Use your years of experience to envision, design, and develop the next generation of ArcGIS products. Join ESRI, where your individual contributions will have an impact on new software functionality. Apply now or search other opportunities.
Cities From Space - Landsat Images at your fingertips!
Written by Glenn Letham (GISuser editor)
Friday, 09 February 2007
The Urban Landsat Cities from Space project is an interesting and informative resource developed by CIESEN, Columbia University. Using the interactive map viewer, users can easily select from an en extensive list of major cities around the World. Mouse over a city and a thumbnail will be displayed. Click the thumbnail to activate a control that will present a high-resolution image from the city of choice. For my test I selected New Orleans and was presented with a scene captured 9/17/2000. Right-clicking the scene enables me to download the image. Each city is linked to a jpeg image of a Landsat visible/IR composite collected by Landsat 5 (pre 1999) or Landsat 7.
About Cities From Space
The research presented here is primarily focused on the physical properties of a wide range of urban environments using passive measurement of optical reflectance and thermal emission as well as optical emission of nighttime lights. Comparative analyses of urban reflectance (visible and infrared color) and surface temperature allow us to develop robust criteria for distinguishing urban land cover from non-anthropogenic land covers. These analyses also provide important constraints on the physical properties that control mass and energy fluxes through the urban environment. These constraints are used as inputs to physical models of climatic, hydrologic and ecologic processes.
Characterizing the physical properties of urban land cover makes it possible to map the form and spatial extent of urban land use and to quantify changes in form and extent. This provides objective, physically-based metrics for comparative analyses of urban dynamics that cannot generally be obtained from administrative definitions of urban extent. Mapping provides static snapshots of the urban mosaic while monitoring allows us to quantify the spatiotemporal dynamics. Mapping urban extent with nightlights complements the information derived from optical reflectance.
Each city is linked to a jpeg image of a Landsat visible/IR composite collected by Landsat 5 (pre 1999) or Landsat 7. Most of the image areas are 30x30 km but a few are larger. All images are shown at full resolution (30 m pixel) so the scale (on screen) is equivalent. The jpeg compression causes significant loss of fine detail from the original image. Most of the images are about 200K (~40 seconds via 56K modem). A few are significantly larger.
Using the interactive map viewer, users can easily select from an en extensive list of major cities around the World. Mouse over a city and a thumbnail will be displayed. Click the thumbnail to activate a control that will present a high-resolution image from the city of choice. For my test I selected New Orleans and was presented with a scene captured 9/17/2000. Right-clicking the scene enables me to download the image.
In some cases (eg. Miami, FL) an option to download the raw Landsat data is provided
About CIESEN The Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) is a center within the Earth Institute at Columbia University. CIESIN works at the intersection of the social, natural, and information sciences, and specializes in on-line data and information management, spatial data integration and training, and interdisciplinary research related to human interactions in the environment.
GISuser Spotlight... Twitter clients for the Google G1 and Android mobile smart phones - I’m currently using the G1 as my main/only mobile device - it’s a perfect time for such a challenge because I’m also traveling and away from the office so there are always hiccups and glitches that can occur under such circumstances - a perfect time for a test!
The 2009 NAVTEQ LBS Challenge a look at the semi finalists, the Winning apps, and the LBSzone picks! At the CTIA Wireless event in Las Vegas, NAVTEQ held the award ceremonies for their 6th LBS Challenge, a competition designed to stimulate interest in location services and encourage developers to create innovative location-aware applications. We look at the state of LBS, the TOP apps, the winners, and our own top picks!
Economic Stimulus Project areas that may create GIS/Geo Tech Opportunities - Like many of you, we haven't really had time to go through the entire 1,071 page Detailed List of Spending - you can view and download the entire document at ProRepublica. We did take a little time, however, to go through this fine summary.
ESRI Business GIS Summit, July 12-15, 2009 · San Diego, CA - This combination provides an unprecedented opportunity to learn how GIS addresses today's business challenges. If you're interested in business GIS as a manager, executive, or user, there's no better event to attend.vealed.
ESRI International User Conference, July 13-17, 2009 · San Diego, CA - ESRI customers across the globe are invited to register to attend the world's largest gathering of GIS professionals.
Webinar: Google Earth For Your Government Agency - Join Google and DLT an informative webinar on Tuesday, June 30th from 2-3 ET to learn more about how the Google Earth Enterprise solution is helping government agencies to collaborate, and take faster, more informed action.
Is your LizardTech Lizard star material? SHOW US and you could win a new GPS system. Simply snap a creative photo of your favorite, authentic LizardTech Collectable Lizard and see how it measures up. Photos will be featured on the official LizardTech Flickr page and voted on by viewers everywhere. Submit yours today and win!
Community 
The Urban Landsat Cities from Space project is an interesting and informative resource developed by CIESEN, Columbia University. Using the interactive map viewer, users can easily select from an en extensive list of major cities around the World. Mouse over a city and a thumbnail will be displayed. Click the thumbnail to activate a control that will present a high-resolution image from the city of choice. For my test I selected New Orleans and was presented with a scene captured 9/17/2000. Right-clicking the scene enables me to download the image. Each city is linked to a jpeg image of a Landsat visible/IR composite collected by Landsat 5 (pre 1999) or Landsat 7.
See more 
