How Landsat Helps Massachusetts: Moths, Carbon, Heat and Coastlines

Massachusetts is the seventh smallest state by land area, but it looms far larger in U.S. history and the economy, in academic and medical expertise, and in natural features. The Atlantic gives the "Bay State" more than 1,500 miles of coastline, once vital to fishing and maritime trade and now to tourism in places like Boston, Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. Forests cover roughly 60 percent of the state, which owns 315,000 acres of forest in parks, reserves and woodlands.

Those strengths can be vulnerable to environmental change. A population of 7 million means more than 800 people per square mile — more than 18,000 in Boston — and urban hotspots can raise health risks. Wind and water have always reshaped the coast, but sea-level rise and severe storms can amplify their effects, and changing precipitation can favor invasive species in forests. Here is how Landsat has helped.

Tracking invasive species damage

Landsat's 30- by 30-meter pixels, consistency and surface-reflectance data suit it to watching the health of broad forest stands that would take too much labor to follow from the ground. A University of Massachusetts-Amherst study used Landsat scenes of southern New England from 2015, 2016 and 2017 to map defoliation in the first outbreak of the invasive spongy moth (Lymantria dispar) in more than 30 years. Dry springs in 2014, 2015 and 2016 may have fed the outbreak. Understanding an outbreak helps forest managers watch affected wildlife and decide on treatment.

A plan to cut emissions

In 2020 Massachusetts planned to cut its greenhouse gas emissions at least 85 percent by 2050. State officials worked with Harvard University researchers on scenarios of land-use and land-cover change and their likely effect on forests, which store and take up large amounts of carbon. Most change comes from forest growth, development and tree harvesting; the Landsat record of land-cover change from 1990 to 2017 helped predict future patterns.

A forest in Minute Man National Historical Park. Victoria Stauffenberg, National Park Service.

Finding urban heat islands

Urban heat islands are parts of a city with more impervious surfaces — buildings and pavement — and fewer natural features, where temperatures run higher than the surrounding area. Landsat's sensors measure land-surface temperature, which helps pinpoint them. The City of Cambridge used Landsat data for an urban heat island model behind its 2021 Resilient Cambridge Plan, a roadmap for reducing the risks and effects of environmental change on residents.

Watching the coast change

Landsat records both sudden and gradual change, including barrier island shorelines moved by storms or by steady wind and waves. Cape Cod has changed a great deal over several decades, with new islands forming and others merging. Research on patterns of beach change, development and recovery can help local and state authorities manage the coast better.

The southeastern edge of Cape Cod. In 1984 (Landsat 5) an unbroken barrier spit shielded the coast and North and South Monomoy Islands were separate; by 2013 (Landsat 8) three breaches had opened in the barrier and the Monomoy islands had joined. Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, NASA; and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Landsat and the nation

The USGS National Land Imaging Program supplies satellite imagery and other remotely sensed and geospatial data to government, commercial, academic and public users, with worldwide access to Landsat data through the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center.

Landsat is the most widely used land remote sensing data source among federal civilian agencies. Local, state, Tribal and federal agencies use it to monitor and forecast what happens on the land surface, informing day-to-day decisions on land, water and resources that protect life and property, safeguard the environment, advance science and education, and grow the economy. It shows the scope, nature and speed of change to natural and built landscapes, inland lakes and coasts. Businesses use it to improve logistics, resource allocation and investment decisions, and commercial imaging firms to refine their products. A 2024 study put Landsat's total annual economic benefit at $25.6 billion, far more than it costs to build and run.

Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 together cover Earth's land every 8 days. NASA and the USGS are working toward the 2031 launch of Landsat 10, which is to extend the 50-plus-year Landsat series — the longest continuous record of Earth's land surface — with significant improvements. Consistent, accurate data and a no-cost data policy let users study large areas and long-term trends, and cloud computing now puts Landsat into decision tools for government and industry. Like global positioning systems and weather data, Landsat data are used every day.

Sources

Based on U.S. Geological Survey, "Massachusetts and Landsat," Fact Sheet 2022–3018; a work of the United States government in the public domain. It cites Pasquarella and others (2018) for the defoliation study, Thompson and others (2020) for the decarbonization scenarios, the City of Cambridge (2021) for the heat island model, NASA's Earth Observatory (2014) for Cape Cod, and Loomis and others (2024) for the economic study. The fact sheet's map of defoliation, from the defoliation study and used by permission, is not reproduced. The fact sheet gives forest cover as "roughly 60 percent" in its text and "more than 60 percent" in a caption; this page follows the text. It names the park "Minute Man National Historic Park"; the park's name is Minute Man National Historical Park.