Category Archives: USGS

Oh how the years go by: 40 years – Mount St. Helens

By Article, Education, Environmental Change, Event, Imagery, Landsat, Observation, Resource, USGS, , , , ,

This week marks 40 years since the Mount St. Helens eruption. The image above is from the USGS Earthshots trading card series. The images are displayed in color infrared which is useful for showing living vegetation in red. The mountains surrounding Mount St. Helens are primarily forest. Notice the extreme change in the landscape from the 1973 image to the post eruption image in 1983. The damage was extensive and ash covered much of the surrounding forest land.

Additional Resource

Earthshots: Satellite Images of Environmental Change – Mount St. Helens: https://earthshots.usgs.gov/earthshots/Mount-St-Helens#ad-image-0-0
Scroll through the images to watch the forest begin to return as the years go by!

Start Your Future Here – Part II

By Event, Humanitarian Mapping, Imagery, Outreach, USGS

This post will describe the second workshop the ISU GIS Facility and IowaView hosted as part of the 2017 Iowa 4-H State Conference, “Start Your Future Here.”  The second workshop, “Start Your Open Street Map Adventure Here,” gave students a brief introduction to GIS and remote sensing as well as a short discussion of open street map and its interface. Then 4-Hers were asked to practice using the mapping interface through the TeachOSM application.  The group started by mapping a small northwest Iowa town, George.  As you will see from the screen shots, the 4-Hers made significant progress for this community, mapping over 400 buildings.  Comparing the before and after pictures, notice the large number of buildings added in the central and northeast parts of town.

George, Iowa – Before 4-H Workshop

George, Iowa – After 4-H workshop 6/29/2017

For the second activity, students worked on a project sponsored by the United States Geological Survey (USGS)’s Volcano Disaster Assistance Program (VDAP) to help map communities near active volcanoes.  the 4-Hers mapped roads, buildings, and rivers in several small communities near Mt. Galeras in Columbia as part of their emergency preparedness. According to project description, “Galeras is an active Andean stratovolcano that is located in the Narino department, near Pasto (population: 450,000 Colombians). Galeras is the most active volcano in Colombia and is known for regular eruptions, the most recent occurring in 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2007, and 2010.” The students did a great job mapping with both projects. Between the two projects over 500 nodes were created and over 3,000 nodes were created. Hopefully these activities will lead to future mapping interest.

Earth as Art Exhibit opens!

By Article, Earth as Art, Education, Event, Imagery, Landsat, Outreach, USGS

The opening reception for the Earth as Art exhibit is on February, 2, 5-8pm. Several younger visitors were in attendance.  They created model satellites, color wheels, and searched the gallery to complete the scavenger hunt.  There was gallery talk at 6:30 pm by Brent Yantis, the LouisianaView director and the exhibit collection curator, he explained how the images were selected and shared some of his favorite images with us. 

There was a reception of crudites and cheese as well as a King Cake that was brought from Louisiana. The King Cake tasted like a cross between a glazed doughnut and a cinnamon roll, filled with chocolate and cream filling. LouisianaView and IowaView are part of the larger AmericaView, nationwide consortium for remote sensing education, research, and geospatial applications.

Save the date: Earth as Art Exhibit – February 2017

By Education, Event, Outreach, USGS, , , , ,

 

LouisianaView is loaning us their Earth as Art art exhibit for the month of February.  We are working to create a fun and educational art exhibit for all.  You will not want to miss this exciting event.  For a preview, visit Earth as Art online: http://eros.usgs.gov/imagegallery/earth-art-4.

earth-as-art-laview2

 

IowaView Staff Attend AmericaView Fall Technical Meeting in SD

By Event, USGS

erosThe IowaView Staff attended the AmericaView Fall Technical Meeting on October 22 and 23, 2015, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota at the Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. The meeting was attended by many of the AmericaView members. It was a good time of collaboration and sharing of knowledge and expertise. Below are three posters that IowaView staff contributed to the poster session.

IowaView Research Poster

IowaView Outreach Poster

IowaView Tile Mapping Poster