Image of the Week — 100 Million Landsat Downloads

This Landsat 8 image from May 24th, 2017 shows an enthralling New Zealand landscape. Snow-capped mountain peaks, forests, farmland, and fog highlight the picturesque view of New Zealand's North Island. The scene was downloaded on March 9th, 2020 one of over 29,000 Landsat scenes downloaded worldwide that day. But this scene is special. It marks the 100 millionth downloaded from from the USGS EROS archive since Landsat data became freely available on October 1st, 2008. That's one scene every 3.6 seconds since the open policy began, and it's a number that wouldn't be possible if the data weren't free and open. These downloads help researchers conduct countless land change studies and provide essential information to help land managers and policymakers make wise decisions about our resources and our environment.