Landsat's First Images Show Rocky Mountains In Stunning Detail

Zothecula writes "We haven't heard anything from NASA's Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) spacecraft since its launch in February, but the satellite is now ready to start sending its first images back home. The first batch of photos are part of a three-month testing period, and show the meeting of the Great Plains with the Front Ranges of the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming and Colorado. Viewed from space, it's already a pretty spectacular scene, but the images from the LDCM managed to enhance it even further."

Comments

Re:What's so special about that?

[Reverand Dave]

Landsat images are used by a variety of government agencies for things like flood hazard mapping and water usage analysis. High resolution Landsat images can help the forest service determine where to search for search and rescue or mete out prescribed burns. The actual value of these images is pretty important and yes it can help augment our understanding of mountainous topography. That is pretty much what is so special about it since the old landsat satellite was recently retired and the new images we're getting are so much better than the last ones.

First hand knowledge here.

Build Your Own

[guttentag]

An engineer at Orbital Sciences created a 1/48th scale paper model of the landsat satellite that you can print, build and hang above your cubicle for nerd cred.

Printable model here.
Assembly Instructions here.

It actually looks pretty cool... not that I'll be spending two hours building it myself.

Re:WTF?

[Remus Shepherd]

Landsat takes images in several infrared bands -- a chlorophyll band, two shortwave IR bands, and with the new instrument we have a cirrus band, a shallow water coastal ultraviolet band, and two thermal IR bands as well. This is not a instrument designed for mapmakers or Google pictures (although it can be used for them.) This is a scientific instrument, and it will help us see where vegetation is damaged, where crops are ripe, what is happening to coral reefs, and the effects of climate change all around the globe.

Analogy: If normal Google map pictures are made with a camera, you can consider Landsat images to be made with a Star Trek-like planet scanner. 'Scan for life/minerals/fire' is something Landsat can do that normal cameras can not.