Landsat – Greenest Pixel Yearly

NASA – LANDSAT mission

Since the first Landsat satellite launched in 1972, the mission has collected data on the forests, farms, urban areas and freshwater of our home planet, generating the longest continuous record of its kind. Decision makers from across the globe use freely available Landsat data to better understand environmental change, manage agricultural practices, allocate scarce water resources, respond to natural disasters and more.

Currently, both Landsat 7 and Landsat 8 are in a near-polar orbit of our planet. Each satellite repeats its orbital pattern every 16 days, with the two spacecraft offset so that each spot on Earth is measured by one or the other every eight days. As the Landsat satellites orbit, the instruments capture scenes across a swath of the planet that is 185 kilometers (115 miles) wide. Each pixel in these images is 30-meters across, which is about the size of a baseball infield, or — more important for resource management — an average U.S. crop field.

·         Landsat data help decision makers and resource managers in an incredible range of fields. The freely-available information is used to help identify the type and distribution of major crops across the globe, measure how agriculture is expanding or shrinking in remote regions, and monitor crop health and the condition of pastures and rangelands. 

·         The mission will also continue providing a field-by-field view of the amount of water used for irrigation. This essential and precise information helps water resource agencies manage water use, settle water rights disputes in places like the American West, and anticipate and respond to water shortages. In places where water is scarce, Landsat has become an impartial and cost-effective tool to manage water use. 

Data will also help scientists map Earth’s forests. With half-a-century’s worth of images showing the extent and health of forests, researchers can assess trends over time for both plantations and natural ecosystems. These Landsat observations will also help improve estimates of carbon stored in forests — an essential part of global carbon accounting programs.