Category Archives: Imagery

Interested in Learning More about the Cryosphere?

After that last post, you might be interested in finding more resources about the cryosphere, here are several helpful resources: My NASA data has a series specifically focused on the cryosphere:https://mynasadata.larc.nasa.gov/basic-page/about-cryosphereMini-Lessons: https://mynasadata.larc.nasa.gov/all-cryosphere-maps-and-dataLesson Plans: https://mynasadata.larc.nasa.gov/all-cryosphere-lesson-plans NASA Earth Observatory for Kids Lessons (very fun, hands-on, and engaging for the younger crowd): Glaciers: Ice on the Move: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/eokids/glaciers-ice-on-the-move/Water,

Read More

Dear Teachers: Part 5 – Exploring Water Use and Quality

In today’s lesson, we are examining water use and water quality. Satellite imagery helps scientists to better understand the changes in the environment. Examine the images below of the Aral Sea; the left image is from April 10, 1986, and the right image is from June 5, 2024. The water loss between the two images

Read More

Dear Teachers – Part 2: Exploring the Electromagnetic Spectrum

Ready, set, go! As promised in our previous post we are going to do an overview of the recently published AmericaView lesson plans. The first lesson from the 2024 Earth Observation Day lesson series is, “Exploring the Electromagnetic Spectrum (EMS).”  This lesson is intended to be an introductory lesson to help give students a basic

Read More

Dear Teachers 2025 – A Review of AV Teaching Resources

Dear Teachers and Readers, Did you know that in 2024 members the AmericaView Education and Outreach Team put together a series of lessons explaining how remote sensing and Earth observation technologies are integral to various sectors within society? These lessons are great! They are geared for middle and high school but can be adapted for

Read More

A New Iowa as Art Piece – Cautionary Waters

The piece asks viewers to reflect: when we are planning, do we consider only typical conditions, or does our planning account for extremes, flood or drought as well?  Are we willing to allow development in the floodplain and take the loss when the flood comes, or perhaps make a harder choice to not develop there and lose out in the short-term?  Also, in cases when we choose to develop in lower elevation areas, what kinds of zoning and development are we allowing in these areas?

Day 5 GAW: Have you discovered the Iowa Geographic Map Server?

The Iowa Geographic Map Server is a gem of historical and contemporary statewide aerial imagery for Iowa from the 1930s to 2021. It also has many other statewide layers including: Here’s your challenge: Zoom into your city or a place of significance to you and discover how it has changed over the years, look at

Read More

Photos from ISU GIS Day 2022

Celebrating 30 years of GIS at ISU today on GIS Day! We also celebrated the 50th anniversary of Landsat and were able to hand out playing cards, refreshments, posters, and other educational materials. This was a great opportunity for our staff in the GIS facility to share the work that they are doing, and teach

Read More

Fall Equinox in Northeast Iowa – #Landsat50

Happy Fall! Observe the changes across the landscape in seasonal images in Northeast Iowa. Snow, forest, farmland. Can you notice the areas of coniferous trees versus deciduous trees and where there is seasonal farmland compared to pasture areas? Also notice the changes along the Mississippi and Upper Iowa Rivers. Enjoy the changing seasons! This year

Read More

Disaster at Lake Delhi – #Landsat50

Well, it’s Water Wednesday. Today’s Landsat highlight is a time lapse video (2007-2017) showing the effect of a 2010 dam breach on the water level of Lake Delhi located in Delaware County in eastern Iowa. Notice the dramatic decrease in water and the exposure of large sandbars and the refilling of the lake as the

Read More