Editing Landsat program (section)

=== Climate change and environmental disasters ===
==== Shrinking of the Aral Sea ====
The shrinking of the [[Aral Sea]] has been described as "One of the planet's worst environmental disasters". Landsat imagery has been used as a record to quantify the amount of water loss and the changes to the shoreline. Satellite visual images have a greater impact on people than just words, and this shows the importance of Landsat imagery and satellite images in general.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.wired.com/2012/07/landsat-40-significant-images/|title=Landsat's Most Historically Significant Images of Earth From Space|last=Mason|first=Betsy|date=March 2017|magazine=Wired}}</ref>

==== Fires in Yellowstone National Park ====
The [[Yellowstone fires of 1988]] were the worst in the recorded history of the national park. They lasted from 14 June to 11 September 1988, when rain and snow helped halt the spread of the fires. The area affected by the fire was estimated to be 3,213 square kilometers – 36% of the park. Landsat imagery was used for the area estimation, and it also helped determine the reasons why the fire spread so quickly. Historic drought and a significant number of lightning strikes were some of the factors that created conditions for the massive fire, but anthropogenic actions amplified the disaster. On images generated previous to the fire, there is an evident difference between lands that display preservation practices and the lands that display clear cut activities for timber production. These two type of lands reacted differently to the stress of fires, and it is believed that that was an important factor on the behavior of the wildfire. Landsat imagery, and satellite imagery in general, have contributed to understanding fire science; fire danger, wildfire behavior and the effects of wildfire on certain areas. It has helped understanding of how different features and vegetation fuel fires, change temperature, and affect the spreading speed.<ref name="Zhao Meng Huang Zhao p=898">{{cite journal | last1=Zhao | first1=Feng | last2=Meng | first2=Ran | last3=Huang | first3=Chengquan | last4=Zhao | first4=Maosheng | last5=Zhao | first5=Feng | last6=Gong | first6=Peng | last7=Yu | first7=Le | last8=Zhu | first8=Zhiliang | title=Long-Term Post-Disturbance Forest Recovery in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem Analyzed Using Landsat Time Series Stack | journal=Remote Sensing | publisher=MDPI AG | volume=8 | issue=11 | date=29 October 2016 | issn=2072-4292 | doi=10.3390/rs8110898 | page=898| bibcode=2016RemS....8..898Z | doi-access=free | hdl=1903/31531 | hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref name="USGS_fires">{{cite web | title=EarthView–Fire and Rebirth: Landsat Tells Yellowstone's Story | website=USGS.gov | url=https://www.usgs.gov/news/earthview-fire-and-rebirth-landsat-tells-yellowstones-story | access-date=15 October 2021}}</ref>

==== Glacier retreat ====
The serial nature of Landsat missions and the fact that is the longest-running satellite program gives it a unique perspective to generate information of Earth. Glacier retreat in a big scale can be traced back to previous Landsat missions, and this information can be used to generate climate change knowledge. The [[Columbia Glacier (Alaska)|Columbia glacier]] retreat for example, can be observed in false-composite images since [[Landsat 4]] in 1986.<ref name="Landslides Monitoring">{{citation|editor-last=Ray, Ram|title=Landslides - Investigation and Monitoring|publisher=IntechOpen|publication-date=19 November 2020|isbn=978-1-78985-824-2}}</ref>

====Urban development====
Landsat imagery gives a time-lapse like series of images of development. Human development specifically, can be measured by the size a city grows over time. Further than just population estimates and energy consumption, Landsat imagery gives an insight of the type of urban development, and study aspects of social and political change through visible change. In Beijing for example, a series of ring roads started to develop in 1980s following the economic reform of 1970, and the change in development rate and construction rate was accelerated in these time periods.<ref name="Landslides Monitoring"/>