Skip to main content

Land Surface News

Articles, resources, and announcements from Land Surface.
View all News and Announcements
The DMSP OLS image above shows detection of a bioluminescent Milky Sea on 25 June 1995.

Snowlines over Kathmandu

Weak Indian summer monsoons often follow winters of heavy Eurasian snowfall.
Feature Article
July 28, 2020
In 1990, slow-moving pahoehoe lava from Kilauea Volcano gradually spread through the community of Kalapana, burning homes and covering parks, roads, and gardens. (Image courtesy of USGS)

Sensing Remote Volcanoes

In October 2001, a volcano in the remote South Sandwich Islands began spewing ash and lava. Less than 24 hours after the eruption began, a research team nearly 9,000 miles away was estimating how much energy the volcano was producing.
Feature Article
July 28, 2020
The Yangtze Delta is home to more than eighty million people in an area only a little larger than the state of Indiana.

Repatterning the World

As wildlands shrink, scientists study the ecologies that people have tamed.
Feature Article
July 28, 2020
Nomadic people, such as this woman and her cattle, formed the pastoral society common in Kazakhstan before the Soviet Union converted thousands of acres to large-scale modern farm operations.

Notebook and Satellite

A simple tool helps a scientist open the remotely sense world to her students.
Feature Article
July 22, 2020
This map shows the population density in Europe in 1995. (Image courtesy of the Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center).

Measure for Measure

DINAS-COAST scientists create software to better understand coastal vulnerability to sea level rise under a variety of climate and socioeconomic scenarios.
Feature Article
July 22, 2020
Great Apes, like this silver-back gorilla in Uganda's Bwindi forest, are struggling to survive in the diminishing forests of Central Africa

Mapping the Changing Forests of Africa

A new biomass map of Africa will help answer a complex question: what are the global and local effects of land-use change in African forests?
Feature Article
July 22, 2020
SHOWING 8 OF 288