Jul 28, 2011 • Eastern Africa is in the grip of the worst drought it has seen in 60 years and the region is facing severe famine. In Somalia alone, it is estimated that 3.7 million people have been affected by the drought. The uncertain political situation in Somalia has hampered relief efforts and sent […]
Jul 20, 2011 • Flooding along the Missouri River continues as shown in recent Landsat satellite images of the Nebraska and Iowa border. Heavy rains and snowmelt have caused the river to remain above flood stage for an extended period. A Landsat 5 image of the area from May 5, 2011 shows normal flow. In […]
In an article published this month in The International Journal of Avian Science,Spanish researchers used Landsat data to map waterbird habitat in rice paddies adjacent to the Doñana National Park in southwestern Spain. As the area of natural wetlands contracts due to climate change and human population pressures, artificial wetlands—such as rice paddies—become increasingly important refuges […]
Special Topics: LDCM and LDCM Components The Operational Land Imager (OLI) is being built by the Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation. The Ball contract was awarded in July 2007. OLI improves on past Landsat sensors using a technical approach demonstrated by a sensor flown on NASA’s experimental EO-1 satellite. OLI is a push-broom sensor with […]
Jul 6, 2011 • Landsat 5 captured an image of flooding occurring along the Iowa/Nebraska border on June 30, 2011. Flooding is still occurring on July 6, and Flood Warnings are still in effect from the National Weather Service. This Landsat 5 image shows the flooded Missouri River north and south of Omaha. The flood […]
Special Topics: LDCM and LDCM Components The Calibration Subsystem for the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on LDCM uses both the sun and the absence of light to establish the light and dark end points, respectively, of a scale used to interpret the collected reflectance data. It does this with a solar diffuser panel that is […]