Images

Eleven days after a wildfire first sparked south of Fort McMurray in northern Alberta, Landsat 8’s Operational Land Imager (OLI) captured imagery of one of the most destructive infernos in Canadian history. The fire has burned an area approaching 600,000 acres.

Image of the Week: A massive wildfire burning near Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada, fueled by dry conditions and high winds, has destroyed 1,600 structures and forced more than 88,000 people to evacuate the area so far.

When the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded 30 years ago, on April 26, 1986, Landsat 5 was the first civilian satellite to confirm the disaster near Pripyat, Ukraine, in the agricultural heartland of the Soviet Union.  

Alaska surveying crew circa 1924 using alidade and plane table; transportation by dogsled. USGS photo files.

The 122nd Boston Marathon, the oldest annual marathon in the world, takes place on April 16, 2018. This Landsat 8 image shows the April landscape of eastern Massachusetts, before vegetation has greened up. The yellow line indicates the point-to-point route that the marathon follows.

Ice covering Beaufort Sea near the Arctic Ocean typically reaches full-blown breakup by late May each year as air and water temperatures warm, and as daylight turns longer. But 2016 has been dramatically different.

Using shortwave infrared, near infrared, and visible bands, these Landsat images provide a before and after look at the 350 Complex and Anderson Creek fires.

Landsat images used by Colombia's Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM) determined that total forest land cover in the country has dropped from 56.8 percent in 1990 to 52.6 percent by 2012, or almost 5 million hectares.

Image of the Week: Landsat imagery shows a dramatic change in lakes Azuéi and Enriquillo, inland saltwater lakes on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola that are known for their crocodiles and iguanas.

In a world becoming increasingly urbanized, few cities have seen growth as dramatic as that occurring in India's capital of New Delhi.

These Landsat images show the remarkable transformation of desert sand in 1986 into green, circular fields—some as large as 1 kilometer across—by 2016

Though the park celebrates its 100th anniversary on August 1, 2016, its main attractions-Kilauea and Mauna Loa volcanoes-have been adding to the land mass of Hawaii’s “Big Island” for at least 400,000 years.

The total area (land and water) of Rhode Island is only 1,545 square miles. The state measures about 37 miles east-west, and about 48 miles north-south.

Capital Providence

Image Source Landsat 8

Population 1,097,379

Number of Pixels 3,162,631

The Salar de Atacama in Chile is a large, dry salt flat surrounded by mountain ranges and is one of the driest places on Earth. Parts of the Atacama Desert have gone without rain for as long as people have been keeping track, but water rich in dissolved salts lies beneath this flat surface. The Salar is particularly rich in lithium salts.

Earth Science reminds us that the study of Earth and its biological processes can occur anywhere—whether we realize it or not.

High Resolution Orthoimagery archived at the USGS EROS Center and inset into the larger image show the New Jersey coastal town of Mantoloking five years before Sandy made landfall, as well as the slow recovery three years after the storm.

Land Remote Sensing Image of Mount St. Helens on May 22, 1983. The volcanic blast on May 18, 1980, devastated more than 150 square miles of forest within a few minutes. In this Landsat false-color images, forest appears as bright red interspersed with patches of logging. Snow appears white, and ash is gray.

Canyonlands National Park was one of four national parks established (1964) under the leadership of Interior Secretary Stewart Udall. 

Landsat 8, acquired March 29, 2015.

Landsat 8 OLI image of retreating glacial ice near Eltanin Bay, West Antarctica

Remote pilot monitoring the flight of a UAS at the Sequoyah NWR

The NUSO and the USFWS in February 2015 evaluated the use of UAS data collection to improve waterfowl survey accuracy and eliminate pilot/passenger safety risks associated with manned aircraft data collection. 

This Landsat 8 image of central Ethiopia, acquired January 1, 2014, uses the shortwave infrared, near infrared, and red spectral bands (bands 6,5,4) to emphasize vegetation and land cover. In this combination, healthy vegetation appears bright green.