Early satellite image mosaic showing the state of South Dakota.

This mosaic was compiled by the Remote Sensing Institute at SDSU in Brookings, SD, in 1973 using satellite images from the first human-made Earth-observing satellite designed to study and monitor our planet’s landmasses. The satellite carried a camera and a scanner sensitive to four spectral bands (green, red, and two infrared bands). This map is a negative print of ERTS Band 7 (IR).

After the first unassuming images, the Earth-observing satellite system grew from one to a group of satellites providing information about the Earth that is difficult to obtain from ground. A few examples are weather and climate, volcano monitoring, environmental degradation, disease detection, and infrastructure development.

This mosaic is at the Archives and Special Collections in the Warren M. Lee papers.

Information about the satellite, first called ERTS 1 then renamed Landsat 1, is from Landsat 1, http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/satellites/landsat-1/ (accessed 11/08/2024).