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CELEBRATING
30 YEARS OF IMAGING THE EARTH (Go to images/animations)
NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey this week celebrate
Landsat's 30th anniversary of imaging the Earth.
On
July 23, 1972, NASA launched the first Landsat satellite,
beginning the longest-running record of Earth's continental
surfaces as seen from space -- a record unmatched in quality,
detail, coverage and importance. This 30-year archive of
imagery, a scientific partnership between NASA and the U.S.
Geological Survey (USGS), provides invaluable historical
detail that helps us understand and protect our home planet.
"In
essence, this archive of Landsat imagery is the
equivalent of having a periodically refreshed family photo
album for the entire Earth," said Dr. Ghassem R. Asrar,
NASA
Associate Administrator of the Office of Earth Science. "The
scientific data gathered by these spacecraft allow us to see
changes on the Earth's surface over time, giving us insight
into what is happening and helping us plan for the future."
In
celebration of the 30th anniversary of the first Landsat
launch, NASA and the USGS have assembled an exhibit called
"Landsat: Earth as Art." These images, created by
the USGS
using Landsat 7 data, introduce the general public to the
Landsat Program, administered jointly by USGS and NASA. The
USGS operates Landsat 5 and 7 and manages the national
archive of data collected by all the Landsat satellites,
distributing these data to researchers around the world.
"This
archive of imagery is a valuable tool for scientists
and researchers as they work to gain a better understanding
of the Earth and its complex systems," said Charles Groat,
USGS Director. "Long-term monitoring information is critical
for maintaining the health and safety of our communities,
our
economy and our environment."
The
"Landsat: Earth as Art" exhibit highlights 41 images
selected on the basis of aesthetic appeal. The exhibit opens
July 23 at the Library of Congress in Washington. A selection
of "Landsat: Earth as Art" images will be on display
in the
Russell Senate Office Building Rotunda in Washington, July
22-26, and in the fall at the Arizona Science Center in
Phoenix. A similar exhibit is currently on display in Rapid
City, S.D., at the Children's Science Center.
The
first Landsat -- originally called ERTS, for Earth
Resources Technology Satellite -- was developed and launched
by NASA in 1972. Landsat 5 is still transmitting images, and
the Landsat 7 mission has built upon the historic strengths
of the Landsat program. The low cost of Landsat 7 data, as
well as the elimination of data copyright, has fostered an
environment in which users are free to experiment with novel
applications, and use large quantities of data for existing
applications.
Data
from Landsat satellites serve many purposes. Landsat
satellites monitor important natural processes and human land
use such as vegetation growth, deforestation, agriculture,
coastal and river erosion, snow accumulation and fresh-water
reservoir replenishment, and urbanization. The USGS uses
Landsat data to spot the amount and condition of dry biomass
on the ground, which are potential sources for feeding
wildfires that can threaten humans, animals and natural
resources. Farmers and land managers use Landsat data to help
increase crop yields and cut costs while reducing
environmental pollution.
Continuity
of data with previous Landsat missions is a
fundamental goal of the Landsat program. Landsat Program
Management
(NASA and USGS) is required by public law to
continue gathering and preserving this important scientific
data. The planned follow-on to the Landsat program, the
Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM), is a cooperative
effort between government and private industry to provide
continuity of land surface measurements, with no data gaps,
beyond Landsat 7.
Landsat
is part of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, a long-
term research effort to understand and protect our home
planet. Through the study of Earth, NASA will help to provide
sound science to policy and economic decision-makers so as
to
better life here, while developing the technologies needed
to
explore the universe and search for life beyond our home
planet.
LANDSAT
PAINTS A PORTRAIT OF OUR CHANGING PLANET
Thanks
to Landsat satellites, we now have a 30-year record of the
Earth's surface. These satellites, along with documentation
of our planet, provide valuable information that will help
us understand and protect our home planet. Continuity of data
with previous Landsat missions is a fundamental goal of the
Landsat program. No other current or planned remote-sensing
system, public or private, fills the role of Landsat in global
change research or in civil and commercial applications. The
thirty-years of data acquired by the Landsat satellites constitutes
the longest continuous record of the Earth's continental surfaces.
(Note: numbers in parenthesis beginning with the letter "G"
refer to the resource tape number for the ordering of videos--see
http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/indepth/gtv_catalog_earth.html
for more information about these tapes.)
THE ART EXHIBIT:
Landsat
imagery is beautiful whether you're looking at it from an
artistic standpoint or trying to extract useful information.
In celebration of the 30th Anniversary of the first Landsat
launch, NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey created an exhibit
called "Earth as Art." The exhibit will be open
July 17th at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. A
selection of the "Earth as Art" images will be on
display in the Russell Office Building Rotunda in the District
of Columbia July 20-26, and through the month of August at
the Arizona Science Center in Phoenix and Roanoke Virginia
Center in the Square. Another exhibit is on display in Rapid
City, S.D. at Children's Science Center. The "Landsat:
Earth as Art" exhibit highlights images that were selected
on the basis of aesthetic appeal. These images use the visceral
avenue of art to convey the thrilling perspective of the Earth
that Landsat provides to the viewer. The images, created by
the USGS EROS Data Center, introduce the world to the Landsat
Program administered jointly by USGS and NASA.
"EARTH IS ART" SEQUENCES:
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Animation
1
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Morph
Sequence - This sequence includes 6 six images from the
"Earth Is Art" Exhibit. The following Landsat images
were used to create the sequence: Aleutian Clouds; "The
Optimist," Kalahari Desert - Namibia; Terkezi Oasis -
Chad; Iraqi Emplacement; Dasht-e Kevir, Iran (Great Salt Desert);
Whirlpool in the Air off of Greenland.
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Bright
Blur Sequence - This sequence includes 6 six images from
the "Earth Is Art" Exhibit. The following Landsat
images were used to create the sequence: Richat Structure
- Mauritania; Lena Delta - Russia; Ganges River Delta; Volga
River Delta; Malaspina Glacier - Alaska; Florida Everglades.
THE
IMAGES - Here are the original 12 images used to create the art sequences.
1)
Aleutian Clouds (6/16/2000) (top left)
2) Dasht-e Kevir, Iran (Great Salt
Desert) (10/24/2000) (top right)
3) Florida Everglades (2/5/2000) (2nd row
left)
4) Ganges River Delta (2/28/2000) (2nd row right)
5) Iraqi Emplacement
(1/24/2001) (3rd row left)
6) Lena Delta - Russia (7/27/2000) (3rd row right)
7) Malaspina Glacier - Alaska (8/31/2000) (4th row left)
8) The Optimist,
Kalahari Desert, Namibia (8/14/2000) (4th row right)
9) Richat Structure -
Mauritania (1/11/2001) (5th row left)
10) Terkezi Oasis - Chad (10/22/2000)
(5th row right)
11) Volga River Delta (8/29/1999) (6th row left)
12) Whirlpool
in the Air off of Greenland. (5/14/2001) (6th row right)
A LEGACY OF CHANGE:
Data
collected from various Landsat spacecraft show dramatic changes
to the environment from natural events and human influence.
By collecting images of the same areas over long stretches
of time, complex trend analyses are possible to a degree unattainable
without remote sensing technologies. Observing urban areas
over time with Landsat imagery can show just where growth
is occurring and provide valuable information for urban planners.
Farmers and land managers are using Landsat data to help increase
crop yields and cut costs while reducing environmental pollution.
Scientists also use Landsat data to study land surfaces and
coastal regions and to determine how distinct environments
are affected by global and regional climate change.
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3 | | | RODEO
AND CHEDISKI FIRES IN ARIZONA - On June 21, 2002, the Rodeo and Chediski Fires
in east-central Arizona were still two separate fires. This true-color scene from
the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus aboard the Landsat 7 satellite shows the massive
quantities of smoke streaming northward from the fires, which are burning about
100 miles east-northeast of Phoenix. The smaller Chediski Fire is on the right,
and the Rodeo Fire is on the left. Over the weekend of June 22, the two fires
merged into a single 300,000+ acre blaze.
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CHANGE
AT BREIDAMERKURJÖKULL ICELAND, 1973-2000 (G01-085)
- Images taken by Landsat 1 on September 22, 1973 and Landsat
7 on September 23, 2000 show the almost two kilometer (1.2
mile) recession of the Breidamerkurjökull over the 27
year period. You can see the creation of icebergs in the lake
in front of the glacier. In these scenes, bare glacier ice
surfaces appear bluish-white, while those covered in snow
are bright white. Water surfaces are dark blue and land surfaces
appear reddish. CREDIT:
USGS/NASA
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DISAPPEARING
WATER: THE ARAL SEA OVER TIME (G01-A027) - The Aral Sea
is actually not a sea at all. It is an immense lake, and in
the last thirty years, more than sixty percent of it has disappeared.
Poor management of regional water resources, from irrigation
to urban and industrial development has dramatically affected
the Aral. In the following sequence of images, we see a series
of Landsat scenes taken several years apart. As the years
pass, we see the profound reduction in overall area, and a
commensurate increase in land area as the floor of the sea
now lies exposed. CREDIT:
USGS/NASA
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FIFTEEN
YEARS OF A SHRINKING LAKE (G01-085) - When it thrived,
Lake Chad was one of those ironic points of planetary formation
in that it seemed to defy the vast ocean of sand directly
to its north. Persistent drought has caused the lake to drop
from its former sixth place position in the list of world's
largest lakes; it is now one tenth it's former size. The most
dramatic decrease in the size of the lake is shown in the
fifteen years between January 1973 and January 1987. Beginning
in 1983 the amount of water used for irrigation began to increase.
Ultimately, between 1983 and 1994, the amount of water diverted
for purposes of irrigation quadrupled from the amount used
in the previous 25 years. The red color denotes vegetation
on the lakebed and the ripples on the western edge of the
lake denote sand dunes formed by the wind. CREDIT: USGS/NASA
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7 | | | LAKE
CHAD TODAY (G01-085) - In this composite of Landsat-7 images from November
2000 to February 2001 we see Lake Chad as it appears today. The small patch of
visible blue that is now the lake stands in stark contrast to the wide swath of
the old lakebed (shown in green, indicating vegetation.) CREDIT: USGS/NASA
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8 | | | MOZAMBIQUE
FLOODING (G01-A027) - Following weeks of heavy rains in late Winter 2000,
massive flooding inundated wide tracts of eastern and southern Africa, displacing
more than 200,000 people. This side by side Landsat sequence shows the comparative
size of rivers in Mozambique before and during the floods. Notice how the high
waters have all but covered the lowlands, far exceeding the boundaries of the
normal river system. CREDIT:
USGS/NASA MT.
ST. HELENS OVER TIME (G01-A027) -
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The
explosion of Mt. St. Helens volcano in Washington State on
May 18, 1980 sets the scene for one of Landsat's most important
capabilities. As a means for archiving surface features, researchers
can study how the Earth changes over time. In this sequence,
pictures of the mountain taken in 1973, 1983, and 2000 show
how the eruption changed the surrounding area. Notice how
the north face of the mountain dramatically changed following
the blast. The crater's mouth elongated, and significant ash
deposits altered the down slope terrain. CREDIT: USGS/NASA
SHENZHEN,
CHINA 1988-1996: EXPLOSIVE URBAN GROWTH CHANGES A CONTINENT (G01-A027)
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True
Color Sequence - The People's Republic of China is one of
the fastest growing economies in the world. Additionally,
much of the Chinese political and cultural landscape is in
a state of transition, and economic development is remarkably
strong, particularly in southern industrial cities. As seen
by Landsat, Shenzen, China practically transforms from a regional
urban center to a metropolitan powerhouse in the space of
roughly ten years. Notice along the southern peninsula as
the actual outline of the land changes, with huge structures
emerging in the waters off-shore. Landsat 5 collected the
data. You can see how roads, bridges, and massive construction
projects transform the landscape. New structures appear off
the southern coast, and highways grow less distinct against
the background as significant building spreads along the sides
of the roads. Also notice how the massive growth alters lakes
and mountains in the area, adding sediment and changing borders.
CREDIT: USGS/NASA
URBAN
GROWTH IN WASHINGTON, DC
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11 | | |
(G01-043) - These images show the progression of urban growth
in the DC area from 1973 to 1996. Urban sprawl results in
more paved surfaces and less area for water to drain into
soils. Reduced drainage areas then bring more water into drainage
systems at a faster rate, eroding stream and rivers and reducing
water quality because more sediments are mixed into the water.
According to researchers, if you increase an impervious surface
near a stream by creating a paved parking lot, for example,
you directly affect the quality of life in the stream because
of the runoff that surface will generate. CREDIT:
USGS/NASA
LOSING FORESTS IN BOLIVIA
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12 | | | (G01-A027)
- This scene starts in space, high above South America. As we zoom in closer,
we see the national outlines of Bolivia come into view on the map. By focusing
on one particular region, we're able to see effects of deforestation in the equatorial
forest. The sequence that follows shows two images of the Santa Cruz region of
Bolivia. The first was taken in 1984. Landsat 7 took the second in 2000. In just
a few short years, we see how intense agricultural development has transformed
the forest. CREDIT:
USGS/NASA TOUR
OF GREAT SPACES (G99-071-016): Visualizations
generated from Landsat 7 data depict U.S. national parks and other locations in
spectacular detail.
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13 | | | a)Chesapeake
Bay Region
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14 | | | b)
Death Valley
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15 | | | c)
Florida Everglades
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16 | | | d)
Grand Canyon CREDIT:
USGS/NASA
CREATING
THE IMAGES:
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17 | | | LANDSAT
ANIMATIONS (G99-019) - Landsat 7 is the latest in a series of Earth observing
satellites that have provided remotely sensed observations of the Earth's land
surface and coastal regions for over 26 years. Landsat 7 marks a new direction
in the program to reduce the costs of data and increase global coverage for use
in global change research.
FUTURE OF REMOTE SENSING:
The
planned follow-on to the Landsat program, the Landsat Data Continuity Mission
(LDCM), is a cooperative effort between Government and private industry to provide
continuity of land surface measurements beyond Landsat 7 without any data gaps.
Based on the Science Data Specification and Data Policy, jointly specified by
NASA and the United States Geological Survey, LDCM data and data products will
be provided by a commercially owned and operated system.
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18 | | | FASTER,
BETTER CHEAPER - [G00-A093) - In the future, exploration of the Earth will
demand research tools that can not only make some of their own decisions, but
deliver results faster, better and cheaper than their forebears. NASA's launch
of the experimental EO-1 satellite is a significant milestone in that journey.
Part of the space agency's New Millennium Program, engineers designed EO-1 to
test advanced technologies for instruments pointed at our own planet. The satellite
will not only demonstrate significant improvements in data collection capabilities,
but will also test methods for dramatically reducing costs and complexity to achieve
state of the art goals. CREDIT:
NASA
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