The GEO-Jobe Blog

USGS has a new trick up its sleeve. Almost realtime satellite imagery from LandSat 5 & 7! Landsat 5 was launched in 1984 as a backup for Landsat 4 and scans the earth once every 16 days. Landsat 7 was launched in 1999 and circles the Earth at an altitude of 438 miles. These two satellites stream imagery continuously to the earth, specifically to the USGS where that data is compiled and analyzed and then hosted for public view on the EarthNow! site: http://earthnow.usgs.gov/ There you can view the latest pass of either Landsat 5 or 7 with a countdown till the next pass over the US. Each pixel of the images displayed is about 250 square meters, so I would worry about your personal privacy just yet (not to say other government agencies aren’t watching…don don don).

You can also link to http://glovis.usgs.gov from the EarthNow! page where you can download 20% or less cloud cover images of the US.

Filed under: Aerial Imagery, Data, Tools