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.
Fires, Floods and Satellite Views: Modeling the Boreal Forest’s Future
The 2014 megafires in Canada’s Northwest Territories burned 7 million acres of forest, making it one of the most severe fire events in Canadian history.
Calculating Forest Biomass Using LiDAR, Landsat 8, and Sentinel-2
SDSU post-doc Pedro Oliveira is integrating remote sensing data from airborne LiDAR and Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2 satellites to map the height of the Brazilian Amazon forest canopy.
Data Record for Tropical Forest Monitoring Extended with New Cloud-Detection Method
A new, highly accurate, automated way to detect clouds and their shadows from satellite images over unusually cloudy places.
Watching A Quarter Century of North American Forest Dynamics with Landsat
Annual maps of the lower-48 United States produced from Landsat satellite data illustrate how these dynamic systems changed from 1986-2010.
NASA Mapping Hurricane Damage to Everglades and Puerto Rico Forests
Last spring, NASA researchers flew over the Everglades and Puerto Rico to measure how mangroves and rainforests grow and evolve over time, then hurricanes Irma and Maria struck.
Assessing the Impact of Hurricanes on Puerto Rico’s Forests
Scientists at Berkeley Lab have produced a rapid mapping of the disturbance intensity across Puerto Rico’s forests with the help of Google Earth Engine and Landsat 8.