North Carolina and Landsat

Fact Sheet 2022-3038
By:

Links

Abstract

North Carolina’s rich history and importance in the colonial days played a critical role in the Nation’s economic development. It was also the setting for events like the Wright Brothers’ famous first flight of a powered aircraft, called “Wright Flyer,” which took place in Kitty Hawk in 1903. Today, North Carolina license plates proudly proclaim the State as “First in Flight.”

The aerospace and defense sectors remain large players in the State’s economy to this day. Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Electric Aviation, and others maintain a presence in the Tar Heel State, and military installations dot the landscape.

It is fitting, then, that North Carolinians rely upon a satellite system to monitor and study the health of their State’s vast and varied terrain: its coastal plain, the sweeping valleys and peaks of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the fertile rolling plateau of the Piedmont ecoregion that separates the two. The U.S. Geological Survey Landsat satellite program’s unparalleled 50-year record of Earth surface change offers scientists, watershed and land managers, urban planners, and others insight into landscape change, both drastic and mild. Landsat observations document everything from posthurricane floods that push inland to subtle shifts in forest composition and coastal encroachment on urban and military infrastructure.

Suggested Citation

U.S. Geological Survey, 2022, North Carolina and Landsat: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2022–3038, 2 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/fs20223038.

ISSN: 2327-6932 (online)

ISSN: 2327-6916 (print)

Study Area

Table of Contents

  • Watching Over Forests
  • Mapping the Coastlines
  • Urban Growth
  • Landsat—Critical Information Infrastructure for the Nation
  • References Cited
Publication type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Title North Carolina and Landsat
Series title Fact Sheet
Series number 2022-3038
DOI 10.3133/fs20223038
Year Published 2022
Language English
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Publisher location Reston, VA
Contributing office(s) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center
Description 2 p.
Country United States
State North Carolina
Online Only (Y/N) N
Google Analytic Metrics Metrics page
Additional publication details