Landsat Science

Landsat Science

Landsat Science

Landsat Science

50 Years of

Landsat Science

“If you really want a long history of understanding any process on Earth, Landsat is where you should go.”

-Tasso Azevedo, MapBiomas Initiative

50 Years of

Landsat Science

“If you really want a long history of understanding any process on Earth, Landsat is where you should go.”

-Tasso Azevedo, MapBiomas Initiative

50 Years of

Landsat Science

“If you really want a long history of understanding any process on Earth, Landsat is where you should go.”

-Tasso Azevedo, MapBiomas Initiative

Landsat Next Defined

Landsat Next Defined

June 29, 2023

Landsat Next is on the horizon—the new mission will not only ensure continuity of the longest space-based record of Earth’s land surface, it will fundamentally transform the breadth and depth of actionable information freely available to end users. Take a look at the new capabilities that will define the next Landsat mission.

Landsat 8 Image of destruction in Mato Grosso, Brazil.

Tracking Losses in the Amazon, Beyond the Rainforest

September 23, 2024

The Amazon is in trouble. Researchers found that, between 2000 and 2022, the Brazilian Amazon lost about 10% of its natural non-forest vegetation.

The image above, acquired on March 7, 2024, with the (Operational Land Imager-2) on Landsat 9, shows several watering holes and rivers within Etosha National Park and areas north.

Tracking Elephants Across Namibia

September 17, 2024

In a new study, researchers used GPS tracking data and satellite imagery to map elephant movement in northwestern Namibia, looking for corridors of connectivity.

Natural color Landsat 8 image of Taipei, Taiwan and the neighboring Tatun Volcanic Group.

Could Land Surface Temperature Help Predict Earthquakes?

August 28, 2024

In Taiwan, earthquakes are linked to shallow stores of magma. New research explores this connection by linking land surface temperature with earthquakes.

Landsat Next Defined

Landsat Next Defined

June 29, 2023

Landsat Next is on the horizon—the new mission will not only ensure continuity of the longest space-based record of Earth’s land surface, it will fundamentally transform the breadth and depth of actionable information freely available to end users. Take a look at the new capabilities that will define the next Landsat mission.

Landsat 8 Image of destruction in Mato Grosso, Brazil.

Tracking Losses in the Amazon, Beyond the Rainforest

September 23, 2024

The Amazon is in trouble. Researchers found that, between 2000 and 2022, the Brazilian Amazon lost about 10% of its natural non-forest vegetation.

The image above, acquired on March 7, 2024, with the (Operational Land Imager-2) on Landsat 9, shows several watering holes and rivers within Etosha National Park and areas north.

Tracking Elephants Across Namibia

September 17, 2024

In a new study, researchers used GPS tracking data and satellite imagery to map elephant movement in northwestern Namibia, looking for corridors of connectivity.

Natural color Landsat 8 image of Taipei, Taiwan and the neighboring Tatun Volcanic Group.

Could Land Surface Temperature Help Predict Earthquakes?

August 28, 2024

In Taiwan, earthquakes are linked to shallow stores of magma. New research explores this connection by linking land surface temperature with earthquakes.

Typhoon Krathon Nears Taiwan

October 2, 2024

Dark Nights in Georgia The state faced widespread power outages after winds from Hurricane Helene snapped trees, tore off roofs, and toppled power lines.

Dark Nights in Georgia

October 1, 2024

A meandering river birthed an oxbow lake that happens to be shaped like the first letter of the English alphabet.

A is for Azerbaijan

September 24, 2024

“This is really an exciting time for Landsat polar science, a new era so to speak. With Landsat Next on the horizon, the LEAP special request program and its observations of Earth’s polar regions—and the global cryospheric state more broadly—can only be expected to grow in impact and relevance.”

— Christopher Crawford, USGS Landsat Project Scientist and Data Acquisition Lead , Apr 2, 2024

“Landsat data has proved invaluable for much of the work we do to try and comprehend how Earth’s cryosphere is responding to a warming planet and to infer what those results mean for our collective future.”

— Alex Gardner, NASA JPL Cryosphere Scientist , Jan 19, 2024

“We basically built … Tinder for Landsat maps: Swipe right if it’s good, swipe left if it’s bad.”

— James Crawford, Orbital Insight CEO on his company's surface water detection app , Feb 25, 2016

“As the global population surpasses eight billion people, it will be important to effectively manage land to sustain life on Earth. Landsat 9 will pair with Landsat 8 to greatly improve our understanding of what is driving changes to our lands, surface waters, and coasts, and how we can sustainably manage it.”

— David Applegate, Associate Director for Natural Hazards Exercising the Delegated Authority of the Director, U.S. Geological Survey , Sep 16, 2021

“It is one of the greatest wetlands management tools that has become available in many years. The wetlands mapping plus WIT outputs are used on a daily basis by a very broad range of stakeholders, from government officers to planners and to those involved in on-ground rehabilitation and management—frankly it’s hard to know how we managed without it.”

— Mike Ronan, a wetland manager with Australia's Queensland Department of Environment and Science talking about the Landsat-based Wetland Insight Tool , Jun 22, 2023

“Our new interface specifically uses Landsat to track flow velocity fields of Greenland’s outlet glaciers and how they have changed over time.”

— M. Scheinert Scheinert, Ralf Rosenau, and Benjamin Ebermann , Dec 29, 2016

“Landsat Next to me is an incredible mission… I really think of it as a game changer. The measurements provided to the community not only provide continuity with our current 52-year plus archive, but also drive new and emerging applications and science research. It’s very important to the American people and of course to science.”

— Brian Sauer, USGS Landsat Next Project Manager , May 6, 2024

“…Landsat and Copernicus, the best two examples of government satellite programs that have positively impacted global development as result of their free and open data policy.”

— Anne Hale Miglarese, Founder & CEO of Radiant.Earth. , Aug 20, 2018

“With a launch in 2023, Landsat 9 would propel the program past 50 years of collecting global land cover data. That’s the hallmark of Landsat: the longer the satellites view the Earth, the more phenomena you can observe and understand.”

— Jeff Masek, Landsat 9 Project Scientist , Apr 16, 2015

“If you really want to have a long history of understanding any process in the Earth, Landsat is where you should go.”

— Tasso Azevedo, MapBiomas Initiative , Apr 19, 2021

“Landsat has undoubtedly transformed our ability to understand urbanization processes and how cities expand and evolve… the multi-spectrality of Landsat, its relatively high spatial resolution, its revisit period, and especially the long observational record that made millions of scenes publicly available, make Landsat a key asset for the research community.”

— Ran Goldblatt, Big Pixel Initiative of the UC San Diego’s School , Dec 16, 2016

“For our main aim of quantifying surface water extent dynamics during a period of high hydro-climatic variability, Landsat was the only satellite archive to meet all our criteria.”

— Mirela Tulbure , May 25, 2016

“We knew that ice had been retreating from this region recently but now, thanks to a wealth of freely available satellite data, we know this has been occurring pervasively along the coastline for almost half a century.”

— Frazer Christie PhD student, School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh , Jun 2, 2016

“[B]eing able to produce maps with Landsat data that show how things have changed over time, and then actually seeing how they are improving and how we are losing less of these really critical and important ecosystems to me is really encouraging.”

— Dr. Lola Fatoyinbo; Research Physical Scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center , Feb 14, 2022

“It’s a fundamental resource for the Australian community. It’s used at local government level, state government level, and national levels. It’s our most important Earth-observing satellite with out a question in my mind.”

— Adam Lewis, Geoscience Australia’s Acting Chief Scientist, on the Australian archive of Landsat data , Jan 2, 2018

“You can see the changes of your orchard over time & over space, and by measuring the canopy temperature [with Landsat] you can see whether the canopy is in balance with the rest of the environment around the trees.”

— Dr. Daniele Zaccaria, UC Davis , Jun 6, 2019

“Thanks to satellites and to science, we now know much more about Earth than we did on the first Earth Day fifty years ago.”

— Dr. Michael Freilich, former director of NASA’s Earth Science division , Apr 30, 2020

“The Landsat science community is giddy at the results they’re seeing from the latest Landsat instrument. It’s that much better than the last one.”

— Cary Ludtke, Operational Space VP and General Manager, Ball Aerospace & Technology Corp. , Nov 6, 2014

“Landsat provides an unparalleled record of how terrestrial Earth has changed since the early 1970s, closely coinciding with the beginning of rapid environmental change. It provides important historical context for the current state of land cover and land use and provides a reference for identifying abnormal types and rates of change.”

— Justin Braaten, Google Earth Engine technical writer/coder , Mar 25, 2021

“If you don’t know what Landsat (NASA/USGS) and Sentinel-1/Sentinel-2 (ESA) are, they are scientific Earth observation missions involving large, exquisitely calibrated satellites that capture imagery of the entire globe on a regular cadence. Landsat is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. In fact, there have been 9 different satellites bearing the Landsat name over those five decades—Landsat 9 was launched last year! The data they produce is open and hosted freely for anyone to access. Pr…

— Joe Morrison , May 23, 2022

“The Landsat program has given each and every one of us in every part of the world a thoroughly objective, continuous look at ourselves in the mirror since 1972.”

— Anne Castle, assistant secretary for water and science at the U.S. Department of the Interior , Jul 23, 2012

“When fighting broke out, the [New York Times] graphics team pulled up images from [the] Landsat 8 satellite to look for changes on the ground.”

— Greg Miller , Oct 23, 2014

“The key role of Landsat in the context of climate change is to document the impact of climate change on global ecosystems, which is highly relevant for the future availability of food, water, and fiber resources, as well as the provision of ecosystem services including biodiversity.”

— Jeff Masek, Landsat 9 Project Scientist (NASA) , Nov 4, 2021

“It’s being able to go back in time for the same location, with the same program, that’s given us a tremendous amount of really valuable information… With Landsat we can do that because the archive is so rich.”

— Alan Belward, scientist at European Union’s Joint Research Center , Oct 18, 2017

The NASA/USGS Landsat Program provides the longest continuous space-based record of Earth’s land in existence. Landsat data give us information essential for making informed decisions about Earth’s resources and environment.