Landsat and Institute Research
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Image: True Color (Bands 4,3,2 - Panchromatically sharpened to 15 meters) Acquired July 23 2014
Instrument: Landsat 8 - Operational Land Imager (OLI)
Image credit: (Source) NASA/USGS. Download via EarthExplorer
Image processing: Image processed at the IITF GIS and Remote Sensing Laboratory
Landsat Legacy
The natural color Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) satellite image above, which covers the majority of Puerto Rico, was acquired 42 years to the day since the launch of Landsat 1 on July 23, 1972 and is the Institute's Image of the Month for September. Landsat 8, launched on February the 11th, 2013 continues to provide essential data for scientific research as part of the USGS and NASA Landsat program.
Within the image, the Karst regions, though obscured by cloud, can be seen in the darker greens along the northern coast, the San Juan Metropolitan area is visible to the northeast in grey, part of El Yunque National Forest is visible towards the east, with the vegetated central mountains (Cordillera Central) also identifiable. The browns and tans along the south coast show dry vegetation, a result of the recent drought experienced in the region. The cloud cover visible across the island highlights some of the issues of mapping features such as forests, urban areas, flooding, forest fires and land cover and land use change within the tropics, and is often a limitation when using visible satellite imagery.
Landsat and the Institute
Landsat imagery has been used for a variety of research at the Institute, including mapping the land cover of Puerto Rico in 1991 and 2000, the land cover of U.S. Virgin Islands in 2007, mapping the tropical dry forest habitats in the Island of Mona, Puerto Rico, mapping bird habitats in the Bahamas, and also for mapping tropical rain forest types in Trinidad and Tobago.
Landsat Imagery is freely available to download via USGS EarthExplorer
Selected Institute Publications
- Puerto Rican Karst - A Vital Resource. Lugo et al, 2001.
- Creating cloud-free Landsat ETM+ data sets in tropical landscapes: cloud and cloud-shadow removal. Martinuzzi et al. 2007.
- Mapping tropical dry forest habitats integrating Landsat NDVI, Ikonos imagery, and topographic information in the Caribbean Island of Mona. Martinuzzi et al. 2008.
- U.S. Virgin Islands Gap Analysis Project. Gould et al. 2010.
- Mapping tropical dry forest height, foliage height profiles and disturbance type and age with a time series of cloud-cleared Landsat and ALI image mosaics to characterize avian habitat. Helmer et al, 2010.
- Detailed maps of tropical forest types are within reach: forest tree communities for Trinidad and Tobago mapped with multiseason Landsat and multiseason fine-resolution imagery. Helmer et al, 2012.
References and Related Reading
- NASA (March 27, 2014): Landsat 8
- USGS (June 24, 2014): Landsat Missions - Landsat 8
- Live Science (July 23, 2014): Happy Birthday, Landsat: Space Science Project Turns 42
- USGS Newsroom (August 8, 2014): Puerto Rico’s Rainfall Deficit Indicates Drought
- United States Drought Monitor (September 4, 2014) U.S. Drought Monitor, Puerto Rico
Page last modified: 01/20/2016