The data helped to spark a digital revolution among remote-sensing specialists, who have developed tools to exploit massive computing resources and stitch together high-resolution records of global change over time and space. Other space-borne imagers, such as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites, can take snapshots of larger areas at a single pass, but with much lower resolutions.

With Landsat, “we can get the detail and the enormous geographic coverage”, says Asner. “This alone puts Landsat at the very forefront in land-cover and land-use change monitoring.”

Landsat 8 is scheduled to begin operations 90 days after entering orbit, although the first images could arrive within three or four weeks. The satellite might not live as long as its predecessor, which NASA engineers have put forward as a candidate to Guinness World Records, but Irons believes that Landsat 8 will make its own mark. “I do not think it hyperbole to suggest that all seven billion of us will benefit from the Landsat continuity mission.”

This article is reproduced with permission from the magazine Nature. The article was first published on February 6, 2013.

7 Comments

1. 1. Geologon 06:38 PM 2/6/13

   The Aral Sea was artificially dessicated. This has nothing to do with Climate change, so why did SciAm use that particular image?

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2. 2. RSchmidt in reply to Geologon 08:50 PM 2/6/13

   The caption on the photo indicates that. Why do you comment about articles you haven't read?

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3. 3. Bob_CA in reply to Geologon 12:49 AM 2/7/13

   Geologon, it was used as an example of the sorts of changes that can be seen when one has access to a continuous record over many years. It really had nothing at all to do with specific causes for those changes. You should be pleased to have a continuous record of the earth's surface, since even skeptics need good data as a basis for argument, right?

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4. 4. psibbald in reply to Geologon 02:41 AM 2/7/13

   Why shouldn't they use an image taken by Landsat satellites in an article about Landsat satellites? The only mention of climate change associated with this article is your comment.

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5. 5. peterbrm 06:30 AM 2/7/13

   A cynic would say that artificially drying up an inland sea due to short term greed is a good analogue for human induced climate change, however I don't think is anyone claiming that the Aral is not drying up or that it is due to natural causes.
   

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6. 6. sault in reply to Geologon 03:14 PM 2/7/13

   Agreed, the artificial dessication of the Aral Sea was caused by many things people have done. Diverting its inlets towards agriculture caused a lot of the water loss, but human GHG emissions have raised the average temperature in the region too, diverting rainfall patterns and requiring MORE water for irrigation in the first place.
   

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7. 7. sault 06:16 PM 2/7/13

   What really blows my mind is how control of the satellites and all the data was handed over to a private contractor in the 80's and 90's. What purpose did it serve? It OBVIOUSLY didn't help the advancement of science given that unfettered demand for LandSat data is 200 TIMES the actual "sales" while the data was privatized. Why should people have to pay for data whose existance was only made possible by an investment from the US government anyway? The focus on privatization deprived the scientific community of valuable data for decades and actually DIMINISHED the government's return on its investment in these satellites.

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