Multimedia Gallery

Mike Poland, Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, gives an overview of activity at Yellowstone Volcano during January 2021.
 

The visible impact of climate change on the Earth’s surface is often clearest in the Arctic’s receding glaciers and swelling glacial lakes. Southeastern Alaska’s Harlequin Lake is one of the fastest-growing in North America. These false color Landsat images show the rapidly-retreating Yakutat Glacier, which feeds the lake. Landsat can be used to illustrate the lake’s

Alaska's coastal and offshore waters provide foraging habitat for an estimated 100 million birds comprising more than 90 different species. Researchers at the USGS Alaska Science Center work in collaboration with many partner agencies, non-governmental organizations, universities and rehabilitation centers to investigate seabirds. USGS ecosystems research is focused on

On December 26th, 2004, a massive 9.1 magnitude earthquake struck off the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The third largest earthquake ever recorded lifted the sea floor several meters, causing tsunami waves to ripple out in all directions and race across the ocean. Banda Aceh bore the brunt of the waves just 15 to 20 minutes after the earthquake. Waves in some

The waves of sugar cane that once defined the Hawaiian island landscape of Maui, have slowly given way to non-native annual grasses in recent decades. Those grasses have become a fire hazard along the way.

The closure of central Maui's last large cane mill in 2016 opened up some 36,000 acres for new growth. Some of those acres burned in 2019 during one of the island

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

A 2020 year in review of the many accomplishments of the US Geological Survey. A year that began with seismic activity in Southwest Puerto Rico, to the first-ever public testing of USGS ShakeAlerts, USGS scientists and technicians helped to track storm data during the 2020 Atlantic Hurricane season. Mapping in high resolution the Nation's rivers and streams, to precise

Lava Returns to Halema'uma'u, as captured in this timelapse from the K2cam, located at the HVO Observation Tower (Kīlauea Volcano). Timelapse is from December 20, 2020, 5:50 a.m. to December 21, 2020, 11:57 p.m. The K2cam is a research camera mounted in the observation tower at the previous Hawaiian Volcano Observatory building on the rim of Kīlauea caldera within Hawai'i

The western wall of Uzbekistan's Sardoba Reservoir breached on May 1st, 2020 after a week of heavy rain. Thousands were evacuated as water rushed north into farmland and villages across the central Asian country and into neighboring Kazakhstan. Imagery from Europe's Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite shows water pooling across a wide area. In the May 4th image 3 days after

An introduction to the New England Water Science Center's Director and his vision for the Center.
 

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

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

La relación entre la gente y los incendios forestales siempre ha sido paradójica: el fuego es esencial como proceso ecológico y herramienta de gestión, pero también puede ser perjudicial para la vida y la propiedad. En consecuencia, los regímenes de incendios se han modificado a lo largo de la historia, mediante quemas intencionales para promover sus beneficios o mediante

Just what is the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory? In this video, Mike Poland, Scientist-in-Charge of YVO, gives an overview of the institutions that make up the Observatory, how YVO monitors volcano and earthquake activity at Yellowstone, the geologic hazards of the region, and some of the noteworthy new results and observations from YVO scientists.
 

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

Data products from the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center have long informed the delivery of food aid through a partnership with the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET). New research explores the use of satellite data to improve index insurance, an affordable crop insurance product that aims to help farmers in developing countries make

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