Category Archives: Imagery

Announcing the Golden Jubilee of the Landsat Mission

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of the first Landsat satellite (July 23, 1972). To celebrate fifty years of earth observation, IowaView will be posting various images and gif documenting Landsat in Iowa and around the world. Check back regularly for new images and articles. #TimeLapseTuesday #ThrowbackThursday

Ladies of Landsat – Many Pathways to becoming Remote Sensing Scientists

The Ladies of Landsat have shared some great USGS case study videos showcasing the paths women and girls can take to become remote sensing scientists. Three scientists stories are highlighted: Jill Deines, Africa Ixmucane Flores-Anderson, and Nikki Tulley. Read more and enjoy their stories below:

Africa Ixmucane Flores-Anderson: Using Landsat to Connect Pace to Village – Africa was inspired to help her local community in Guatemala by mapping water quality with Landsat and is now at monitoring deforestation.

Jill Deines: Using Landsat to Map Agriculture Yields and Irrigation Use – Dr. Jill Deines was was drawn to the bird’s eye view of agriculture plots growing up in the Midwest. Now she uses Landsat to monitor water resources and crop yield.

Nikki Tulley: Speaking a New Language of Landsat – Nikki grew up in the Navajo Nation without running water in her household. As PhD student at University of Arizona and Indigenous scientist, she uses Landsat to track drought conditions in her home community.

Presenting Iowa’s first Landsat 9 Image!

Yesterday the United State Geological Survey (USGS) released the first 38,000 scenes collected from the recently launch Landsat 9 (September 2021). After much calibration and quality assurance here are some of the first clear images of Iowa. For more images visit USGS Earth Explorer: https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/.

Ames, Iowa

New Data Products from the ISU GIS Facility: 24K Topo Maps 1949-1986


The ISU GIS Facility Manager, Robin McNeely, recently gave a presentation for the Iowa Geographic Information Council Lunch and Learn series about new data products that the GIS Facility has been producing. Here is a link to watch Robin’s presentation, which begins around (29:20): https://iastate.webex.com/iastate/ldr.php?RCID=64ed815f6c8eaa323fa5c88cc36d7d60.

She highlighted the completion of the Historic United States Geological Survey (USGS) 24,000 Topographic Map series ArcGIS service. The 24k historic topo maps were downloaded from the USGS TopoViewer as georeferenced .tif files, inventoried and put into an ArcGIS mosaic dataset. The dates for those maps for Iowa are 1949-1986. They are currently in a published map service on ortho.gis.iastate.edu and as a layer in the Iowa Geographic Map Server (see map below.)

Landsat: Launching into A New Year

USGS just released a Story Map summary wrapping up 2021 and the exciting developments with the Landsat mission including a newly launched satellite and 10 million scenes in the archive mark two high points.

Here’s the link to explore it yourself: https://geonarrative.usgs.gov/launching-into-a-new-year/

Aerial Photo Dates Layer: A Helpful Tip for Getting the Most of ISU Orthoserver

The Iowa Orthoserver (also known as the Iowa Geographic Map Server) has a variety of resources available to enhance and serve users. Today we are highlighting the Aerial Photo Dates layer. This layer allows users to determine the date of a particular image.

Here are the basic steps to using the Aerial Photo Dates layer in the Iowa Geographic Map Server ArcGIS Web App:

  1. Open the Iowa Geographic Map Server ArcGIS Web App.
  2. Select the first icon – Choose Map Layers (looks like 3 stacked sheets of paper.)
  3. Scroll down to the Iowa – Aerial Photo Dates layer and then check the box to turn it on.
  4. Expand the menu by clicking the tiny gray arrow to the left of the check box.
  5. Now turn on whichever year of flight date you wish to use (the orange areas symbolize the flight paths and within them will appear the flight dates.)
  6. *Please note* for some of the older imagery years (example 1930s, 1950s, etc.), you need to be zoomed in for the flight dates to appear. Zoom into an area of interest, the flight patterns and dates will be shown.

The statewide 2021 NAIP flight date layer is not yet available. This will be released when the layer is available. If you would like information regarding specific areas for the 2021 flight, please contact Amy Logan. 

Summer 2021 NAIP Imagery Now on ISU Orthoserver

Iowa Statewide summer 2021 imagery is now available as a webservice from the Iowa Geographic Map Server. https://ortho.gis.iastate.edu/arcgis/rest/services/ortho
Please note: you may have to adjust the symbology to get the best color.

Here are some suggestions for doing this is ArcGIS Pro, within the Symbology tab, use the dropdown menus to adjust the color.

  • Change Stretch type to Minimum Maximum.
  • Also consider changing the Statistics from Dataset to DRA (Dynamic Range Adjustment). See the example below.
Before Adjustments

After Adjustments

Join in the fun ~ TeachOSM Back-to-School Night ~ September 21

When: September 21st, 2021 8:00 PM through  9:00 PM (Eastern)

Attention educators and mappers! Join TeachOSM Tuesday, 21 September for our first ever ‘back-to-school’ night. We’re offering an informal open house to introduce our programming. This hour-long event will feature brief demos from teachers and mappers to enable you to:

  • Find out more about how you can put OSM in your school
  • Learn how to take advantage of our Map-Alongs and other educational programming
  • Find out how you can get support open mapping education in your community

Sign up now to reserve your space!

Remembering the 2020 Midwest Derecho

A year ago today a derecho, a series of thunderstorms with hurricane-like winds and heavy rains, struck Iowa with very little warning. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) put together a multi-media story map to tell the tale of this eventful day. Hundreds of thousands of trees were lost or damaged. Homes and buildings were destroyed. Many people lost power for days or even weeks.

Have you visited the NASA’s Earth Observatory? It is a NASA website that helps make satellite imagery relevant to the general public and it is a great place to find images for presentations or use in the classroom. In August 2020, the Earth Observatory featured a comparison of satellite images from July 2020 and August 2020 to show the extent of the derecho damage on Iowa cropland.