Multimedia Gallery

The relationship between people and wildfire has always been paradoxical: fire is an essential ecological process and management tool but can also be detrimental to life and property. Consequently, fire regimes have been modified throughout history through both intentional burning to promote benefits and active suppression to reduce risks. Reintroducing fire and its

The relationship between people and wildfire has always been paradoxical: fire is an essential ecological process and management tool but can also be detrimental to life and property. Consequently, fire regimes have been modified throughout history through both intentional burning to promote benefits and active suppression to reduce risks. Reintroducing fire and its

Petermann Glacier in northwestern Greenland is known to generate large icebergs, most notably in 2010 and 2012. Another large iceberg may be forming now. A new rift was spotted on the glacier in 2017. Since then, imagery from both Landsat and Europe's Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites show the rift lengthening and meeting up with and older crack. The potential iceberg could

This is EROS.

It's located just north of Sioux Falls in South Dakota in the United States on the planet Earth!

EROS stands for Earth Resources Observation and Science. It's a federal government facility where over 600 talented women and men work together to capture, store, and study images of the Earth taken from high above. Our Earth is always changing, and

Mike Poland, Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, gives an overview of activity at Yellowstone during October 2020.
 

The punishing derecho storm that struck the Midwest in early August had an immediate impact on Iowa's farm fields. But it took weeks for the long term damage to appear in satellite imagery. Landsat 8 passed over central Iowa just one day after 100 mile per hour winds pummeled fields of corn and soybeans leaving thousands without power. The lighter shades of green in  the

Yellowstone Volcano Observatory Scientist-in-Charge Mike Poland visits Yellowstone National Park to tell the story of how the ground there moves up and down over time. This motion has been measured using a variety of techniques over the past 100 years, and from geological mapping scientists can even tell how the ground has moved going back about 15,000 years! This research

The Landsat archive is the world's longest continuously collected record of the Earth's surface. In mid September, it notched another milestone by adding its nine millionth scene. This particular image from north central Paraguay helps tell the kind of story that only a long historical record like Landsat can. The rectangular tracks of brown and tan that dapple the

As part of Earth Science Week 2020, USGS scientist Shannon Mahan takes us on a tour of quartz and how geologists like her use quartz to study all kinds of things, from earthquakes to archaeology.
 

Join the USGS St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center on an adventure in the field! Our team of scientists will take you on board a personal watercraft near downtown St. Pete to show you how they collect bathymetry data – which is the depth of the ocean floor (in this case, Tampa Bay). This video was created as part of the 2020 St. Petersburg Science Festival (

Mike Poland, Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, gives an overview of activity at Yellowstone during September 2020.
 

The importance of our Nation’s coasts is indisputable. They provide homes for people and animals alike, and support the Nation’s economy. The USGS Coastal Change Hazards team studies how our shorelines change over time, especially following extreme events such as storms and hurricanes. In this video, created for the 2020 virtual St.

The importance of our Nation’s coasts is indisputable. They provide homes for people and animals alike, and support the Nation’s economy. The USGS Coastal Change Hazards team studies how our shorelines change over time, especially following extreme events such as storms and hurricanes. In this video, created for the 2020 virtual St.

Throughout the historically active 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season,USGS hydrologists have been working quickly to collect vital flood and streamflow information in impacted areas.

An overview of LCMAP Collection 1 Science Products: Annual Land Cover Change

LCMAP Collection 1 science products include 10 data sets offering different perspectives for the study of land change across the country, through time. While the Annual Land Cover Change product looks very similar to the Primary Land Cover product it contains additional data allowing users

As fire season continues in the western United States let's look back at a number of incidents tracked by officials across California in August. These fires were captured during the day by Landsats 7 and 8, in natural color bands of the visible spectrum. Landsat sensors also record infrared wavelengths revealing burn scars and active fires. Natural color images show smoke

Welcome to the "The I Am A..." series. This is the second video in a series of USGS whiteboard animations that highlight USGS careers. The concept is to show "what society (or my mom) thinks I do" compared with "what I really do." One image captures a more whimsical representation of a "scientist" in the field and the second demonstrates a more accurate representation of

In Russia's Extreme North, a widening chasm known as the Batagaika Crater provides a unique opportunity to study the past. Early declassified aerial images recorded the crater's growth in the 1960s and 1970s followed by multispectral sensor imagery captured by Landsat and Sentinel satellites, building a continuous view over the last 60 years. But the gash in the ground

Mike Poland, Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, gives an overview of activity at Yellowstone during August 2020.
 

In Montana, wildfire swept across Flathead Lake's 30 acre Bird Island in early August of 2020. Landsat 8 captured this imagery one day after the fire began. The satellite's short wave infrared and near infrared bands reveal the active fire covering approximately half of the island. Smoke obscures the remainder. The same band combination highlights healthy vegetation 16

Welcome to the "The I Am A..." series. This is the first video in a series of USGS whiteboard animations that highlight USGS careers. The concept is to show "what society (or my mom) thinks I do" compared with "what I really do." One image captures a more whimsical representation of a "scientist" in the field and the second demonstrates a more accurate representation of

This summer in central India, a mystery in color emerged. In the space of just days, the surface of Lonar Lake turned bright pink, then returned to green. As scientists study the cause of the event, other lakes around the world offer clues. Australia's salty Lake Hillier is filled with microscopic pink organisms, as well as algae that turn red when stressed to help absorb

Will my existing workflow still be supported? Landsat downloads will continue to be available via EarthExplorer, LandsatLook, and other familiar USGS tools as they are today, without a noticeable difference to the user. The Landsat record will also remain free and open, with downloads available at no charge to the user.
 

Mike Poland, Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, gives an overview of activity at Yellowstone during July 2020.
 

LANDFIRE (LF) Remap is the most comprehensive mapping effort in LF's history. This years-long effort included updating the base maps across the original data product suite to create LF's second base map product suite consisting of 28 vegetation and fuels layers. LF Remap products reflect circa 2016 ground conditions. Learn more at https://

LCMAP Collection 1 includes 10 Science Products, offering different perspectives for the study of land change across the country, through time. The primary and secondary land cover products, provide important information on the most likely land cover class for each pixel. Their associated confidence products record the level of confidence in each classification.
 

Summer vacation plans changed for many in 2020. Whatever your plans, Landsat can take you on a virtual road trip. Landsat 8, in its sun-synchronous polar orbit, views every national park in the U.S. every 16 days and gathers more photographic data than the most ambitious of tourists.
 

Mike Poland, Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, gives an overview of activity at Yellowstone during June 2020.
 

Reflections on the Ridgecrest earthquake sequence one year after from a few USGS employees. Employees discuss when they first heard about the magnitude 6.4 and notable professional experiences that happened afterwards.
 

In a remote part of the Sahara Desert in Egypt, center pivot irrigation fields fill the landscape. Thanks to the Landsat archive, we can see how dramatically this area has changed over the last 35 years. But until the growth in irrigation, this part of the world hadn't changed much from a satellite's perspective. That's why Landsat calibration engineers originally chose it

The Landsat series of Earth-observing satellites has been continuously acquiring land surface imagery since 1972. Over 8.5 million Landsat scenes are currently available for download. Soon it will all be accessible from a cloud environment, in a cloud optimized format that gives you more flexible, customized access. In the past, users could spend 80% of their time

The “LP DAAC Prospectus: 2019 to 2021” short video features the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC), a key access point for global land remote sensing data. The video provides an overview of the significance of the DAAC’s archive and distribution functions, explains the depth of the user

Mike Poland, Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, gives an overview of activity at Yellowstone during May 2020.
 

Do you have what it takes to be a bat biologist? USGS bat researchers are counting Townsend’s big eared bats to monitor how their populations are doing. Watch the video to try your hand at a bat count and see how your skills compare to a USGS scientist! You don’t need sound to count the bats—but if you turn your sound on you’ll be able to hear the bats’ echolocation calls

This video discusses how adhesion and cohesion work together to create capillary action! There is an experiment at the end of the video to demonstrate this as well! If you would like to do the experiment with us you will need: 1) Coffee filter 2) Washable marker 3) Glass of water
 

Why does the GEDI orbit footprint look the way it does? GEDI produces high resolution laser ranging observations of the Earth's forests and topography. GEDI was deployed to the International Space Station in 2018, and captures data along the ISS orbit shown here. When viewed in two dimensions, the ISS orbit resembles a net of offset waves This animation shows a full GEDI

London Bridge was indeed falling down. Set to be torn apart and replaced in the 1960s, this bridge across the River Thames was purchased by businessman Robert McCulloch in April 1968 and shipped across the Atlantic, to Lake Havasu City, Arizona, billed as the world's largest antique. USGS aerial photos show the location in 1969, and in 1972, before and after the bridge's

Mike Poland, Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, gives an overview of activity at Yellowstone during April 2020.
 

Bored with nothing to do? Not enough “tiger” shows to watch? How about exploring something new? Try The National Map Corps!

Discover new places, learn new things along with contributing to our national mapping efforts. And, for your submissions, you will earn points toward virtual badges. What are you waiting for?

JOIN TODAY

Bored with nothing to do? Not enough “tiger” shows to watch? How about exploring something new? Try The National Map Corps!

Discover new places, learn new things along with contributing to our national mapping efforts. And, for your submissions, you will earn points toward virtual badges. What are you waiting for?

JOIN TODAY

The Staten Island Industrial Park in New York is now home to warehouse and distribution centers for companies like Amazon and IKEA, seen here in imagery from Europe's Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite. But aerial imagery from 1995 shows large oil storage tanks in the same location. The observed changes in this industrial zone highlight an interesting evolution from an

The study of the Earth's natural life cycles is known as phenology. Scientists track the emergence of shoots and leaves, blooming flowers and pollinators as phenological signals every spring. Spring has sprung earlier than usual in much of the United States this year. The USA National Phenology Network notes that much of the country has seen spring come 3 to 4 weeks faster

Mike Poland, Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, gives an overview of activity at Yellowstone during March 2020.
 

This video is a brief but informative introduction to the life and work of Florence Bascom, the first woman hired by USGS! It describes the significance of her accomplishments at USGS and the legacy of her work beyond geology. This video was produced by the Florence Bascom Geoscience Center a USGS science center recently renamed in honor of Bascom and organized within the

Antarctica has been the source for a host of fascinating satellite imagery in recent months. We've offered scenes from the southern solstice, images of icebergs adrift, and shots of pooling meltwater during some of the warmest days on record for the frozen continent. An international team of scientists onboard a U.S. research vessel recently made another discovery related

This Landsat 8 image from May 24th, 2017 shows an enthralling New Zealand landscape. Snow-capped mountain peaks, forests, farmland, and fog highlight the picturesque view of New Zealand's North Island. The scene was downloaded on March 9th, 2020 one of over 29,000 Landsat scenes downloaded worldwide that day. But this scene is special. It marks the 100 millionth downloaded

Landsat recently captured the most widespread meltwater pooling ever recorded on Antarctica's George VI Ice Shelf. Some melting is expected during the Antarctic summer, but the sheer extent of the stunning aqua ponds that have appeared amid the continent's warmest summer on record is remarkable.

Ponds appeared two years earlier in some of the same locations