Landsat's Role in Understanding Climate Change
Long-term weather patterns averaged over 30 years or more make up our climate. Human well-being—our infrastructure and agriculture—depend on a reliable climate. This reliability allows farmers to plant seeds in the spring with confidence that temperatures and rainfall will sustain crops in the coming months. It allows communities to build and maintain roads, buildings, and drainage systems best suited to local conditions. Earth’s climate is controlled by the amount of energy that flows through the atmosphere, oceans, and land. By adding heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere—primarily carbon dioxide—people are increasing the amount of energy in the Earth system that would otherwise escape to space. This increase in energy is changing Earth’s climate, and consequently, the weather patterns that people rely on are shifting. Changes in long-term weather patterns have wide-ranging impacts on ecosystems and peoples’ lives. Designed to observe land and coastal ecosystems, Landsat instruments provide an unparalleled space-based record of the impact of climate change on Earth’s landscapes, the growth and loss of carbon- storing.
Landsat, Potholes, and Climate Change
Contributor: Laura E.P. Rocchio What could Landsat, potholes, and climate change have in common? Well—when you use the term “potholes” to refer to the glacially-formed wetland depressions of the Prairie
Taking Earth's Temperature via Satellite
Contributor: Don Comis, USDA ARS Imagine adding a thermometer to Google™ Earth. That’s the vision of Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists Martha Anderson and Bill Kustas, who see the need for
Landsat Key in New UNEP Atlas of Africa's Environmental Change
Glacial Retreat to Rapid Urbanization Chronicled in Landmark Satellite Report to Africa’s Environment Ministers Source: United Nations Environment Programme Africa’s rapidly changing environmental landscape, from the disappearance of glaciers in
Landsat Helps Map Soil Carbon Flux
Source: Sara Uttech, Soil Science Society of America, 608-268-4948, suttechsoils.org Changes in soil carbon occur with changes in land management. Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and The University of
Establishing Historical Land Cover
USGS and NASA researchers teamed together in a highly ambitious effort to reconstruct historical land cover and biophysical parameters of the eastern U.S. Their resulting data sets will support future
Landsat Helps Show That Forests Damaged by Hurricane Katrina Become Major Carbon Source
With the help of Landsat and MODIS data, a research team has estimated that Hurricane Katrina killed or severely damaged 320 million large trees in Gulf Coast forests, which weakened