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Pacific walruses (Odobenus rosmarus divergens) are using coastal haulouts in the Chukchi Sea more often and in larger numbers to rest between foraging bouts in late summer and autumn in recent years, because climate warming has reduced availability of sea ice that historically had provided resting platforms near their...

Executive SummaryThis report addresses system characterization of the Indian Space Research Organisation Resourcesat-2 Linear Imaging Self Scanning-3 (LISS–3) sensor and is part of a series of system characterization reports produced and delivered by the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Cal/Val Center of Excellence in 2021. These reports...

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Satellite-derived bathymetry (SDB) based upon an empirical band ratio method is a cost-effective means for mapping nearshore bathymetry in coastal areas vulnerable to natural hazards. This is particularly important for the low-lying coastal community of Unalakleet, Alaska, that has been negatively affected not only by flooding, storm surge, and historically...

A new data layer provides Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS) labels for global coastal segments at 1 km or shorter resolution. These characteristics are summarized for six US Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON) sites and one MBON Pole to Pole of the Americas site in Argentina. The global...

The magnitude and frequency of storm events, relative sea-level rise (RSLR), sediment supply, and anthropogenic alterations drive the morphologic evolution of barrier island systems, although the relative importance of any one driver will vary with the spatial and temporal scales considered. To explore the relative contributions of storms and human...

The Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center is the largest facility of its kind within the U.S. Geological Survey. As both a science and data center, EROS serves a unique and critical role in shaping our understanding of a changing planet.EROS opened its doors in 1973 as a receiving...

This research reports the findings of a Landsat Next expert review panel that evaluated the use of narrow shortwave infrared (SWIR) reflectance bands to measure ligno-cellulose absorption features centered near 2100 and 2300 nm, with the objective of measuring and mapping non-photosynthetic vegetation (NPV), crop residue cover,...

The long record of Landsat imagery, which is the cornerstone of Earth observation, provides an opportunity to monitor land use and land cover (LULC) change and understand the interactions between the climate and earth system through time. A few change detection algorithms such...

From the shores of Jamestown and spreading north, south, and west, the lands that became the State of Virginia were some of the first in North America top experience rapid landscape change from European settlement. Imagery and data from the USGS Landsat series of satellites offer an unparalleled resource for...

The first Landsat was placed in orbit on 23 July 1972, followed by a series of missions that have provided nearly continuous, two-satellite 8-day repeat image coverage of the Earth’s land areas for the last half-century. These observations have substantially enhanced our understanding of the Earth’s terrestrial dynamics, both as...

Water means a lot to Michigan, often called the Great Lakes State. The name “Michigan” comes from an Ojibwe word meaning large, or great, water or lake. As the only State touching four of the five Great Lakes—Michigan, Superior, Huron, and Erie—it claims the longest freshwater coastline in the United...

Prescribed fires and wildfires are common in wetland ecosystems across the Southeastern United States. However, the wetland burned area has been chronically underestimated across the region due to (1) spectral confusion between open water and burned area, (2) rapid post-fire vegetation regrowth, and (3) high annual precipitation...

The U.S. Geological Survey Land Change Monitoring, Assessment and Projection (USGS LCMAP) has released a suite of annual land cover and land cover change products for the conterminous United States (CONUS). The accuracy of these products was assessed using an independently collected land cover reference sample dataset produced by analysts...

Since 2017, the orbit of Landsat 7 has drifted outside its nominal mission requirement toward an earlier acquisition time because of limited onboard fuel resources. This makes quantitative analyses from Landsat 7 data potentially unreliable for many scientific studies. To comprehensively understand the effect of...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) archive of Earth images acquired by Landsat 1-8 sensors is organized in collections of consistently calibrated, geolocated, and processed data products. Such an organization ensures consistent quality of the archived data within a collection over time and across all instruments within the Landsat mission. In...

In late 2020 the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) began the distribution of Landsat products associated with their collection 2 reprocessing of the archive. Several changes were implemented within the Landsat Product Generation System (LPGS) and the calibration parameters applied to the Landsat imagery for the collection 2 processing. When comparing...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has completed processing of the historical Landsat archive to Collection-2 as of December of 2020 and has released it to the public. As part of Collection-2, several geometric changes have been implemented, including changes to the ground control points (GCPs) and elevation datasets. These datasets...

The Green Mountain State of Vermont is known for its vast swaths of deciduous forest, patches of evergreen, and the Green Mountains that run through its center.Valuable insight into the forests and landscape features of Vermont can be gleaned from the 50-year historical record of Landsat satellite imagery. The archive...

Landsat 9 is in its final preparations for launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base on 16 September 2021. It has completed its environmental testing at Northrop Grumman Space (NGSP) in Gilbert, Arizona and has been transported to its California launch site. It will be launched into a 705 km orbit...

An increasing number of sports fields around the world are equipped with artificial turf. This solution has been endorsed by numerous sports federations, despite concerns about the potential for injuries and higher surface temperatures. In this work we analyzed land surface temperature in 4 pairs of...

Executive SummaryThis report addresses system characterization of Planet’s Dove Classic satellites and is part of a series of system characterization reports produced and delivered by the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Cal/Val Center of Excellence. These reports present and detail the methodology and procedures for characterization; present...

Arizona is a land of massive grandeur, deep gorges, lofty mountains, immense plains, and elevated mesas—and, without question, its crown jewel is the Grand Canyon. The spectacular canyon, one of the seven natural wonders of the world, was created when the Colorado River carved a channel through northern Arizona, revealing...

SummarySpatiotemporal patterns of Spartina alterniflora belowground biomass (BGB) are important for evaluating salt marsh resiliency. To solve this, we created the BERM (Belowground Ecosystem Resiliency Model), which estimates monthly BGB (30-m spatial resolution) from freely available data such as Landsat-8 and Daymet climate summaries.Our...

Identifying meaningful measures of ecological change over large areas is dependent on the quantification of robust relationships between ecological metrics and remote sensing products. Over the past several decades, ground observations of wildfire and prescribed fire severity have been acquired across hundreds of wildland fires in the United States, primarily utilizing...