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The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Proto-Flight Model (PFM), launched on December 18, 1999, aboard NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra satellite has 20 reflective solar bands (RSB) with wavelengths ranging from 0.41 to 2.1 mum over a wide field of view (plusmn55deg). The Landsat 7 (L7) Enhanced Thematic Mapper...

To understand our planet at local, regional, national, and global scales, people need information about Earth's land surfaces and how they are changing. Land remote sensing is the key to gathering this information. Satellites that capture detailed images of Earth's continents, islands, and coastlines are and have been EROS' primary...

Declassified photographs from U.S. intelligence satellites provide an important worldwide addition to the public record of the Earth’s land surface. This imagery was released to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in accordance with Executive Order 12951 on February 23, 1995. The NARA...

The multispectral data from the Landsat 5 (L5) Thematic Mapper (TM) sensor provides the backbone of an extensive archive of moderate resolution Earth imagery. Even after more than 24 years of service, the L5 TM is still operational. Given the longevity of the instrument, the detectors have aged, and the...

The capabilities of the currently operational Landsat satellites may be lost before the launch of the follow-on Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM), thus producing a gap in the Landsat data record and the National Satellite Land Remote Sensing Data Archive (NSLRSDA). In anticipation of a gap, the Federal agencies responsible...

Evapotranspiration (ET) is an essential component of the water balance and a major consumptive use of irrigation water and precipitation on cropland. Numerous energy balance (EB) algorithms have been developed to make use of remote sensing data to estimate ET regionally. However, a review of different ET mapping algorithms shows...

2008 Ride The Rockies route on shaded-relief mosaic of USGS Landsat 7 satellite images. To download other USGS materials related to Ride The Rockies, go to http://www.cr.usgs.gov/rtr/index.htm...

Reliable estimates of cropped area (CA) in developing countries with chronic food shortages are essential for emergency relief and the design of appropriate market-based food security programs. Satellite interpretation of CA is an effective alternative to extensive and costly field surveys, which fail to represent the spatial heterogeneity at the...

The international land-cover community has been working with GEO since 2005 to build the foundations for land-cover observations as an integral part of a Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). The Group on Earth Observation (GEO) has provided the platform to elevate the societal relevance of land cover monitoring...

Recently available satellite land cover land use (LCLU) and albedo data are used to study the impact of LCLU change from 1973 to 2000 on surface albedo and radiative forcing for 36 ecoregions covering 43% of the conterminous United States (CONUS). Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) snow-free broadband albedo values...

No abstract available....

Landsat data have enabled continuous global monitoring of both human-caused and other land cover disturbances since 1972. Recently degraded performance and intermittent service of the Landsat 7 and Landsat 5 sensors, respectively, have raised concerns about the condition of global Earth observation programs. However, Landsat imagery is still useful for...

High-latitude ecosystems are exposed to more pronounced warming effects than other parts of the globe. We develop a technique to monitor ecological changes in a way that distinguishes climate influences from disturbances. In this study, we account for climatic influences on Alaskan boreal forest performance with a data-driven model. We...

This 30-meter data set represents land use and land cover for the conterminous United States for the 2001 time period. The data have been arranged into four tiles to facilitate timely display and manipulation within a Geographic Information System (see http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/browse/nlcd01-partition.jpg). The National Land Cover Data Set for 2001 was...

This 30-meter data set represents land use and land cover for the conterminous United States for the 2001 time period. The data have been arranged into four tiles to facilitate timely display and manipulation within a Geographic Information System (see http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/browse/nlcd01-partition.jpg). The National Land Cover Data Set for 2001 was...

This 30-meter data set represents land use and land cover for the conterminous United States for the 2001 time period. The data have been arranged into four tiles to facilitate timely display and manipulation within a Geographic Information System (see http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/browse/nlcd01-partition.jpg). The National Land Cover Data Set for 2001 was...

Land cover is a critical component of the Earth system, infl uencing land-atmosphere interactions, greenhouse gas fl uxes, ecosystem health, and availability of food, fi ber, and energy for human populations. The recent Integrated Global Observations of Land (IGOL) report calls for the generation of maps documenting global land cover...

Healthy riparian ecosystems in arid and semi-arid regions exhibit shifting patterns of vegetation in response to periodic flooding. Their conditions also depend upon the amount of grazing and other human uses. Taking advantage of these system properties, we developed and tested an approach that utilizes historical Landsat data to track changes in the patterns of greenness (Normalized Difference...

The Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS-P6), also called ResourceSat-1, was launched in a polar sun-synchronous orbit on October 17, 2003. It carries three sensors: the highresolution Linear Imaging Self-Scanner (LISS-IV), the mediumresolution Linear Imaging Self-Scanner (LISS-III), and the Advanced Wide-Field Sensor (AWiFS). These three sensors provide images of different resolutions...

Aim We aimed to estimate the present extent of tsunami-affected mangrove forests and determine the rates and causes of deforestation from 1975 to 2005.Location Our study region covers the tsunami-affected coastal areas of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Burma (Myanmar), Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka in Asia.Methods We interpreted time-series Landsat data...

Urban development has expanded rapidly in Las Vegas, Nevada of the United States, over the last fifty years. A major environmental change associated with this urbanization trend is the transformation of the landscape from natural cover types to increasingly anthropogenic impervious surface. This research utilizes remote sensing data from both...

MODIS active fire data offer new information about global fire patterns. However, uncertainties in detection rates can render satellite-derived fire statistics difficult to interpret. We evaluated the MODIS 1??km daily active fire product to quantify detection rates for both Terra and Aqua MODIS sensors, examined how cloud cover and fire...

Initiated in 1972, the Landsat program has provided a continuous record of earth observation for 35 years. The assemblage of Landsat spatial, spectral, and temporal resolutions, over a reasonably sized image extent, results in imagery that can be processed to represent land cover over large areas with an amount of spatial...

Mangrove forests of Madagascar are declining, albeit at a much slower rate than the global average. The forests are declining due to conversion to other land uses and forest degradation. However, accurate and reliable information on their present distribution and their rates, causes, and consequences of change have not been...

Accurate and reliable information on the spatial distribution of mangrove species is needed for a wide variety of applications, including sustainable management of mangrove forests, conservation and reserve planning, ecological and biogeographical studies, and invasive species management. Remotely sensed data have been used for such purposes with mixed results. Our...