At 438 miles (705 km) above the Earth, Landsat satellites capture our planet. From mapping wildfires and permafrost thaw in Alaska to tracking algal blooms and spongy moth invasions in Ohio, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Landsat Program offers an expansive list of benefits across all 50 States.
State-specific fact sheets produced by the USGS National Land Imaging Program pinpoint Landsat’s continuing contribution to the health and well-being of the nation’s land resources. Check out your State! The publications tab below hosts all 50 fact sheets. For an interactive learning experience, visit the Remote Sensing Classroom.
Landsat is the most widely used land remote sensing data source within Federal civilian agencies. Local, State, Tribal, and Federal agencies use Landsat to monitor and forecast a wide range of land surface phenomena. Information from Landsat contributes to day-to-day decisions on land, water, and resource use that protect life and property; safeguard the environment; advance science, technology, and education; support climate change resiliency; and grow the U.S. economy.
Landsat’s imagery provides a landscape-level view of land surface, inland lake, and coastal processes, both natural and human-induced. Landsat enables us to better understand the scope, nature, and speed of change to the natural and built environment, with an estimated return of $2.06 billion in annual economic benefit in the U.S. alone.
Landsat’s 50-year record and gold standard of data quality have made its archive an indispensable tool for GIS-based research. Landsat 9 carries on that tradition of excellence, maintaining the program’s continuity for its myriad users and uses.
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