Publications

North Carolina’s rich history and importance in the colonial days played a critical role in the Nation’s economic development. It was also the setting for events like the Wright Brothers’ famous first flight of a powered aircraft, called “Wright Flyer,” which took place in Kitty Hawk in 1903. Today, North Carolina license plates proudly proclaim the State as “First in Flight.”The aerospace and def

The Rangeland Condition Monitoring Assessment and Projection (RCMAP) project has partnered with the Bureau of Land Management to provide annual maps of rangeland vegetation condition across the Western United States from 1985 to present. Annual mapping can assist land managers and scientists with monitoring changes to vegetation composition, evaluating past management practices, targeting future i

LANDFIRE is a Federal program that provides a suite of spatial datasets indicating areas of disturbance, vegetation and fuels distributions and structure, and historical conditions. The level of detail presented in LANDFIRE’s classifications of disturbance, vegetation, and fuels is unparalleled and can be used in a variety of applications, including (1) modeling wildfire risk and fire behavior, (2

Oklahoma benefits from a varied landscape abundant in resources. Mountains, grasslands, reservoirs, rivers, fields, and forests offer employment and enjoyment in a State that epitomizes the transition from north to south and east to west. Wheat grows in northern Oklahoma; cotton grows in the south. Wetter deciduous forest lands in the southeast contrast with drier mesas in the northwest. Among the

In the United States, greater attention has been given to developing water supplies and quantifying available waters than determining who uses water, how much they withdraw and consume, and how and where water use occurs. As water supplies are stressed due to an increasingly variable climate, changing land-use, and growing water needs, greater consideration of the demand side of the water balance

Hawaii stands apart from the rest of the United States, literally and figuratively. The nearest of the eight islands that make up the Hawaiian archipelago is 2,000 miles from the U.S. mainland. Like every bit of land mass within the State, it emerged from the Pacific Ocean after thousands of years of undersea volcanic activity. Kona International Airport, on the “Big Island” of Hawai‘i, was built

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania straddles an array of landscapes. From east to west, its 46,055 square miles connect the sea-level lowlands of the Atlantic seaboard with the rolling hills of the Midwest. It also acts as a bridge between regions from north to south, with the Appalachian Mountains swooping through its center from its northern border with New York to its southern borders with Maryla

Nevada’s geography is colorful—and contradictory. As one of the most mountainous States, Nevada shares the country’s second-deepest lake, Lake Tahoe, with neighboring California. It is also the driest State and largely covered by desert. Northern Nevada has long, cold winters, whereas the south has long, hot summers. It is the seventh-largest State, but it ranks in the bottom one-half of States fo

Wyoming has the smallest population of any State—fewer than 600,000 people—but an abun­dance of wildlife. The largest number of pronghorn (Antilocapra americana), often called antelope, and the biggest public bison (Bison bison) herd in the United States live in Wyoming, which also hosts elk (Cervus elaphus), moose (Alces americanus), bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis), black bears (Ursus americanus)

Utah’s list of notable features runs long, but scenery rises to the top. The Colorado River does not simply run through southeastern Utah; it meanders through steep canyons of the eroded sedimentary rock that colors the sweeping vistas of the Colorado Plateau. Stone arches, spires, hoodoos, cliffs, and bridges in hues of red enchant residents and tourists. Mountain ranges extending through the Sta

Washington is a State of untamed wonders, from its ruggedly beautiful coastline to the volcanic peaks of the Cascades. “The Evergreen State” is also a State of contrasts, home to rainforests west of the Cascades and deserts to the east. Half of Washington is forested, and its orchards grow more than one-half of the apples sold in the United States. Rivers are important to the State, particularly t

Executive SummaryThis report addresses system characterization of the Italian Space Agency’s PRecursore IperSpettrale della Missione Applicativa (PRISMA) 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