r Lake, for example, a hydrologist seeking information on the amount of snow cover in the high country around the lake, and the subsequent snowmelt, should benefit in the future from more potential images.
Beyond scientific use, Sentinel-2A, like the Landsat satellites, offers a stunning view of the national park, which was established in 1902—14 years before the National Park Service came into being. Crater Lake formed 7,700 years ago when the volcano Mount Mazama erupted and collapsed into itself, creating the deepest lake in the United States. A burn scar visible just north of the lake in this image was caused by a wildfire in August 2015.
Sentinel-2A imagery is free and can be downloaded through EarthExplorer or GloVis, online search and order tools available through USGS.
Landsat Reveals Scar of ‘Good Burn’ at Guadalupe Mountains August 9, 2016
Wildfires in wilderness areas like Guadalupe Mountains National Park in west Texas are always a danger, but they can produce what land managers call a “good burn,” too. The Coyote Fire that scorched parts of Guadalupe Mountains from May 7, 2016, until June 17 is a prime example of that.
Pre- and post-fire images acquired with shortwave infrared (SWIR), near infrared (NIR), and red bands on Landsat 8’s Operational Land Imager sensor reveal a significant, 14,442-acre burn scar within the park’s high country. The burn scar appears red in the June 23 image. Lightning started the wildfire, and strong winds drove it to the Texas-New Mexico border.
As many as 300 firefighters worked to keep the blaze from encroaching on private lands or reaching park structures, while officials decided to let portions of the fire simply burn. The Guadalupe Mountains’ rugged backcountry makes firefighting dangerous. On top of that, areas of the densely wooded park hadn’t burned in almost a century. Unharnessed, the Coyote Fire consumed dead wood and saplings that could have fueled future catastrophic blazes. Land managers also avoided drenching the wilderness in retardants and scarring the landscape with lines dug by firefighters trying to cut off the fire.
In this 100th anniversary year of the National Park Service, new grass growing on charred ground at Guadalupe Mountains National Park is an important reminder that sometimes fire can be a good thing.
Kilauea, Mauna Loa Volcanoes Shape the Face of Hawaii August 1, 2016
Hawaii’s Volcanoes National Park reminds humanity that no matter how much it alters the face of the Earth to meet its needs, it has no control when nature decides to unleash its awesome, eruptive powers.
Though the park celebrates its 100th anniversary on August 1, 2016, its main attractions—Kilauea and Mauna Loa volcanoes—have been adding to the land mass of Hawaii’s “Big Island” for at least 400,000 years. That expansion continues today as bright molten lava from Kilauea flows downslope across the coastal plain on its south flank, spilling over a cliff on its way to a steamy transformation to hard rock in the Pacific Ocean.
The Operational Land Imager from Landsat 8, as well as NASA’s Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors, show that volcanic influence in several ways. MODIS captures the 1,700-mile stretch of the Hawaiian Islands that began to emerge from volcanic eruptions during the Quaternary Period beginning 2.588 million years ago. A mosaic of Landsat images from October 2015 and February 2016 reveals the extent of Kilauea’s and Mauna Loa’s presence on the big island of Hawaii, and ASTER zooms in even closer on the lava flows and tubes that channel descending lavas from the summit craters and fissure vents.
Even now, in this year of centennial celebrations for both Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and the National Park Service, imagery from sensors such as these will continue to show change with time. Kilauea and Mauna Loa are two of the world’s most active volcanoes. They will be adding land mass to the “Big Island" for years to come.
Water, Gravity Carve Out Magnificent Canyonland