Banner for the Landsat Science News Digest for August 2025. In the background is a blue-green and white Landsat image and white text is in the forefront.

Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2: Collaboration Drives Innovation

August 25, 2025

HLS NDVI near Columbus Nebraska on May 18 2022

In 2024, Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 (HLS) was one of the most-downloaded NASA data products. This powerful data product is the result of long-term collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency—and we're just starting to see all that it can be used for.

How HLS Came to Be

This map shows the surface roughness categories (open suburban treed) used for Bay County Florida in the Panhandle region. The categories are based on National Land Cover Database classifications.

August 26, 2025

Landsat Prepares Residents for Hurricanes

Source: Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center

Landsat-based National Land Cover Database (NLCD) helps property owners and insurance companies prepare for hurricane-strength winds, mitigating risk to homes and other structures.

Natural color image of Lake Mead captured by Landsat 8 on July 3 2022

August 21, 2025

Mapping Reservoirs for Better Water Management

Using data from Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 (HLS), researchers developed a new algorithm to better monitor reservoir water levels in the contiguous U.S.

August 11, 2025

Annual NLCD’s Insights Rely on Long Landsat Record

Source: Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center

The Landsat satellite program, with its unparalleled 53-year historic record, can reveal changes through the Annual National Land Cover Database (NLCD).

“Landsat is proving it’s power once again. I hope Landsat runs for 100 years. It’s changing the game in terms of monitoring our water.”

—Faisal Hossain, August 7

On the development of the Thermal History of Regulated Rivers tool

PUBLICATION SPOTLIGHT

Large live biomass carbon losses from droughts in the northern temperate ecosystems during 2016-2022

| Li et al., 2025

Droughts and wildfires are threatening the growing carbon sink in northern ecosystems. Li et al., 2025, published in June in Nature Communications, used a combination of Landsat and microwave satellite observations to track changes in northern forests from 2010-2022. The researchers used the Global Forest Change dataset, derived from Landsat imagery, to create global annual maps of forest change from 2001-2022. By combining these maps with microwave-based biomass measurements from the SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) satellite, researchers identified 2016 as a turning-point year for northern ecosystems. From 2010-2016, biomass was increasing in northern forests; from 2016 to 2022, live biomass carbon stocks began to decrease, especially in temperate ecosystems. Their approach offers significant advantages over traditional methods by combining optical and microwave satellite data to better understand the direction and drivers of biomass trends in northern ecosystems.

Figure of change in live biomass carbon stocks during 2016 to 2022. Five maps of northern ecosystems.

Various metrics including forest loss, biomass change, burned area, and Mean Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index show changes in live biomass stocks from 2016-2022. The greatest changes were between 50°N and 60°N. Image credit: Li et al., 2025

Find more selected Landsat publications on our website.

NASA's Earth Observatory

Selected Landsat Images

August 22, 2025

Drought Parches the Yakima River Basin

Farmers are facing the burden of dwindling reservoir water in this productive agricultural region of Washington state.

A satellite image shows the three reservoirs in July 2025. At this time water levels were much lower and sandy parched areas are visible around the edges of all three reservoirs.

August 13, 2025

Browns Canyon National Monument

The remote and rugged landscape in central Colorado is known for outdoor recreation by day and exceptional stargazing by night.

A satellite image shows a mostly brown landscape. A river appears as a thin line down the left side of the scene and borders more mountainous terrain toward the right.

August 11, 2025

Lost Towns of Quabbin

Forests play a key role in filtering the waters of a reservoir in central Massachusetts that’s home to submerged towns and nesting eagles.

A satellite image shows the Quabbin Reservoir in central Massachusetts. The reservoir (blue) has an irregular shape that resembles a flooded river valley with multiple arms. The reservoir is surrounded by forest (green) and some towns and roads. A label for Dana Common shows the location of a town that was razed when the reservoir was created.

August 4, 2025

A Glacial Lake's Evolution

The outlet of Berg Lake, dammed by the Steller Glacier in Alaska, has been reconfigured after decades of ice retreat.

The Steller Glacier in Alaska runs from the top of the frame and bends to the left like a backward “L” in a satellite image from June 2024. Berg Lake and other lakes border the glacier’s terminus which has receded noticeably from its 2003 extent. Berg Lake’s previous drainage path is filled in with vegetation and a label indicates it runs to the south instead. The left side of the image is green with vegetation and interrupted by riverbeds.

Tracking Disturbances in Near Real-Time

Screenshot of the DIST ALERT system which tracks vegetation anomalies in near real time. A large red shape represents vegetation loss of greater than 50 percent while surrounding yellow marks represent vegetation loss of less than 50 percent.

Want to track the damage left by a wildfire or the sprawl of a new construction site? The DIST-ALERT system is a global land change monitoring system that uses HLS V2.0 data to track vegetation anomalies in near real-time. The dashboard, developed by researchers at the Global Land Analysis and Discovery Lab, helps researchers keep an eye on rapidly changing landscapes.

+ Explore the DIST-ALERT dashboard