RICHMOND, Va. (WTVR) - For 40 years, NASA's Landsat program has been monitoring the Earth as viewed from space, scanning for changes to both the land and sea as caused by natural processes and human activities. This group of remote sensing satellites orbit our Earth gathering specialized data that can produce incredible digital images. Landsat is the standard for tracking the health of forests across the world. Water levels and human water usage are also monitored by the satellites, and this is especially useful as the U.S. experiences one of its worst national droughts on record.
Meteorologist Carrie Rose spoke with former astronaut and NASA Earth Scientist Piers Sellers about how Landsat sees changes to Earth from space during the WTVR CBS 6 News This Morning.
CLICK HERE to learn about the NASA/US Geological Survey Landsat project.
CLICK HERE to explore Landsat images yourself!
CLICK HERE for a recent Landsat study on the Chesapeake Bay.
Using six Landsat 5 images collected in July 2009 and 2011 a beautiful, seamless mosaic of the Chesapeake Bay region was created by the USGS Landsat team. The Washington D.C.-Baltimore-Philadelphia-New York City corridor can be clearly seen (look for silvery purple) as can the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays and the coastal Atlantic barrier islands from Fishermans Island, Virginia to Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Image credit: NASA/USGS/Landsat 5
NASA describes the program as follows:
"The Landsat Program is a series of Earth-observing satellite missions jointly managed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey. Since 1972, Landsat satellites have collected information about Earth from space. This science, known as remote sensing, has matured with the Landsat Program.
Landsat satellites have taken specialized digital photographs of Earth’s continents and surrounding coastal regions for over three decades, enabling people to study many aspects of our planet and to evaluate the dynamic changes caused by both natural processes and human practices."
Meteorologist Carrie Rose
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