Landsat satellites used to track Yellowstone's geothermal activity

Geothermal energy is threatening Yellowstone National Park's geothermal features. There are over 10,000 hot springs, geysers, and fumaroles in the park. Drilling directly outside of the park could cause some of these features to cease to exist. To help study and monitor the parks features is Landsat data. The Landsat data is using both visible and heat sensitive portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Using this remote sensing technique, the monitoring will be using airborne reconnaissance circling the planet at over 400 miles above the surface. This new monitoring technique will be monitoring the heat given off by the thermal features. This data will provide scientists with an in depth look of the parks features and will cover a larger portion of the park than could just ground based monitoring forms. The data that has been collected so far has prompted scientists to launch a new Landsat satellite in early 2013 which will hopefully provide an even more in depth look at the parks features, including vegetation in addition to the thermal features. This technology is part of the developmental paradigm and will hopefully be proven to be a great monitoring tool and possibly great mitigation tool if there ever were to be an eruption from Yellowstone in the near future.

Satellite image on left, thermal image on right of the park.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111207175738.htm