March 2024

Landsat Science News

The GLAMR integrating sphere and the thermal vacuum chamber at Ball Aerospace just before the final alignment of the sphere to the chamber window/OLI-2

March 31, 2024

Landsat 9's Operational Land Imager 2: A Well-Known Instrument

Landsat 9's OLI-2 instrument was characterized in unprecedented detail using a new laser-based method of in-band spectral response testing. The relative spectral response dataset and pre-launch testing details have been published in Barsi et al., 2024.

“Hope for the future comes from looking at the past... Landsat satellites... provide us access to a rich archive of imagery that shows how we can better manage and capitalize our land, driving sustainable increases in productivity and profitability.”

— Geoscience Australia March 26, 2024

Landsat Helping to Address Food Security Challenges in Africa

Reaching Out

March 29, 2024

Bringing Earth Observations into Science Classrooms

Landsat outreach supported the NASA booth at the National Science Teacher's Association annual meeting in Denver.

Landsat outreach team member Mike Taylor (left) speaks with NASA exhibit booth visitors during the 2024 Commodity Classic meeting.

March 21, 2024

Commodity Classic: Landsat Supports Farmers and Food Production

Landsat was part of the NASA Earth Science presence at the 2024 Commodity Classic in Houston this year.

PUBLICATION SPOTLIGHT

New Water Accounting Reveals Why the Colorado River No Longer Reaches the Sea

| Richter et al., 2024

Following up on groundbreaking research from 2020, this paper provides the most comprehensive accounting to-date of how the Colorado River Basin's water supply is consumed—an average of 23.7 billion cubic meters each year. Landsat-based information provided key inputs for riparian and wetland evapotranspiration (OpenET), crop cover (USDA Cropland Data Layer), and crop irrigation (Landsat-based National Irrigation Dataset).

Two graphics from Richter, et al., 2024 showing a summary of the Colorado River Basin's water supplies, water consumed in sub-basins, and overall consumptive use.

Graphical representations of how the Colorado River Basin's water supply is consumed within each sub-basin and by sector (Richter et al., 2024).

Find more selected Landsat publications

on our website.

Upcoming Outreach Events

The Landsat Communications and Public Engagement Team will be at the following events in April 2024:

NASA Land Cover Land Use Change (LCLUC) Science Team Meeting

April 2-4, 2024

Gaithersburg Marriott Washingtonian Center

Rockville, Maryland

April 15, 2024

Virtual Meeting

NASA Earth Day Event

April 18-19, 2024

NASA Earth Information Center

Washington, DC

April 27, 2024

University of Maryland, College Park

College Park, Maryland

Landsat outreach materials and resources can be found on our website.

NASA Earth Observatory

Selected Landsat Images

March 21, 2024

Shedding Light on a Very Dark River

Recent data from the previously unstudied Ruki River in the Congo Basin shows that it carries a heavy load of carbon in its dark water.

A Landsat 8 natural-color satellite image of the merging of the Ruki and Congo river near Mbandaka. In this image, the Ruki River appears black and the Congo river dark brown, surrounded by the tan and green of Mbandaka nearby.

March 20, 2024

An Outpost for Evolution at Aldabra Atoll

The large coral islands off the African coast are home to giant tortoises and unique birdlife.

A natural-color Landsat 9 satellite image of Aldabra Atoll, a large raised coral reef. The reef's lagoon is seen in shades of blue and white, with an outer edge of green and tan, surrounded by the dark blue Indian Ocean. The image was acquired June 24, 2022.

March 9, 2014

An Eruption for Galápagos Iguanas

A volcano on Fernandina, an uninhabited island dense with wildlife, is lighting up the night sky with the glow of lava.

An infrared-color satellite image captured on March 7, 2024 displays an active lava flow on Fernandina Island. The image shows green vegetation encircling the caldera. Bare earth is represented by dark brown tones, while healthy vegetation stands out in light green. Clouds are depicted in white, contrasting with the bright red of the active lava flow. The active lava flow, vividly bright red, travels down the volcano's side, starting from the center of the image and extending towards the bottom. The image is a composite, crafted from shortwave infrared, near infrared, and green light wavelengths. A scale marker, indicating 2 km, is positioned in the bottom right corner for reference.

March 2, 2024

Amazon Forest Fires Rage in Roraima

Huge understory fires spread throughout the state in northern Brazil as drought and heat turned the rainforest into tinder.

An infrared-color Landsat satellite image of active fires in Brazil. Shades of red indicate burn scars and active fires and bright green represents vegetation. White text in this image pinpoints Apiaú River, Brazil, pastures, understory fire, and burn scars.

In Case You Missed It

Padma River Unrivaled

A March 4 Landsat-based @nasaearth reel featuring Bangladesh's Padma River has garnered more than one million views on Instagram.

The river can be seen moving and meandering over three decades thanks to an animated series of Landsat images (1988–2018).

Landsat has helped scientists measure erosion along the Padma River and document differences in the river’s width, depth, shape, and overall appearance over time.

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