Landsat’s Role in Managing Forests
People and economies around the world rely on forests for timber, carbon storage, flood control, biological diversity, recreation, and more. Forest managers face many challenges. In the last few years, forest fires have become more intense and more frequent; North American forests have experienced widespread infestations by pests such as the pine bark beetle; and tropical deforestation continues. Our changing climate adds complexity to government and commercial decisions about how to manage, protect, and sustain our forest resources. Landsat satellites provide key data for forest monitoring and management across the globe. Landsat gives us consistent views of the health, composition, and extent of forest ecosystems as they change over time. Curtis Woodcock, Professor, Boston University and specialist in remote sensing, has said, “I would argue that the Landsat data archive may be the most valuable environmental data record we have.” Designed, built, and launched by NASA, Landsat satellites have recorded global forest conditions every year since the 1970’s, and they have observed all U.S. forests once a season throughout those years. The U.S. Geological Survey provides this valuable data to the public at no cost. Landsat observations will continue into the future with Landsat 8.
Forest Changes in the U.S. Southwest
In a recent study published in Remote Sensing of Environment, Landsat science team member James Vogelmann and colleagues have used Landsat data collected between 1988 and 2006 to assess forest changes in New
Landsat Among Suite of Satellites Used in Study Linking Drought to Asian Wildfire Emissions
Source: Gretchen Cook-Anderson In the last decade, Asian farmers have cleared tens of thousands of square miles of forests to accommodate the world’s growing demand for palm oil, an increasingly
Landsat, GLAS, and Google Earth Used in Concert to Study Amazonian Forests
Contributor: Eileen Helmer In a study published today, carbon accumulation rates of tropical forests biomass regrowth in areas of abandoned agriculture have been measured entirely from space for the first
Fusing Landsat and MODIS Data to Better Estimate Boreal Forest Loss
This month in Remote Sensing of Environment, Potapov et al. report on their method of combining MODIS and Landsat imagery to estimate forest loss in the world’s boreal forests. Understanding
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 7 SLC-off Data Evaluated for Forest Change Detection
Researchers from the Canadian Forest Service’s Pacific Forestry Centre and the U.S. Geological Survey have published a study which evaluates the utility of histogram– and segment–based Landsat SLC-off gap-filled data products for