Landsat’s Role in Managing Water Resources
Water is essential for life. A third of Earth’s populace has unreliable access to clean water. With current population growth and environmental trends, the U.N. Environmental Program estimates that 1.8 billion people will face water scarcity by 2025. Water means survival for people and other species we rely upon to thrive, making proper stewardship of our water resources vital. Good decisions require good data. Since 1972 the Landsat series of satellites has been providing such data. Landsat-based decisions on how to manage limited water resources have impacted millions of people worldwide. From finding water for refugees in arid nations to reducing pollution in our national waterways, Landsat enables decisions that directly help people.
Research Examines Elevated Mercury Levels in Prairie Lakes with Landsat
Source: South Dakota State University Prairie lakes that expand greatly in area during wet cycles are more likely to have elevated mercury levels soon after, South Dakota State University research suggests.
Sensor Synergy: Landsat Together with SAR and Lidar Maps Boreal Wetlands
Researchers from Columbia University and the University of Western Ontario have combined Landsat TM data with European Remote Sensing 2 radar data and lidar-derived elevation data to map a remote
Landsat Looks at Land Use Trends Around Mobile Bay
• A recent NASA Technical Report from Stennis Space Center has used Landsat data to document land use changes in Alabama’s Mobile Bay watershed between 1972 and 2008. Over those
Scientists Use Landsat to Assess Potential Impacts of Ocean Acidification
In a new study published in the Marine Ecology Progress Series, scientists have used Landsat 7 data to assess coral reef productivity and calcification in Florida’s northern reef tract (northeast of the Florida
Landsat Helps Researchers Measure Snowmelt
Source: Amber Jenkins, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Water is constantly being moved about our planet. The water, or hydrologic, cycle describes how water changes from liquid to solid to vapor and how
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