Landsat's Role in Responding to Disasters
In 2022, the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) reported 387 natural hazards and disasters worldwide, resulting in the loss of over 30,000 lives and affecting more than 185 million individuals. Economic losses totaled around US$223.8 billion. Fires, floods, heat waves, drought, hurricanes, tornadoes, and other natural disasters can be particularly tragic and costly when critical facilities such as power plants, airports, roads, and hospitals are threatened. When a disaster strikes, remote sensing is often the only way to get a big-picture view of what is happening on the ground. With its consistent, reliable, repeated observations of Earth’s changing surface, Landsat keeps a record of Earth’s land surfaces before and after disasters, serving as an essential tool for assessing risk, mapping the extent of damage, and planning post-disaster recovery. Landsat produces 185-kilometer-wide images with 30-meter resolution in visible and infrared wavelengths of light, making it possible to map impacts on the landscape in ways otherwise not visible to human sight. For example, Landsat sensors enable us to see the heat from fires both during and after the burns, and the lava flows from volcanic eruptions even when gaseous substances obscure the view to human eyes.
![A night scene shows a bright orange patch near the coast burning the city of Lahaina. The rest of the land looks purple in this night image.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/20240530_maui-fire-th.jpg)
Landsat Observations Key Resource for Many Federal Agencies
In the FY23 Aeronautics and Space Report released on May 23, 2024, a multitude of Federal agencies report work informed by Landsat data.
![A thumbnail for a video titled Data in Harmony, NASA's Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 Project](https://cdn.statically.io/img/landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/NASA_HLS_Thumb-1.png)
Data in Harmony: NASA’s Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 Project
NASA’s Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 (HLS) project is a groundbreaking initiative that combines data from Landsats 8 & 9 with the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2A & 2B satellites.
![California’s 2017 Thomas Fire (shown) was included in a new analysis of more than 1,500 wildland fires teasing out how drought and fire combine to affect western U.S. lands.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/3-25-24-fire-drought-main-art-ed.webp)
Satellites Show How Drought Changes Wildfire Recovery in the West
A new study using NASA satellite data reveals how drought affects the recovery of western ecosystems from fire, a result that could provide meaningful information for conservation efforts.
![Earth in space with the words: Extra Dimensional: The Fusion of Landsat & GEDI superimposed on top.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Landsat-GEDI_Th.png)
ExtraDimensional—The Fusion of Landsat & GEDI
When Landsat’s vast decades-long archive is combined with data from other instruments it can provide amazing insight into how our world is evolving with us and around us. Here are some of the ways Landsat and GEDI data are being harnessed to help us better understand the complex relationship between humanity and nature.
![For Orbit to A.I. a thumbnail image showing an artist's rendering of the Landsat 9 satellite downlinking data to Earth.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/LandsatAI_Thumb.png)
From Orbit to A.I.—Harnessing Machine Learning with Landsat Data
Over the past few years, machine learning techniques have been increasingly used to analyze the vast amount of data collected by the Landsat mission, which has been circling the globe for over 50 years.
![Map of northern New Mexico showing a large burn scar.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/TerraPulse_screenshot.jpg)
Taking the Pulse of Earth
Applying AI to Earth data—including Landsat—helps terraPulse reveal sustainable options for farming, reforestation, and land management.