Landsat Archives - Geography Realm

An agriculture field in California. Photo: U.S. Geological Survey. Public domain

Geospatial Technology and Challenges of Contemporary Agriculture

October 10, 2021December 6, 2020 by Mark Altaweel

Farmers have greater access to geospatial tools that can help mitigate some agricultural challenges.

Three moments in a tumultuous year for farming north of St. Louis, MO, as seen in NASA-USGS Landsat 8 data. On the left is May 7, 2019, as heavy rains delayed planting for many farms. Sept 12, 2019, in the middle, shows bright green signifying growing vegetation, although with a fair amount of brown, bare fields. On the right, Oct. 14, 2019, the light brown indicates harvested fields while darker brown are fields that have not been seeded or fallow all summer. Credits: NASA

Monitoring Crop Production Via Satellite

December 6, 2020December 28, 2019 by Elizabeth Borneman

To cope with ever-changing agricultural needs and conditions, the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (or NASS) uses data from Landsat to monitor crops in the contiguous United States.

Landsat Island captured by Landsat 8 in 2014. Image: NASA.

How This Remote Island Inhabited by Polar Bears Became Known as Landsat Island

October 14, 2021March 28, 2017 by Elizabeth Borneman

Discovered in 1976 in imagery captured by Landsat 1, Landsat Island (60° 10′ 37″N, 64° 02′ 30″W) is solely populated by polar bears.

This animation shows the movement of ice and debris near Panmah Glacier in Pakistan, near Central Karakoram National Park. The 17 false-color images were captured between August 1990 and July 2015 by the Thematic Mapper on Landsat 5, the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus on Landsat 7, and the Operational Land Imager on Landsat 8. Source: NASA.

Karakoram Anomaly

April 19, 2016 by Elizabeth Borneman

Using Landsat satellite data, researchers compiled videos and still pictures of glaciers from four regions in the Karakoram mountains in central Asia. Unlike other glacial regions in the world, glaciers in the Karakoram are advancing rather than retreating.