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Core Science Systems Mission Area

CSS leads USGS’s mission as the civilian mapping agency for the Nation. We conduct detailed surveys and develop high quality, highly accurate topographic, geologic, hydrographic, and biogeographic maps and data. Our maps allow precise planning for critical mineral assessments; energy development; infrastructure projects; urban planning; flood prediction; emergency response; and haz

News

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Bringing EROS Work to AGU

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Mapping Challenge Update (12/07/23): Hospitals, Ambulances, and Fire Stations in Utah

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USGS and the Navajo Nation: Building stronger relationships by supporting Earth observation science, while respecting Navajo culture

Publications

At what scales does a river meander? Scale-specific sinuosity (S3) metric for quantifying stream meander size distribution

Stream bend geometry is linked to terrain features, hydrologic and ecologic conditions, and anthropogenic forces. Knowledge of the distributions of geometric properties of streams advances understanding of changing landscape conditions and associated processes that operate over a range of spatial scales. Statistical decomposition of sinuosity in natural linear features has proven a longstanding ch
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Larry Stanislawski, Barry J. Kronenfeld, Barbara P. Buttenfield, Ethan J. Shavers

Need and vision for global medium-resolution Landsat and Sentinel-2 data products

Global changes in climate and land use are threatening natural ecosystems, biodiversity, and the ecosystem services people rely on. This is why it is necessary to track and monitor spatiotemporal change at a level of detail that can inform science, management, and policy development. The current constellation of multiple Landsat and Sentinel-2 satellites collecting imagery at predominantly ≤30-m s
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Volker C. Radeloff, David P. Roy, Mike Wulder, Martha Anderson, Bruce D. Cook, Christopher J. Crawford, Mark Friedl, Feng Gao, Noel Gorelick, Matthew Hansen, Sean Healey, Patrick Hostert, Glynn Hulley, Justin Huntington, Dave Johnson, Christopher Neigh, Alexei Lyapustin, Leo Lymburner, Nima Pahlevan, Jean-Francois Pekel, Theodore A. Scambos, Crystal Schaaf, Peter Strobl, Eric Vermote, Curtis Woodcock, Hankui K. Zhang, Zhe Zhu

A guide to creating an effective big data management framework

Many agencies and organizations, such as the U.S. Geological Survey, handle massive geospatial datasets and their auxiliary data and are thus faced with challenges in storing data and ingesting it, transferring it between internal programs, and egressing it to external entities. As a result, these agencies and organizations may inadvertently devote unnecessary time and money to convey data without
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Samantha Arundel, Kevin G McKeehan, Bryan B Campbell, Andrew N. Bulen, Philip T. Thiem

Science

Eyes on Earth Episode 109 – Fall 2023 EROS Poster Session

If you’ve never been to a scientific poster session, this episode will provide a taste of what it’s like.
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Eyes on Earth Episode 109 – Fall 2023 EROS Poster Session

If you’ve never been to a scientific poster session, this episode will provide a taste of what it’s like.
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Eyes on Earth Episode 108 – Landsat 8’s 100th Drag Make-Up Maneuver

The USGS EROS Landsat Flight Operations Team recently completed the 100th Drag Make-Up maneuver for Landsat 8.
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Eyes on Earth Episode 107 – EROS 50th: Land Cover, Part 2

The next step for two strong land cover products at USGS EROS is to combine them to create something even better.
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