Images

Natural color Landsat 5 image of the Great Salt Lake acquired on July 1, 1986. In 1986, the lake was at a record high and covered approximately 2,300 square miles and contained 30 million acre-feet of water (an acre-foot is the amount of water necessary to cover 1 acre of land with water 1 foot in depth or about 326,000 gallons).

The Volga River is the longest river in Europe and empties into the northwestern part of the Caspian Sea. The green in this image is algal bloom mixed with mud, the result of the chemical pollutants deposited in the Delta.

EROS Employee Aaron Neugebauer holding fish from the EROS pond. 

Clouds encircle the lofty rim of Africa's Mount Elgon, a huge, long-extinct volcano on the border between Uganda and Kenya. The solitary volcano has one of the world's largest intact calderas, a cauldron-like central depression.

Landsat 4's first light image captured eastern Lake Erie, and the cities of Toledo, Detroit, and Windsor on July 25, 1982. Although the Landsat program had been collecting images of the Earth since 1972, this was the first time that the data could be depicted as a natural color image due to the new Thematic Mapper sensor onboard Landsat 4.

The first Landsat 4 image was acquired over western Lake Erie on July 25, 1982, just 9 days after launch. This image shows the Detroit River dividing the metropolitan areas of Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario while acting as a strait between Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair.

One of Landsat 3’s first images, captured by the Multispectral Scanner (MSS) 4 days after launch, features a slice of Northern California on March 7, 1978. San Jose sits in Santa Clara Valley touching the southernmost portion of San Francisco. This image showcases the urbanization of the valley, which exploded in the 1970s as Silicon Valley grew.

The Multispectral Scanner (MSS) onboard the Landsat 2 satellite captured the data used to create this color infrared image on May 15,1975. Chesapeake Bay leads up the image to Baltimore, Maryland, and the Potomac River leads west and north up to Washington, DC. 

Landsat 2’s first light image captured Drayton Valley in Alberta, Canada on January 24, 1975. Located along Canadian Highway 22, also known as Cowboy Trail, the town’s original economy thrived on faming and logging. The discovery of the Pembina oil field in 1953 contributed to explosive growth in the sparsely populated area, w

This false-color image, captured by Landsat 1 on February 13, 1974, shows the landscape around Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta. Using bands 7 (near-infrared), 6 (red), and 5 (green), the image highlights water in dark blue, sediment-laden channels in lighter shades of blue, and vegetation in shades of yellow and green. 

Landsat 2’s first light image features a slice of Alberta, Canada, captured on January 24, 1975 on Path 047 Row 023. This false color images uses two near infrared bands and the red band (Bands 7,6,5).

Learn more about Landsat 2 by visiting the Landsat 2 Mission Web Page

This Landsat 1 image, acquired on January 13, 1973, offers one of the earliest satellite perspectives of Antarctica’s Ross Island and McMurdo Sound. Captured using the Multispectral Scanner’s (MSS) near-infrared, red, and green bands (6, 5, 4), the image highlights the region's glaciated terrain, floating sea ice, and volcanic peaks.

This early Landsat 1 image, acquired on July 31, 1972, captures the Kennicott, Nabesna, and Barnard Glaciers in southeastern Alaska—just a week after the satellite’s launch. Using bands 6, 5, and 4, the image reveals glacial ice, rugged mountain terrain, and braided rivers within the Wrangell–St. Elias region.

The very first image in the Landsat archive is the MSS image above, showing the Dallas - Fort Worth area of Texas on July 25, 1972. The resolution is 60 meters per pixel in this false-color image, where shades of red indicate vegetated land and grays and whites are urban or rocky surfaces.

Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, slid into Landsat 1's view on July 25, 1972. In this false-color image, shades of red indicate vegetated land and grays and whites are urban or rocky surfaces. The composite image is shown using the near-infrared, red and green bands (bands 7, 5, 4) at a 60 meter resolution.

The Secretary learns about Ball's Landsat technology from Program Manager of the NPOESS Prep Project Scott Tennant.

"As our future scientists, it is important that these students understand the Department's role in space-based science and how they can make a positive impact on the Colorado economy by pursuing high tech jobs," said Secretary Salazar. "I applaud schools like Skyline for providing the resources and training needed to create an innovative workforce."

Castle, McNutt, Salazar, and Taylor meet inside the Ball Aerospace facility.