Images

The south area of the La Honda oil field, California, was discovered during the late 1950s and produced an estimated 595,000 barrels of oil from about 12 wells, including the well in this photo.

Landsat 7 captured this image of Upolu Island in Samoa in July of 1999.  The coral reefs around Upolu and surrounding islands have been studied for longevity. Coral reefs around the island are virtually continuous, forming an extensive shallow reef flat.   Landsat 7 July 6, 1999. 

This pan sharpened color infrared image of Sioux Falls, South Dakota is from the first scene acquired by Landsat 7's Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) sensor on April 18, 1999. The image is shown using the near infrared, red, and green bands (Bands 4,3,2).

This is a screenshot of 1992 Land Remote Sensing Policy Act Congressional Record. The full document is available below. 

The first National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD), based on Landsat 5 data, is completed and available for distribution in 2000.

This Landsat satellite image was created during a group effort to promote remote sensing science in 1985.

EROS Employee Aaron Neugebauer holding fish from the EROS pond. 

Screenshot of the 1985 Public Law 98-365 The Land Remote Sensing Commercialization Act Memo

Landsat 4's first light image captured eastern Lake Erie, and the cities of Toledo, Detroit, and Windsor on July 25, 1982. Although the Landsat program had been collecting images of the Earth since 1972, this was the first time that the data could be depicted as a natural color image due to the new Thematic Mapper sensor onboard Landsat 4.

USGS EROS provides remote sensing science training for visitors in 1979. This is a man using a stereoscope to look at satellite images.

USGS provides remote sensing science training for visitors. This image shows visitors seeing Mount Rushmore.

USGS provides remote sensing science training for visitors. This is a field trip to Badlands National Park.

One of Landsat 3’s first images, captured by the Multispectral Scanner (MSS) 4 days after launch, features a slice of Northern California on March 7, 1978. San Jose sits in Santa Clara Valley touching the southernmost portion of San Francisco. This image showcases the urbanization of the valley, which exploded in the 1970s as Silicon Valley grew.

Landsat 2’s first light image captured Drayton Valley in Alberta, Canada on January 24, 1975. Located along Canadian Highway 22, also known as Cowboy Trail, the town’s original economy thrived on faming and logging. The discovery of the Pembina oil field in 1953 contributed to explosive growth in the sparsely populated area, w

Example of the Landsat 1-5 MSS Collection 2 level-1 product. This Landsat 1 image was acquired on June 26, 1974 near Fallon, Nevada and is shown as a false color composite using the near-infrared, red, and green bands (bands 3,2,1).

Landsat 2’s first light image features a slice of Alberta, Canada, captured on January 24, 1975 on Path 047 Row 023.

Learn more about Landsat 2 by visiting the Landsat 2 Mission Web Page

Within days of the launch, Landsat 1 acquired an image of an astounding 81,000-acre (327.8 square kilometers) fire burning in isolated, central Alaska. For the first time ever, scientists and resource management officials were able to see the full extent of damage from a fire in a single image while it was still burning.

Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, slid into Landsat 1's view on July 25, 1972. In this false-color image, shades of red indicate vegetated land and grays and whites are urban or rocky surfaces. The composite image is shown using the near-infrared, red and green bands (bands 7, 5, 4) at a 60 meter resolution.

Brown pelicans and gulls float and fly along a coastline.

Brown pelicans and gulls float and fly along a coastline.

Maroon Lake located in Colorado