It\u2019s\u00a07 o\u2019clock\u00a0on a Tuesday morning.\u00a0As you decide what kind of cereal to have,\u00a0you accidentally splash\u00a0a bit of\u00a0almond milk onto your cotton pajama top.\u00a0The last\u00a0thing on your mind\u00a0is a pair of satellites\u00a0orbiting Earth\u00a0over 400 miles away.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And yet, those satellites\u00a0are a part of your morning routine. They\u00a0tell farmers how much water their almond trees\u00a0need to thrive and\u00a0reveal how\u00a0soil once used for cotton\u00a0is\u00a0now used for fruit.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Landsat series of satellites has been watching our planet for\u00a0nearly\u00a050 years,\u00a0capturing\u00a0changes\u00a0on land\u00a0and making that information freely available\u00a0to users around\u00a0the world.\u00a0Currently, Landsat 7 and 8 are in orbit\u00a0and\u00a0collectively\u00a0sending back\u00a030-meter resolution\u00a0images\u00a0on an\u00a08-day\u00a0cycle.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In\u00a0a week,\u00a0a new era will begin.\u00a0Landsat 9<\/a>\u00a0is slated to launch on\u00a0September\u00a027, 2021\u00a0from Vandenberg Space Force Base in\u00a0Lompoc, California. It will enter Landsat 7\u2019s current orbit and largely replicate Landsat 8\u2019s capabilities\u00a0to provide a seamless continuation of data.\u00a0Landsat 7 will\u00a0lower its orbit,\u00a0ending its 22-year sojourn of capturing\u00a0images around Earth.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n The\u00a0Landsat mission is\u00a0a\u00a0partnership\u00a0between\u00a0NASA and the USGS.\u00a0The former is in charge of building and launching\u00a0Landsat 9\u00a0and the latter operates the satellite and distributes data for its estimated 7-year service life.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Landsat mission\u00a0is especially\u00a0useful\u00a0for teasing out land changes that\u00a0could contribute to climate change, like deforestation, and\u00a0that are caused by climate change, like intense wildfire burn scars.\u00a0Landsat also\u00a0sees\u00a0drought conditions,\u00a0tracks\u00a0retreating icesheets,\u00a0monitors\u00a0vegetation, observes permafrost\u00a0and pinpoints\u00a0viable habitats.\u00a0Landsat 9 will\u00a0continue to\u00a0provide\u00a0information about natural and economic resources for scientists to study and\u00a0land managers\u00a0to act.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAs the global population surpasses eight billion people, it will be important to effectively manage land to sustain life on Earth,\u201d\u00a0David Applegate, the\u00a0acting\u00a0director of\u00a0USGS,\u00a0said.\u00a0\u201cLandsat 9 will pair with Landsat 8 to greatly improve our understanding of what is driving changes to our lands, surface waters, and coasts, and how we can sustainably manage it,\u201d\u00a0Applegate said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Launching a legacy\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Landsat 9 logo.<\/p>\n (Public domain.)<\/p>\n Almost exactly 55 years ago on Sept 21, 1966,\u00a0William Pecora, the 8th\u00a0director of the USGS, and Stewart Udall, a former Secretary of the Interior,\u00a0announced\u00a0Project EROS: An Earth Resources Observation Satellite Program<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEROS is a program aimed at gathering facts about the natural resources of Earth from Earth-orbiting satellites carrying sophisticated remote sensing observation instruments,\u201d Udall said in a press release.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Once the program received funding, it charged NASA to build the first satellite. NASA worked with contractors to build the satellite\u2019s sensors and systems, including Virginia Norwood,\u00a0an engineer at Hughes Aircraft Company in El Segundo, CA.\u00a0Many in the industry call Norwood the\u00a0\u201cMother of Landsat\u201d because of her pivotal work\u00a0in developing\u00a0a\u00a0sensor\u00a0able to\u00a0scan the landscape, line by line, in rapid succession, as the satellite\u00a0orbited\u00a0Earth.\u00a0The first Landsat launched from Vandenberg\u00a0on July 23, 1972 and sent back\u00a0an image\u00a0within a few days.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Landsat\u00a09 continues the mission\u2019s endeavor to scan the landscape, albeit with more\u00a0advanced sensors. It will carry the\u00a0Operational Land Imager 2<\/a>, which will capture images of Earth in visible, near infrared and\u00a0shortwave-infrared light, and the\u00a0Thermal Infrared Sensor 2<\/a>, which will measure\u00a0the\u00a0heat (or brightness) of Earth\u2019s surfaces.\u00a0Both instruments\u2019 predecessors\u00a0are aboard Landsat-8.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cExciting as it is, Landsat 9\u2019s launch is not an end, but a beginning,\u201d\u00a0Kevin Gallagher,\u00a0the\u00a0associate director for Core Science Systems at\u00a0USGS,\u00a0said. For even before Landsat 9 was fully built, NASA and USGS started considering possibilities for the next generation of satellite, called Landsat Next. Landsat Next\u2019s design will be driven by a thorough and peer-reviewed user requirements process managed by USGS.\u00a0<\/p>\n Scanning for Science\u00a0<\/p>\n Landsat\u2019s\u00a0nearly\u00a050-year\u00a0record has transformed our understanding of regional, national and global-scale agriculture, forestry, urbanization, hydrology, disaster mitigation and other changes in land use.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n For example, Landsat reveals\u00a0connections between\u00a0farmers\u2019 decisions\u00a0and\u00a0climate. \u201cTheir decision on what, when and how to irrigate crops can impact climate,\u201d\u00a0Matt Schauer, a scientist contractor to the USGS, said.\u00a0He used Landsat data to measure evapotranspiration,\u00a0a\u00a0measure of\u00a0evaporation and transpiration\u00a0that includes\u00a0plants\u2019 breathing, as a proxy for water use.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Landsat 8 and\u00a09\u00a0will capture nearly 1,500 new scenes a day to support the\u00a0USGS Landsat archive. Landsat 9, like\u00a0its predecessor,\u00a0will also image all global landmasses and nearshore coastal regions, which were not routinely collected prior to Landsat 8.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe more Landsat the better,\u201d Schauer said.\u00a0Landsat 9\u00a0data\u00a0will be freely available for download through the\u00a0USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science Center<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Mapping ice\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Landsat image of ice caps in northern Savernaya Zemlya, Russian Arctic Islands (80 degrees N.). The scene shows zones of melting on the ice caps. The largest ice cap is about 80 km across. Image courtesy of Julian Dowdeswell, Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, UK.<\/p>\n (Public domain.)<\/p>\n Landsat has a\u00a0long history of mapping Antarctica and Greenland\u2019s\u00a0ice\u00a0sheets.\u00a0The\u00a0multispectral scanner sensors on\u00a0Landsats\u00a01, 2 and 3 collected\u00a0some\u00a0of the earliest\u00a0satellite\u00a0images of coastal and interior\u00a0Antarctica\u00a0in the 1970s.\u00a0By comparing\u00a0nearly\u00a050-year-old\u00a0Landsat images to those collected more recently, scientists can pinpoint differences.\u00a0\u201cA growing archive of Landsat images allow us to see how quickly icesheets are changing,\u201d Theodore\u00a0Scambos, Senior Research Scientist at the Earth Science Observation Center at University of Colorado,\u00a0said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Landsat\u00a09 offers an advanced capability\u00a0to measure the amount of light reflected off the landscape,\u00a0which will allow scientists\u00a0to further characterize the exact brightness of snow\u00a0and track ice motion and temperature,\u00a0Scambos\u00a0said. \u201cLooking at a pair of Landsat images we can see the surface of a glacier and note how it\u2019s changed in 2 to 3 years,\u201d\u00a0Scambos\u00a0said. Melting\u00a0of\u00a0glaciers\u00a0and ice sheets will be\u00a0the biggest contributors\u00a0to sea level rise\u00a0this century.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Using Landsat 8 and 9, researchers can also map\u00a0where the ice is melting and track the formation of meltwater ponds on the surface\u00a0\u2013 both phenomena indicate\u00a0how glaciers have retreated.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Tracking permafrost changes\u00a0<\/p>\n Erin Trochim, a professor at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, is aggregating datasets from the Landsat archive to track global surface water. In particular, she\u2019s interested in seeing how surface water in the northern hemisphere compares to permafrost, which is permanently frozen ground and critical to the Arctic.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Trochim used\u00a0Google Earth Engine<\/a>\u00a0to process 30 years’ worth of Landsat data. This cloud-based tool connected her to a supercomputer, which meant she could do simple processing of the entire Landsat archive in minutes.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe identified water and found areas that have changed from water to land between 1984 and 2018,\u201d Trochim said. She also created an\u00a0app to better visualize those changes<\/a>\u00a0and found that more water is taking over land than vice versa.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Even though Trochim examines water from a 400-mile perspective, she likes to bring it back to the landscape by visualizing a boat filled with fish on the Yukon River. \u201cIn these huge studies, it\u2019s easy to forget what it\u2019s like to actually live on the river,\u201d she said. \u201cWe want to be able to give people on the ground answers to their questions about changes they\u2019re seeing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Changing seasons\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Tidal marsh, Pacific Northwest<\/p>\n (Credit: Lennah Shakeri, USGS. Public domain.)<\/p>\n Kevin Buffington, an ecologist at USGS, examined Landsat\u2019s long record and learned\u00a0how climate variability affects the\u00a0the growing season for tidal marsh plants in the Pacific Northwest<\/a>. \u201cThe changes are subtle and only reveal themselves with a long-term dataset, like Landsat\u2019s,\u201d Buffington said.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Tidal marshes sit at the interface between ocean and freshwater. As climate change brings warmer temperatures, tidal plants are\u00a0likely to bloom\u00a0earlier than they have historically during their growing season. Furthermore, the plants depend on plenty of rainfall\u00a0to limit salt buildup in the soil.\u00a0Landsat images through time revealed that with more rain, the plants became greener.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cTidal marshes exist in a unique environment with a small margin for survival,\u201d Buffington said. As climate change brings sea level rise and more frequent and intense drought conditions, these ecosystems could be compromised.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Finding climate refugia\u00a0<\/p>\n Similar to tidal marshes, playa\u00a0wetlands are also at risk from drought brought on by climate change.\u00a0Playa wetlands are seasonal, or ephemeral, wetlands that form in closed\u00a0basins and stay dry most of the year.\u00a0Jennifer Cartwright, an ecologist\u00a0at USGS,\u00a0and colleagues\u00a0used Landsat data to track\u00a0when playa wetlands were inundated<\/a>\u00a0even during intense droughts.\u00a0Land managers can use that information to more effectively conserve and restore playas as the climate changes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Cartwright studied\u00a0Landsat images of\u00a0playas in the\u00a0Sheldon-Hart Mountain National Wildlife Refuge Complex in southern Oregon and northern\u00a0Nevada\u00a0from 1985 to 2015.\u00a0\u201cEach playa pixel in the satellite images was coded as inundated or not,\u201d Cartwright said. \u201cThat information allowed us to track how playa inundation responded to climate variability including droughts.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Of the 153 playas she examined, only 4% were inundated for at least two months in each of the 5 driest years. \u201cUnder\u00a0extreme\u00a0droughts,\u00a0a few playas could still hold water, making them\u00a0potentially\u00a0important\u00a0habitat for\u00a0local and migratory species,\u201d Cartwright said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Tracking a vole\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The\u00a0Amargosa vole\u00a0(Microtus californicus scirpensis) is an endangered mammal isolated to the wetlands associated with the Amargosa River.<\/p>\n (Credit: Bureau of Land Management. Public domain.)<\/p>\n The Amargosa vole\u00a0has a very limited distribution. In fact, it\u2019s so limited its global range is a remnant wetland in the Mojave Desert that’s only about a mile and a\u00a0half long. Moreover, its bulrush\u00a0habitat is highly fragmented and occurs in patches that in total make up less than 25\u00a0hectares\u00a0(about 60 acres\u00a0or 45 football fields).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBy all traditional measurements, the vole should have gone extinct,\u201d Robert Klinger, an ecologist at the USGS, said. \u201cBut it\u2019s been with us for tens of thousands of years.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Klinger studies and tracks the vole using\u00a0Landsat\u2019s\u00a0vegetation\u00a0moisture\u00a0data\u00a0that show how the vole\u2019s habitat of bulrush has been getting drier. Furthermore,\u00a0the plant\u2019s moisture level has gotten more variable,\u00a0making it less reliable as a viable habitat.\u00a0<\/p>\n Without Landsat, Klinger wouldn\u2019t have been able to track how bulrush has changed over the past 30 years, he said. \u201cLandsat data has helped\u00a0us brainstorm ideas\u00a0for water management agencies to consider\u00a0to ensure water continues to flow into the vole’s habitat,\u201d Klinger said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The vole, which fits in a human hand, is not only a cute critter. It’s also an example\u00a0of an animal that has managed to exist despite many big fluctuations in climate. \u201cIt\u2019s a great case study on how species that\u00a0appear to be most prone to extinction are able to survive,\u201d Klinger said. However, even the vole may not be able to withstand droughts if they become more extensive and severe.\u00a0<\/p>\n Understanding fire\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Left: Landsat Surface Reflectance RGB composite; Right:\u00a0U.S. Landsat Burned Area (BA) Science Product Example.<\/p>\n BA products are being produced by the USGS and will become available in late 2018.\u00a0<\/p>\n (Public domain.)<\/p>\n \u201cWe use Landsat derived products every week to help us analyze everything from changes in vegetation cover to species distributions to the size and severity of wildfires in the west,\u201d Justin\u00a0Welty, a biologist at USGS, said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n He\u2019s using multiple Landsat derived products including\u00a0LANDFIRE,<\/a>\u00a0short for Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools, is a shared program between the wildland fire management programs of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service and U.S. Department of the Interior that provides remote sensing products to support researchers and land managers.\u00a0The\u00a0Landsat program<\/a>\u00a0produces imagery that is the foundation for LANDFIRE’s vegetation and disturbance data layers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Welty also relied on the\u00a0Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity\u00a0(MTBS)<\/a>\u00a0tool, which\u00a0is an interagency program whose goal is to consistently map the burn severity and extent of large fires across all lands of the United States from\u00a01984 to present. MTBS data are generated by leveraging other national programs including the Landsat satellite program, jointly developed and managed by the USGS and NASA.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Lastly, he uses the\u00a0Rangeland Condition, Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection\u00a0(RCMAP)<\/a>\u00a0tool, which\u00a0uses Landsat data to model percent\u00a0vegetation cover of eight fractional vegetation components in the western U.S. for every year from 1985 to 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe impacts of climate change will continue to cause changes in vegetation, wildfires, and species distributions. To mitigate the impacts of climate change, we need\u00a0products that track and analyze those changes in near real time over massive landscapes. The Landsat satellites provide us access to a suite of products at this landscape level that help us look at the past, present, and future,\u201d Welty said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n USGS News: Landsat MissionsRead More<\/a> <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s\u00a07 o\u2019clock\u00a0on a Tuesday morning.\u00a0As you decide what kind of cereal to have,\u00a0you accidentally splash\u00a0a bit of\u00a0almond milk onto your cotton pajama top.\u00a0The last\u00a0thing on your mind\u00a0is a pair of satellites\u00a0orbiting Earth\u00a0over 400 miles away.\u00a0 And yet, those satellites\u00a0are a part of your morning routine. They\u00a0tell farmers how much water their almond trees\u00a0need to thrive…
Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-landsat"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eodatahub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eodatahub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eodatahub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eodatahub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eodatahub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/eodatahub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1762\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eodatahub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eodatahub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eodatahub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}