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For 50 years, the Landsat mission
has kept a watchful eye over earth,

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providing the longest continuous record
of our planet from space and bolstering

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our understanding of land use,
urbanization, climate change and more.

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This February marks the 10th anniversary
of the launch of Landsat 8,

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launched by NASA in 2013

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and operated by the U.S. Geological Survey.

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Equipped with its Operational Land Imager
and Thermal Infrared Sensor instruments,

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Landsat 8 represented a significant
advance in remote sensing technology

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and was the first to allow everyone in the world

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fully free and open access to
its data from first light.

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In celebration of a decade of service,

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Let's take a look back at some
of the remarkable ways

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Landsat 8 has fundamentally altered
the way we see our world.

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No, this isn't the Northern Lights.

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This is a phytoplankton bloom in Lake Erie,

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captured by Landsat 8 in September 2017.

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This massive concentration of microscopic
aquatic plants is a regular occurrence in

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bodies of water worldwide and can present
serious harm to humans and wildlife.

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Though water is notoriously difficult
to study from space, 

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engineering improvements to the sensitivity
of OLI allowed Landsat 8 to identify

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these blooms in greater detail
and help water managers inform the public.

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Lake Erie is no stranger to these types
of blooms, particularly during the summer,

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when warm temperatures
and agricultural runoff

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frequently cause phytoplankton blooms
that can last months at a time.

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This particular bloom lasted
from July to September.

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From the Great Lakes,
we traveled to Utah's Great Salt Lake,

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the largest saline lake in the country
and the eighth largest in the world.

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This image, captured in June 1985 by Landsat 5,

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shows the lake at its highest level.

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Following a string of years of record
rainfall and snowmelt runoff.

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Flash forward 27 years later to this image
captured in July 2022 by Landsat 8

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showing the lake at its lowest
water level elevation on record.

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So what happened to all the water?

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The answer?

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A decades long megadrought
and, at least in part, us.

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The diverting of water for housing
and agriculture in the surrounding area

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has been standard practice
for almost a century.

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But the increase in population
around Salt Lake City 

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caused these diversions
to intensify in recent decades.

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The Great Salt Lake's shrinking shoreline
is a great example of just how critical

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the effective management of
our planet's water resources 

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will be in the coming decades.

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After precipitation,

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the second largest component of the water
cycle is evapotranspiration.

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The process through which water leaves

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plants, soils and other surfaces
and returns to the atmosphere

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for the agricultural industry.

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Knowing evapotranspiration rates
helps them to use water more efficiently

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and yes, combining OLI and TIRS  data
from Landsat 8 can help with that.

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Enter OpenET, a web based platform
developed with NASA's support,

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which uses data from satellites like Landsat 8

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to provide information on water
consumption and crop water requirements

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in areas as small as a quarter of an acre.

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at daily, monthly and yearly intervals.

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This helps farmers make data-driven decisions 

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on how to manage their
increasingly scarce water resources.

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And just as Landsat 8 data are used
to help manage water resources,

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it's also used to track the growth
of the crops that use those resources.

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Tracking and estimating of crop types
and yields are tall tasks

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for agencies such as the USDA's
Cropland Data Layer program.

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To meet the challenge,
they looked skyward.

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Employing the services of satellites
including Landsat 8

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to help monitor dozens of crops
across the lower 48 states.

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The detail offered by Landsat 8 helps
the USDA track crops in real time,

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allowing farmers and traders
to estimate crop yields, set prices,

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and even highlight shifting
trends in crop selection.

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And when disaster hits, such as in 2019,
when heavy spring

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rains flooded millions of acres
of farmland across the country,

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the USDA can turn to data from satellites
like Landsat 8

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to highlight the areas most affected
and provide accurate yield estimates

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From the rural corn and wheat fields
of America's heartland.

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We turn our eyes towards the city.
Lacking in sufficient tree cover,

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our cities can be prone to suffering
from the heat island effect

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as an excess of impervious surfaces
absorb and remit the sun's heat.

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Trees have plenty to offer
in the way of environmental benefits,

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capturing carbon dioxide and
reducing stormwater runoff.

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Research also shows that a lack of trees
could not only affect the temperature,

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but our overall health and well-being.

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Using data from Landsat 8,

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researchers studied vegetation
coverage in urban areas around the U.S.,

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which revealed
that a significant disparity

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in tree cover across urban
neighborhoods leads to differences 

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in temperatures and health outcomes.

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Landsat 8 has proven again and again
that in times of crisis,

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it can be relied on to provide

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emergency responders with critical data

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before, during and after disaster strikes.

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As climate change continues to evolve,

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North America's fire season has increased
both in frequency and intensity.

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The 2018 Camp Fire captured by
Landsat 8’s OLI instrument,

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was the deadliest and most destructive
wildfire in California's history.

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Raging for 18 days before
finally being contained by firefighters.

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Using thermal data from
Landsat 8’s TIRS instrument.

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We can even delve
beneath the smoke to witness

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the blistering temperatures
of the fires below.

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Landsat data such as this can be used
by fire management programs to document

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severity and regrowth of burned areas,
providing crucial information

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for better management
of forests and natural resources.

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Fires aren't the only natural disasters

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North America contends with each summer -

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Hurricane season
kicks off every year on June 1st,

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and as ocean temperatures
trend upward due to climate change,

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so have hurricanes ability to lay
waste to island and coastal communities.

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On September 20th, 2017, Hurricane
Maria slammed into Puerto Rico

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with ferocious winds that stripped a third of its forests bare.

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A year later, data captured by Landsat
8’s OLI instrument over

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Puerto Rico's El Yunque National Park,

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an area particularly devastated by Maria's high winds,

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clearly demonstrates nature's
innate ability to heal itself

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as Puerto Rico's forests
bounce back from disaster.

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Some of the world's other natural features
have not been so resilient.

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Landsat’s ability to track changes
to the Earth's surface over time

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has proven a useful tool
for observing climate change’s effects

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on the planet, especially
in Alaska's Glacier Bay National Park,

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whose famous inhabitants
have fallen victim to glacial retreating.

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The park's Grand Plateau Glacier once
reached almost all the way to the ocean.

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But this image, captured 35 years later
by Landsat eight,

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reveals the true magnitude of the retreat
affecting the glacier.

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Evidence suggests that the loss of ice
from ice sheets and glaciers has been

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the largest contributor to sea level rise
over the past three decades.

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Landsat 8’s technological advances have
enabled tools such as the NASA-funded

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Global Land Ice Velocity Extraction (GoLIVE) project

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to map the pace at which glaciers
move and helping researchers

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study what causes ice masses to change
and how much ice will flow into the ocean.

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Thanks to the nature of its
polar orbit and thermal data,

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Landsat 8 is always on hand to capture
extraordinary events, especially during

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polar winters, when there's no visible
light to see what's happening.

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But thermal data from Landsat’s TIRS instrument 

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observed the difference in surface temperature

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between Antarctica's Larsen C Ice Shelf
and the surrounding water in July 2017,

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revealing the moment this trillion tonne
slab of ice the size of Delaware

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broke away, forming iceberg A68.

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Ten years in, it's abundantly clear
that Landsat 8

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has made profound contributions
to not just the scientific community

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but the world at large.

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And, with its original design life of five
years firmly in its rearview mirror,

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Landsat 8 is still going strong,

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and operating in tandem with
its younger sibling, Landsat 9,

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which joined it in orbit in 2021 to
provide an 8-day revisit time.

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And the next phase of the Landsat
mission, aptly named Landsat Next,

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is already on the horizon, with plans
to launch a trio of smaller satellites

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offering enhanced spectral coverage,

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finer spatial resolution
and a shortened revisit time.

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So hats off to you Landsat 8
and best of luck on your journey,

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extending a legacy of 50 years
of continuous land observation.