Images

Mountain pine beetles are about the size of a grain of rice, so of course we can’t see them from space in satellite images. What is visible is what the beetles can do to a pine forest. The washed-out pink color indicates large areas of standing dead or damaged trees.

Citation: Citation_Information: Originator: U.S.

Burning Man is named for the wooden effigy set ablaze at the end of the weeklong celebration in the temporary metropolis of Black Rock City.

A total solar eclipse darkened the skies over the United States on Aug. 21, 2017.

Oshkosh, a town in the Nebraska Sandhills, was a prime location for viewing the eclipse. This Landsat 7 image shows the town at 11:33 a.m. local time on Aug. 18, 2016, a year before the total eclipse.

Landsat 8 captured satellite views of California's largest wildfire on record in the summer of 2018. The Mendocino Complex fire in northern California is a combination of two fires: the Ranch Fire and the River Fire.

Many lakes in South Dakota's Prairie Pothole Region are expanding. Lake Thompson in eastern South Dakota is one that has displayed remarkable change in recent decades.

The Landsat archive has added its 8 millionth scene. This stunning image was captured by Landsat 8 on July 28, 2018. It shows the coastline of Nordaustlandet, the second-largest island in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago.

Torrential rainfall swamped western Japan in July of 2018. The rain caused mudslides that flooded cities, damaged buildings and rattled the nation’s infrastructure.

Landsat sensor technology has come a long way since the days of the Return Beam Vidicon cameras on the first three Landsat satellites. Known as the RBV, it was originally intended to be the satellites’ primary sensor. But the Multispectral Scanner, or MSS, became the more stable and superior instrument.

This image showing the Black Hills and Badlands, South Dakota is a mosaic of multiple Landsat 8 scenes acquired in 2015 and 2016. 

Heavy spring rains and widespread flooding has killed more than 150 people and displaced thousands in Kenya this year.

New fissures opened up on Hawaii’s Big Island in early May 2018, spouting lava that destroyed homes in the Leilani Estates neighborhood.

The 2018 fire season is already active in the western United States. One of the larger wildfires so far is the Rattlesnake Fire. 

Decades of consistent data from Landsat help scientists monitor the growth of urban areas in a world where more than half of the population lives in cities.

Imagery collected over Antarctica by satellites like Landsat is typically marked by highly reflective snow and ice, but isolated pockets of wind-swept glacial ice glow with a distinct blue.

Images from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) onboard NASA's Terra satellite show how one area in South Korea transformed from mountainous forest to a world-class downhill skiing venue to get ready for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Volcán de Fuego in Guatemala erupted on January 31, 2018, and Landsat 8 acquired an image of the eruption a day later.

A three-year drought is threatening to cause city officials in Cape Town, South Africa, to shut off the tap water. The growing city of nearly 4 million relies mostly on reservoirs for its water supply. While drought is part of the cause of the current crisis, an increasing population is also straining water resources.

Over the past few years, black smoke has been seen in satellite images billowing from various locations in Iraq. As Iraqi forces drive ISIS away, the terrorist group has been setting oil wells on fire as it retreats.

If you like being connected to the world everywhere you go with a smartphone or other device, then you have a desolate salt flat in northern Chile to thank.

A massive iceberg broke off Pine Island Glacier, Antarctica, in September 2017. Instead of drifting out to sea after calving, sea ice impeded the iceberg’s movement, and it cracked up into countless pieces nearly on the spot. Even though it broke up relatively quickly for an iceberg, it is more of a slow-motion shattering.