 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup began on June 12, 2014, and has been taking place at numerous venues across Brazil. The final match is on Sunday, July 13, at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.
This Landsat 7 image was acquired on June 26, 2014. The main image shows the spectacular setting of the city of Rio, with its high mountains, islands, and famous long beaches that follow the coastline. The smaller image shows the location of the stadium (white circle) where the 2014 World Cup final match will take place.
These “pan-sharpened” images use Landsat’s panchromatic band (15-m resolution) in combination with the 3-band multispectral information (30-meter resolution). This technique is often used by scientists and analysts when it is necessary to show more details within the Landsat image than would be visible using the multispectral information alone.
These Landsat image products were created using hundreds of individual Landsat scenes. The images have been mosaicked and “draped” over elevation data to show the topography and landscapes across the United States.
The main image shows the Rocky Mountains and other mountain ranges that dominate the western United States. The central portion of the image consists mainly of rolling plains and farmland. The right portion of the main image shows the mountain ranges and coastal plains that make up the eastern U.S. seaboard. The Alaska and Hawaii mosaics show the predominant features of those landscapes as well.
An individual Landsat state mosaic has been prepared for every one of the 50 U.S. states plus Puerto Rico. All of the Landsat image mosaics are available in poster-ready format and may be viewed and downloaded via the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center Image Gallery (http://eros.usgs.gov/imagegallery/landsat-state-mosaics).
The imagery that is collected by the Landsat satellites can be useful for general visualization of large areas and landscapes, and is often used in combination with other datasets (such as elevation) to create image products such as these.
Flooding in Southeastern South Dakota June 27, 2014
In June 2014, southeastern South Dakota received record amounts of rainfall, and parts of neighboring states also received excessive rainfall due to a series of severe storms. As rivers overran their banks, many roadways became impassable and the rising waters damaged many homes and businesses. This area is an important agricultural region, and the heavy rainfall and accompanying hail damaged many of the recently planted corn and soybean crops.
The second image clearly shows the Vermillion River and the Big Sioux River flooded over their banks. The lower right corner of the second image also has darker tones mixed throughout the agricultural areas (bright green). These darker tones suggest potential flood damage to the crops in this region.
Landsat images such as these can be an important tool for evaluating the damage to local crops and for monitoring the agricultural recovery and replanting efforts on a regional scale. The Landsat imagery will also be useful for monitoring the overall distribution oft floodwaters as they recede and move downstream.
28 Years of Landscape Change in Texas, USA June 23, 2014
These images show a portion of the Texas Panhandle where it meets the western border of Oklahoma. The area is part of the “Granite Wash” region, which contains over 3,600 wells that mine oil and natural gas from as deep as 17,000 feet (5,182 meters) underground.
When comparing Landsat imagery from 1986 (left) and 2014 (right), many changes can be seen on the landscape. The large number of white spots in the second image indicates an overall increase in the number of oil wells. The reduced overall greenness (vegetation) in the second image was caused by several recent years of drought. Other visible changes include additional center-pivot irrigation systems (dark circles). There are also several new burn scars from wildfires that occurred in March 2014.
As the Landsat archive grows, its imagery can be 