Click to view larger version.

On Earth Day, April 22, the first image from Landsat 7, NASA's newest Earth-observing satellite, was released. The scene was acquired on April 18 and shows the area around Sioux Falls and Yankton, S.D. Once Landsat 7 begins routine operations, it will collect 250 scenes a day and send them to the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation Systems (EROS) Data Center in Sioux Falls.

Ever since Landsat 7's flawless launch on April 15, at 2:32 p.m. EST from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., EROS Data Center has been eagerly awaiting the first image. Landsat 7 will continue the Landsat program's 27-year legacy of gathering Earth surface images from space as part of NASA’s Earth Observing System and Earth Science Enterprise.

Since 1972, Landsat has been accumulating pieces of a remotely-sensed collage of the Earth’s surface. Landsat 7 will add to the global archive of sunlit, cloud-free images of the Earth by using an instrument called the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM +).

The ETM + works by measuring solar radiation reflected or emitted from a section of the Earth’s surface. Landsat 7 was designed to measure the same section every 16 days. This scanned measurement can be manipulated and appear as an image. With Landsat 7 collecting 250 scenes a day, nearly 8000 new images of the Earth's surface will be acquired every month. The collection of these images will form a database of high-resolution Earth images. These scenes will be received by and distributed through the EROS Data Center.

Landsat 7 images have a myriad of uses. They can be used to monitor everything from icy snowpacks in Antarctica to fiery volcanic activity in Hawaii, but scientists studying far off places are not the only people who will benefit from Landsat 7 imagery. Farmers using precision farming, city planners measuring urban sprawl and population growth, and scientists investigating regional and global climate changes will all make use of Landsat 7 imagery.

According to Darrel Williams, Landsat 7 project scientist, the use of Landsat 7 images will have a tremendous impact on all types of Earth science issues and will be a great addition to the Landsat library of images. With the success of the launch, the world is on its way to gaining a clearer picture and a better understanding of our complex Earth.

For more information check out the Landsat 7 Project web site: http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov