Rodman and his collaborators used Landsat data from 1996 to 2019 as the basis for modeling, mapping, and predicting the presence and severity of tree mortality caused by bark beetles in the subalpine forests of the southern Rocky Mountains.īelonging to several native species, these beetles are about the size of a single grain of rice. “As a remote sensing person, knowing what you’re seeing on the landscape is really valuable.” “I think you can do a lot of important and useful things if you know an area well, if you have that good understanding of what’s going on on the ground,” Rodman said. Rodman grew up in Colorado Springs, and that familiarity has influenced his interest in forest disturbances. Kyle Rodman, who did postdoctoral research with Hart and now works as a research scientist at the Ecological Restoration Institute at Northern Arizona University. Hart served as a collaborator on a recent bark beetle study by Dr. It’s the perfect tool, and really the only tool that, in my opinion, would have solved and answered some of the questions that we were interested in,” she said. So the temporal record of Landsat was really critical. “Bark beetle outbreaks unfold over several years to a decade in some areas. But for consistency, scale, and length of record, she turns to Landsat. Hart also uses data from aerial detection surveys, during which observers fly over and digitally label areas affected by insects and disease. Landsat ‘Perfect Tool’ for Forest Landscape Study Between the two Landsat satellites in orbit at once, every part of Earth is captured every eight days at a resolution of 30 meters per pixel. ![]() Nearly 50 years of Landsat data are processed, stored, and distributed from the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. Geological Survey (USGS) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), just launched its ninth satellite dedicated to observing the Earth’s land surface. ![]() The Landsat program, a joint effort by the U.S. ![]() In the process, she has come to view Landsat as a key part of examining the remote areas of the Rocky Mountains. She has found answers to some of her questions since then. “I wondered why this was happening and how frequently this has happened in the past,” Hart said. Hart, who also studies wildfire, found herself drawn to research involving bark beetles when, as a master’s student, she flew out of British Columbia during a severe mountain pine beetle outbreak and saw striking numbers of dead lodgepole pines, most bearing rust-colored needles that would later drop off. Sarah Hart, a forest ecologist at Colorado State University, try to interpret that story for those who tend to the forests, live near them-or just happen to drive by. And though that story revolves around an insect just a quarter of an inch long, satellite imagery taken 438 miles above the Earth can tell another part of it. Stepping into the trees for a closer look can reveal part of their complex story of life and death. View of pine forest affected by mountain pine beetle epidemic in Rocky Mountain National Park.
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