The Landsat Program - Resources

Resources

Image Resources

Please note: all images are FREE of cost and carry no copyright. NASA simply requests that users give proper attribution.

LandsatLook Images
LandsatLook images are full resolution ready-made Landsat images.. They are available as pseduo-natural color images or thermal greyscale images. LandsatLook images are very useful if you want a full-resolution image, but do not want to download the full data set and make a composite RGB image yourself.

Earth as Art
Originally designed as a celebration of 30 years of successful Landsat data collections, but expanded to include other Earth observing satellites. This collection of stunning images chosen purely for esthetic purposes

EarthShots: Satellite Images of Environmental Change
This site presents a series of case studies of environmental change illustrated through satellite images. Articles provide excellent explanation of the imagery, and references for further reading. Examples include urban growth of Las Vegas, NV, phosphate mines near Orlando FL, Great Salt Lake high water levels in the 1980s, Mt. St. Helens, and Hubbard Glacier.

USGS Landsat Image Gallery
An easy-to-browse array of images including such Earth features as volcanoes, floods, cities and more.

Visible Earth
This site is a treasure trove for interpreters or other educators needing illustrations of global or regional scale phenomena such as the ozone hole, volcanic activity, hurricanes, El Niño, etc. This archive of beautiful Earth imagery is arranged by topics, and updated constantly. You can search on Landsat. Each image has an explanation, and many are linked to stories in the news or on the Earth Observatory web site (see below).

Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS)
If you are looking for a zoom into Earth or out from it, this is the place to go (click on “great zooms”). The SVS creates an amazing array of images and animations using satellite and other data to illustrate research done by NASA. Searchable by keyword, and by instrument, many images and movies have text, and some are linked to science stories.

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Science Stories

Visit our News and Features section.

Landsat on Earth Observatory, (PDF, 84 Kb)
This document provides an annotated list of articles, arranged by topic, and featuring Landsat on NASA’s Earth Observatory Website. Earth Observatory features loads of relevant, up to date articles in layman’s language about NASA’s Earth science research. Any and all materials published on the Earth Observatory are freely available for re-publication or re-use, except where copyright is indicated. We ask that NASA’s Earth Observatory be given credit for its original materials. The free subscription option provides a short e-mail message letting you know what’s new each week.

Landsat (external link) in the American Museum of Natural History science bulletins (external link)
These AMNH bulletins include in-depth feature stories about Earth science. Landsat occasionally appears in these articles.

Landsat on the Scientific Visualization Studio
For impressive images, fly-through movies and zooms, as well as some science stories, visit the Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio, and search on “Landsat.” An archive of Earth science stories is available. Here are links to a few of their science stories that feature Landsat:

Urbanization and Sprawl: It's not so simple to say that one way of managing an urban area is better than another; cities have varied personalities and needs just like people. But many scientists hope that this research will help urban planners make better decisions about the futures of what are coming to be known as mega-cities.

Loss of Mesopotamian (Iraq) Wetlands: Landsat satellite imagery reveals that between 1990 and 2000, wetlands that once covered as much as 20,000 square km in parts of Iraq and Iran were reduced to a small fraction of their original size. Note: This article was written in 2000. Read what has happened with a recovery effort.

30 Years of Landsat: In 2002 NASA celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Landsat program. This article highlights some wonderful examples of Landsat's capability to observe changes over time, making use of the 30-year record of Earth observations. Images and movies are featured.

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Background Information

How Satellite Images are Made (PDF, 1.3 Mb)
This presentation briefly explains what Landsat measures, and what all those weird colors mean.
Download the accompanying Landsat 7 San Francisco Onionskin animation (Quicktime, 7.8 Mb)

Landsat 7 Compositor
The Compositor provides a visual explanation of satellite images. This site includes some basic information about the electromagnetic spectrum and the various wavelengths detected by the Landsat 7 satellite.

Introduction to Remote Sensing
Scroll down to "Introduction to Remote Sensing Presentations" and select the size file you want.

Thematic Guide: Land-Use and Land-Cover Change
by the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN)
This guide provides background information on important topics in land use and land cover change research: deforestation, desertification, biodiversity loss, land cover and the water cycle, land cover and the carbon cycle, and urbanization.

Geomorphology from Space
The core of this book (external link) is a gallery of 237 space-based images, each treating a geographic region where a particular landform theme is exemplified. Commentary, photographs, locator maps, and sometimes a geologic map accompany each plate.

LDCM Communications Toolkit (for Mac: 200.5 Mb; for PC: 227.5 Mb), December 2012
Landsat 7 Overview
Landsat Fact Sheet, March 2003 (PDF, 208 Kb)
The Landsat 7 Press Kit, April 1999 (PDF, 350 Kb)
Science Writers Guide, March 1999 (PDF, 380 Kb)
Landsat 7 Brochure, Pre-launch 1997 (PDF, 484 Kb)

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Educational Presentations

Using Remote Sensing Images in Interpretation (PDF, 3.9 Mb)

Working with Landsat Data (PDF, 4.2 Mb)

Take the Landform Quiz! (PDF, 32 Kb)
After downloading the quiz, open the Landform Quiz Slide Show (PowerPoint, 1.6 Mb ~or~ PDF, 1 Mb), and see if you can figure out which of the following landforms corresponds to each slide. (Some slides may have more than one correct answer). You may check your answers against the answer sheet (PDF, 20 Kb). Most of the images for this activity were obtained from the Earth as Art collection. For more information about each image, view the slide show in notes form (PowerPoint, 1.7 Mb ~or~ PDF, 1 Mb). Please feel free to create your own version of a Landforms Quiz using any of the imagery located on our website

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Landsat Application Book

The Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) builds on a rich legacy of service to society. LDCM is the eighth satellite in theLandsat series and will be renamed Landsat 8 after launch. The mission will extend the more than 40-year-long Landsat record of Earth's continental and coastal landscapes. Since the launch of Landsat 1 in 1972, Landsat satellites have become an integral part of many operational land management activities. Landsat satellites provide decision makers with key information about the world's food, forests, water and how these and other land resources are being used. The Landsat Application Book, Landsat: Continuting to Improve Everyday Life (PDF, 101 Mb), explores a number of important everyday uses of Landsat that benefit us as a society. The application book was published in Feb. 2013 and an eBook version will be available soon.

Front Cover (PDF, 2.3 Mb)
Introduction (PDF, 1.5 Mb)
LDCM Hardware (PDF, 1 Mb)
Natural Disasters: Burning Wildlands and a Burning Need for Landsat (PDF, 10.9 Mb)
Land Use and Land Cover Change: Effective Tools for Cleaning Our Waterways (PDF, 16.8 Mb)
Water: Mapping Water Use (PDF, 17.2 Mb)
Food: Monitoring Crops from Space: A Decades-Long Partnership (PDF, 11.5 Mb)
Ecosystems: Mapping the Western Pine Beetle (PDF, 17.7 Mb)
Forests: Counting the World's Trees (PDF, 21.7 Mb)
Built to Serve Society (PDF, 78 Kb)
Back Cover (PDF, 1 Mb)

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Landsat Fact Sheets

NASA's Landsat Fact Sheet series explores the ways in which Landsat data benefit society. Please feel free to download and print any of these.

Energy Fact Sheet, Winter 2013 (PDF, 774 Kb)
Natural Disasters Fact Sheet, Winter 2013 (PDF, 514 Kb)
Health Fact Sheet, Winter 2013 (PDF, 1.6 Mb)
Water Fact Sheet, Winter 2013 (PDF, 1.1 Mb)
Fire Fact Sheet, Summer 2012 (PDF, 709 Kb)
Forest Fact Sheet, Summer 2012 (PDF, 336 Kb)
Biodiversity Fact Sheet, Summer 2012 (PDF, 582 Kb)
Climate Change Fact Sheet, Summer 2012 (PDF, 795 Kb)
Urban Planning Fact Sheet, Winter 2010 (PDF, 290 Kb)
Agriculture Fact Sheet, Winter 2010 (PDF, 1 Mb)

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Landsat Publications

NASA's Landsat educational publications are brief informational handouts. Please feel free to download and print!

LDCM Launch Brochure, Winter 2012 (PDF, 18.1 Mb) Landsat Data Continuity Mission Fact Sheet, Summer 2012 (PDF, 594 Kb) LDCM Brochure, Fall 2010/Winter 2011(PDF, 3.4 Mb)

Alaska's Thawing Permafrost, Spring 2009 (PDF, 1.1 Mb)
Alaska's Bear Glacier, Spring 2008 (PDF, 600 Kb)
Landsat & Climate Change, Winter 2008 (PDF, 360 Kb)
Antarctica's Drygalski Ice Tongue, Winter 2008 (PDF, 1.7 Mb)
Blending Science and Art, Summer 2006 (PDF, 916 Kb)
The Chesapeake Bay, Spring 2006 (PDF, 664 Kb)
Baltimore, Maryland, Fall 1999 (PDF, 668 Kb)
Outer Banks, North Carolina, Fall 1999 (PDF, 572 Kb)
Washington, D.C., Fall 1999 (PDF, 672 Kb)
Amelia the Pigeon: NYC, Spring 2003 (PDF, 312 Kb)

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Data Resources

The Landsat data sets featured on the following websites have been subset and prepared for easy use in MultiSpec© (external link), a free image processing software package from Purdue University.

Landsat 7 Data Sets: LAN files for use with MultiSpec©; Full Landsat scenes are very large files. This Web site provides scene subsets of interesting cities and natural areas around the world.
: Finding your location; This site will help you to find out which Landsat scene(s) cover a given location.

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Learning Games

Spuzzled!
Just for fun, try your hand at these interactive puzzles! Along the way you can learn a little about Landsat, and some of the exotic and interesting places pictured by its sensor.

The Space Place
The Space Place is a multi-faceted NASA outreach program. It creates unique educational products in a variety of media for a broad range of audiences. You can find word puzzles, scrambled pictures, crazy quizzes, a board game and more on this site made especially for elementary aged children.

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Informative Animations

These animations provide basic information about Landsat and Earth remote sensing.

A Landsat Flyby
Landsat 7 San Francisco Onionskin Phoenix Change Over Time
Satellites in our Lives
Tour of the Electromagnetic Spectrum

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Additional NASA EARTH SCIENCE Resources

The Geospatial Revolution
The Geospatial Revolution is a public service project that strives to inform the public about the world of digital mapping and how it is revolutionizing how we interact with our world. The project has been developed by Penn State Public Broadcasting. There are currently four video episodes explaining how geospatial technologies help society.

The Globe Program
The Globe Program is an exciting, worldwide hands-on, primary and secondary school-based education and science program.

NASAexplores
NASAexplores provides free weekly K-12 educational articles and lesson plans on current NASA projects. Printable and downloadable, these supplemental curriculum resources meet national education standards.

Earth science@nasa
This website elaborates on the purpose of NASA's Earth science program. The program strives to develop a scientific understanding of Earth's system and its response to natural or human-induced changes, and to improve prediction of climate, weather, and natural hazards.

Educator Astronaut Program
NASA's Educator Astronaut Program web site invites visitors to "see learning in a whole new light." Students, educators, and parents can join the Earth Crew and interact with NASA in ground-based projects and missions, meet NASA astronauts and employees, learn what astronauts do and what it's like to live in space, and discover how space exploration impacts our lives on Earth.

Earth Science For Kids Only
See how NASA studies air, land, natural hazards and water and how people affect the Earth. You can also find fun links to contests, activities and games.

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Glossary

Over 260 Landsat-related terms are defined for you in our glossary.

Technical Drawing of seasonal illumination variations on a sun-synchronous orbit.

Education

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NASA Official: James R. Irons
Website Curator: Laura Rocchio
Site last updated: February 7, 2013