Search USGS⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search USGS

Results for “Earth Science”

Search indexed USGS publications on groundwater, aquifers, geologic maps, mineral resources and earthquakes. Explore source records by subject and place.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 991 records · Page 55Linked to original sources
USGS2012

Upper Klamath Basin Landsat Image for July 25, 2006: Path 45 Rows 30 and 31

This image is a mosaic of Landsat-5 images of the upper Klamath Basin. The original images were obtained from the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Center (EROS). EROS is responsible for archive management and distribution of Landsat data products. The Landsat-5 satellite is part of an ongoing mission to provide quality remote sensing data in support of research and applications activities. The launch of Landsat-5 on March 1, 1984 marks the addition of the fifth satellite to the Landsat series. The Landsat-5 satellite carries the Thematic Mapper (TM) sensor. More information on the Landsat program can be found online at http://landsat.usgs.gov/.

Oregon↗
USGS2012

Upper Klamath Basin Landsat Image for September 27, 2006: Path 45 Rows 30 and 31

This image is a mosaic of Landsat-5 images of the upper Klamath Basin. The original images were obtained from the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Center (EROS). EROS is responsible for archive management and distribution of Landsat data products. The Landsat-5 satellite is part of an ongoing mission to provide quality remote sensing data in support of research and applications activities. The launch of Landsat-5 on March 1, 1984 marks the addition of the fifth satellite to the Landsat series. The Landsat-5 satellite carries the Thematic Mapper (TM) sensor. More information on the Landsat program can be found online at http://landsat.usgs.gov/.

Oregon↗
USGS2012

Upper Klamath Basin Landsat Image for October 29, 2006: Path 45 Rows 30 and 31

This image is a mosaic of Landsat-5 images of the upper Klamath Basin. The original images were obtained from the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Center (EROS). EROS is responsible for archive management and distribution of Landsat data products. The Landsat-5 satellite is part of an ongoing mission to provide quality remote sensing data in support of research and applications activities. The launch of Landsat-5 on March 1, 1984 marks the addition of the fifth satellite to the Landsat series. The Landsat-5 satellite carries the Thematic Mapper (TM) sensor. More information on the Landsat program can be found online at http://landsat.usgs.gov/.

Oregon↗
USGS2012

Upper Klamath Basin Landsat Image for April 28, 2006: Path 45 Rows 30 and 31

This image is a mosaic of Landsat-7 images of the upper Klamath Basin. The original images were obtained from the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Center (EROS). EROS is responsible for archive management and distribution of Landsat data products. The Landsat-7 satellite is part of an ongoing mission to provide quality remote sensing data in support of research and applications activities. The launch of Landsat-7 on April 15, 1999 marks the addition of the latest satellite to the Landsat series. The Landsat-7 satellite carries the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) sensor. A mechanical failure of the ETM+ Scan Line Corrector (SLC) occurred on May 31, 2003, with the result that all Landsat 7 scenes acquired from July 14, 2003 to present have been collected in 'SLC-off' mode. More information on the Landsat program can be found online at http://landsat.usgs.gov/.

Oregon↗
USGS2012

Upper Klamath Basin Landsat Image for May 30, 2006: Path 45 Rows 30 and 31

This image is a mosaic of Landsat-7 images of the upper Klamath Basin. The original images were obtained from the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Center (EROS). EROS is responsible for archive management and distribution of Landsat data products. The Landsat-7 satellite is part of an ongoing mission to provide quality remote sensing data in support of research and applications activities. The launch of Landsat-7 on April 15, 1999 marks the addition of the latest satellite to the Landsat series. The Landsat-7 satellite carries the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) sensor. A mechanical failure of the ETM+ Scan Line Corrector (SLC) occurred on May 31, 2003, with the result that all Landsat 7 scenes acquired from July 14, 2003 to present have been collected in 'SLC-off' mode. More information on the Landsat program can be found online at http://landsat.usgs.gov/.

Oregon↗
USGS2013

Geodatabase compilation of hydrogeologic, remote sensing, and water-budget-component data for the High Plains aquifer, 2011

The High Plains aquifer underlies almost 112 million acres in the central United States. It is one of the largest aquifers in the Nation in terms of annual groundwater withdrawals and provides drinking water for 2.3 million people. The High Plains aquifer has gained national and international attention as a highly stressed groundwater supply primarily because it has been appreciably depleted in some areas. The U.S. Geological Survey has an active program to monitor the changes in groundwater levels for the High Plains aquifer and has documented substantial water-level changes since predevelopment: the High Plains Groundwater Availability Study is part of a series of regional groundwater availability studies conducted to evaluate the availability and sustainability of major aquifers across the Nation. The goals of the regional groundwater studies are to quantify current groundwater resources in an aquifer system, evaluate how these resources have changed over time, and provide tools to better understand a systems response to future demands and environmental stresses. The purpose of this report is to present selected data developed and synthesized for the High Plains aquifer as part of the High Plains Groundwater Availability Study. The High Plains Groundwater Availability Study includes the development of a water-budget-component analysis for the High Plains completed in 2011 and development of a groundwater-flow model for the northern High Plains aquifer. Both of these tasks require large amounts of data about the High Plains aquifer. Data pertaining to the High Plains aquifer were collected, synthesized, and then organized into digital data containers called geodatabases. There are 8 geodatabases, 1 file geodatabase and 7 personal geodatabases, that have been grouped in three categories: hydrogeologic data, remote sensing data, and water-budget-component data. The hydrogeologic data pertaining to the northern High Plains aquifer is included in three separate geodatabases: (1) base data from a groundwater-flow model; (2) hydrogeology and hydraulic properties data; and (3) groundwater-flow model data to be used as calibration targets. The remote sensing data for this study were developed by the U. S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Center and include historical and predicted land-use/land-cover data and actual evapotranspiration data by using remotely sensed temperature data. The water-budget-component data contains selected raster data from maps in the “Selected Approaches to Estimate Water-Budget Components of the High Plains, 1940 Through 1949 and 2000 Through 2009” report completed in 2011 ( http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2011/5183/ ). Federal Geographic Data Committee compliant metadata were created for each spatial and tabular data layer in the geodatabases.

Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, ↗
USGS2014

A quasi-global precipitation time series for drought monitoring

Estimating precipitation variations in space and time is an important aspect of drought early warning and environmental monitoring. An evolving drier-than-normal season must be placed in historical context so that the severity of rainfall deficits may quickly be evaluated. To this end, scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Center, working closely with collaborators at the University of California, Santa Barbara Climate Hazards Group, have developed a quasi-global (50°S–50°N, 180°E–180°W), 0.05° resolution, 1981 to near-present gridded precipitation time series: the Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS) data archive.

Data Series↗
USGS2007

Shuttle Radar Topography Mission - New Products in 2005

In February 2000, the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) successfully collected Interferometric C-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar data over 80 percent of the Earth's land surface, for most of the area between 60?N and 56?S latitude. NASA and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), formerly known as the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), co-sponsored the mission. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) performed preliminary processing of SRTM data and forwarded partially finished data directly to NGA for finishing by NGA contractors and subsequent monthly deliveries to the NGA Digital Products Data Warehouse (DPDW). All data products delivered by the contractors conform to NGA SRTM Data Products and NGA Digital Terrain Elevation Data? (DTED?) specifications. The DPDW ingests the SRTM data products, checks them for formatting errors, loads the public SRTM DTED? into the NGA data distribution system, and ships them to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS). In addition to NGA's SRTM DTED? format, USGS EROS has reformatted the data into a non-proprietary, generic raster binary SRTM format that is readable by most remote sensing software packages. The SRTM format is also publicly available from USGS EROS.

Fact Sheet↗
USGS2005

USGS Releases New Digital Aerial Products

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) has initiated distribution of digital aerial photographic products produced by scanning or digitizing film from its historical aerial photography film archive. This archive, located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, contains thousands of rolls of film that contain more than 8 million frames of historic aerial photographs. The largest portion of this archive consists of original film acquired by Federal agencies from the 1930s through the 1970s to produce 1:24,000-scale USGS topographic quadrangle maps. Most of this photography is reasonably large scale (USGS photography ranges from 1:8,000 to 1:80,000) to support the production of the maps. Two digital products are currently available for ordering: high-resolution scanned products and medium-resolution digitized products.

Fact Sheet↗
USGS2005

Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer Normalized Difference Vegetation Index Composites

The Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) is a broad-band scanner with four to six bands, depending on the model. The AVHRR senses in the visible, near-, middle-, and thermal- infrared portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. This sensor is carried on a series of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellites (POES), beginning with the Television InfraRed Observation Satellite (TIROS-N) in 1978. Since 1989, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) has been mapping the vegetation condition of the United States and Alaska using satellite information from the AVHRR sensor. The vegetation condition composites, more commonly called greenness maps, are produced every week using the latest information on the growth and condition of the vegetation. One of the most important aspects of USGS greenness mapping is the historical archive of information dating back to 1989. This historical stretch of information has allowed the USGS to determine a 'normal' vegetation condition. As a result, it is possible to compare the current week's vegetation condition with normal vegetation conditions. An above normal condition could indicate wetter or warmer than normal conditions, while a below normal condition could indicate colder or dryer than normal conditions. The interpretation of departure from normal will depend on the season and geography of a region.

Fact Sheet↗
USGS2006

The USGS Land Cover Institute

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Land Cover Institute (LCI) is located at the Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It provides a focal point for advancing USGS land cover studies and applications. Satellite images and other remotely sensed data play an important role in this research. Land Cover scientists investigate new ways to use satellite images and other data to map land cover. They assess national and global land cover characteristics and monitor how - and how rapidly - land cover changes. They also study the economic impacts of land cover as well as its effects on water quality, the spread of invasive species, habitats and biodiversity, climate variability, and other environmental factors.

Fact Sheet↗
USGS2007

Land Cover Applications, Landscape Dynamics, and Global Change

The Land Cover Applications, Landscape Dynamics, and Global Change project at U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) seeks to integrate remote sensing and simulation models to better understand and seek solutions to national and global issues. Modeling processes related to population impacts, natural resource management, climate change, invasive species, land use changes, energy development, and climate mitigation all pose significant scientific opportunities. The project activities use remotely sensed data to support spatial monitoring, provide sensitivity analyses across landscapes and large regions, and make the data and results available on the Internet with data access and distribution, decision support systems, and on-line modeling. Applications support sustainable natural resource use, carbon cycle science, biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation, and robust simulation modeling approaches that evaluate ecosystem and landscape dynamics.

Fact Sheet↗
USGS2008

TerraLook: GIS-Ready Time-Series of Satellite Imagery for Monitoring Change

TerraLook is a joint project of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) with a goal of providing satellite images that anyone can use to see changes in the Earth's surface over time. Each TerraLook product is a user-specified collection of satellite images selected from imagery archived at the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. Images are bundled with standards-compliant metadata, a world file, and an outline of each image's ground footprint, enabling their use in geographic information systems (GIS), image processing software, and Web mapping applications. TerraLook images are available through the USGS Global Visualization Viewer (http://glovis.usgs.gov).

Fact Sheet↗
USGS2008

Declassified Intelligence Satellite Photographs

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 has the original declassified film and a viewing copy. The USGS has another copy of the film to complement the Landsat archive. The declassified collection involves more than 990,000 photographs taken from 1959 through 1980 and was released on two separate occasions: February 1995 (Declass 1) and September 2002 (Declass 2). The USGS copy is maintained by the Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center, near Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Both the NARA and EROS provide public access to this unique collection that extends the record of land-surface change back another decade from the advent of the Landsat program that began satellite operations in 1972.

Fact Sheet↗
USGS2008

Opening the Landsat Archive

The USGS Landsat archive holds an unequaled 36-year record of the Earth's surface that is invaluable to climate change studies, forest and resource management activities, and emergency response operations. An aggressive effort is taking place to provide all Landsat imagery [scenes currently held in the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center archive, as well as newly acquired scenes daily] free of charge to users with electronic access via the Web by the end of December 2008. The entire Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) archive acquired since 1999 and any newly acquired Landsat 7 ETM+ images that have less than 40 percent cloud cover are currently available for download. When this endeavor is complete all Landsat 1-5 data will also be available for download. This includes Landsat 1-5 Multispectral Scanner (MSS) scenes, as well as Landsat 4 and 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) scenes.

Fact Sheet↗
USGS2012

Landsat's international partners

Since the launch of the first Landsat satellite 40 years ago, International Cooperators (ICs) have formed a key strategic alliance with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to not only engage in Landsat data downlink services but also to enable a foundation for scientific and technical collaboration. The map below shows the locations of all ground stations operated by the United States and IC ground station network for the direct downlink and distribution of Landsat 5 (L5) and Landsat 7 (L7) image data. The circles show the approximate area over which each station has the capability for direct reception of Landsat data. The red circles show the components of the L5 ground station network, the green circles show components of the L7 station network, and the dashed circles show stations with dual (L5 and L7) status. The yellow circles show L5 short-term ("campaign") stations that contribute to the USGS Landsat archive. Ground stations in South Dakota and Australia currently serve as the primary data capture facilities for the USGS Landsat Ground Network (LGN). The Landsat Ground Station (LGS) is located at the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The Alice Springs (ASN) ground station is located at the Geoscience Australia facility in Alice Springs, Australia. These sites receive the image data, via X-band Radio Frequency (RF) link, and the spacecraft housekeeping data, via S-band RF link. LGS also provides tracking services and a command link to the spacecrafts.

Argentina;Australia;Brazil;Canada;China;Germany;In↗
USGS2015

EROS resources for the classroom

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center has several educational resources that demonstrate how satellite imagery is used to understand our changing world.

Fact Sheet↗
USGS2020

Land change monitoring, assessment, and projection

There is a pressing need to monitor and understand the rapid land change happening around the world. The U.S. Geological Survey is developing a new capability, called Land Change Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection (LCMAP), to innovate the understanding of land change. This capability is the Earth Resources Observation and Science Center's foundation for an integrated U.S. Geological Survey-wide land change science framework. LCMAP supports the development of consistent data and land cover products spanning large geographic extents, over extended periods, and at a higher frequency than in the past. LCMAP provides solutions to the science and management communities’ growing need for an improved understanding of the fundamental drivers of land change, the consequences of change in human and natural systems, and feedbacks associated with land change processes.

Fact Sheet↗