Earth As Art: A Landsat Perspective

The Dacotah Prairie Museum featured spectacular images of earth taken from miles above its surface in a new show entitled “Earth As Art: A Landsat Perspective” that was featured in the Lamont Gallery. This show was developed by the EROS Data Center from images captured by a series of Landsat satellites that have provided data for business, science, education, government, and national security for over 30 years. Currently, Landsat 5 and 7 are orbiting Earth.

Landsat is a cooperative program between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey. The Landsat 7 project is part of NASA’s long-term coordinated research effort to understand and protect our home planet. The USGS’s Earth Resources Observation Systems Data Center (EROS) in South Dakota operates Landsat 5 and 7, is the primary U.S. receiving station, maintains the 30-year archive of the U.S. Landsat data, and provides Landsat data to researchers around the world.

Landsat 7 has captured more than 400,000 images since its launch in April 1999. This exhibition illustrates that the scientific value of these Landsat 7 images is matched only by their beauty. These color-enhanced images of various islands, cloud formations, rivers, mountains, deserts and lakes are breathtaking and reveal a unique view of the world.

The Landsat 7 satellite is orbiting 440 miles above the Earth and views the planet every 16 days. The instrument on Landsay 7 detects 8 different wavelengths of light called “bands”. All bands are collected simultaneously and stored on a solid-state recorder and then downlinked to satellite dishes around the world. The main U.S. down link dish for Landsat 7 is the EROS Date Center near Sioux Falls. The USGS processes each band image to correct the contrast and color and to register the image so that it is an accurate representation of the earth’s surface. The final product is oriented with North up, with brightness accurate to within 5% and with geometric locations accurate to within plus/minus 165 feet.

The images in this show were printed on photographic paper using a laser-powered Lightjet film processor, then matted and framed as works of art. No other process or digital editing were used to create these images. The pictures truly represent what portions of the Earth look like from space.

For information on past exhibits in the Lamont Gallery, please click here