellite on May 31, 2017, acquired its 1 millionth scene!

Landsat image of the Providence, RI area showing damage from spongy moth caterpillars (Lymantria dispar). The caterpillars devour the leaves of hardwood trees, causing the greatest damage in late June as the larvae reach maturity. In this natural color Landsat image, the impacted areas show as brown.

In the summer of 1988, a wildfire ravaged the world's first national park, consuming 1.2 million acres in and around the Greater Yellowstone Park ecosystem.

The 122nd Boston Marathon, the oldest annual marathon in the world, takes place on April 16, 2018. This Landsat 8 image shows the April landscape of eastern Massachusetts, before vegetation has greened up. The yellow line indicates the point-to-point route that the marathon follows.

Landsat image of the area near Providence, Rhode Island. This natural color Landsat composite was created using the red, green and blue bands. 

Learn more about the Landsat program

The biologically complex conditions of mangroves are shown in dark green along the fingers of the Ord River in Australia. Yellow, orange, and blue represent the impressive flow patterns of sediment and nutrients in this tropical estuary. The bright spot at the lower left is an area of mudflats, which is home to saltwater crocodiles.

Canyonlands National Park was one of four national parks established (1964) under the leadership of Interior Secretary Stewart Udall. 

Landsat 8, acquired March 29, 2015.

This Landsat 8 image of central Ethiopia, acquired January 1, 2014, uses the shortwave infrared, near infrared, and red spectral bands (bands 6,5,4) to emphasize vegetation and land cover. In this combination, healthy vegetation appears bright green.

These cloud patterns cast eerie shadows on the landscape of southern Egypt. The clouds appear red and the desert below hazy blue in this infrared rendition.

Artist's rendering of Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM). The satellite was renamed Landsat 8 after a successful launch on February 11, 2013. 

Visit this Landsat 8 webpage to learn more about the Landsat program.

This image is a portion of the first Landsat 8 scene acquired May 12, 2013 (Path 107, Rows 70-71) in Western Australia. Geoscience Australia, a Landsat International Cooperator and a Landsat Science Team member, produced this enhanced image. Water and land were masked, separately enhanced, and then reassembled. 

Left: Landsat 8 Collection 2 level-1 top of atmosphere reflectance image, center: Landsat 8 Collection 2 level-2 atmospherically corrected surface reflectance image, and right: Landsat 8 Collection 2 level-2 surface temperature image for an area over the Sapta Koshi River in Bairawa, Nepal (path 140 row 41) acquired on