Introducing Wyoming Geography with Landsat Image Mosaic

WyomingView showcased large Landsat floor puzzle in Wyoming State Museum's monthly outreach activity in Cheyenne, Wyo. 

Assembling the puzzle, elementary school aged kids and their parents saw the diverse landscapes of the state. Further details in UW press release: https://www.uwyo.edu/uw/news/2023/04/large-landsat-puzzle-created-by-uw-researcher-introduces-wyomings-geography-to-children.html 

UW Students Research Value of Satellite Images for Monitoring Wyoming Resources

Source: UW Extension Service's press release
By: Steven L. Miller, Senior Editor
Date: 21 May 2012


Students at the University of Wyoming found that aspen had budded earlier in a drought year, and that surface area estimates from satellite images matched well with corresponding water levels in Woodruff Narrows Reservoir near Evanston. Other students used information derived from remotely sensed images to monitor crop growth on a southeast Wyoming wheat farm and the effects of the 2004 Basin Draw fire in northeast Wyoming. The research taught students how to use satellite images and its effectiveness.

Every spring semester, three to five students -- in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management in the UW College of Agriculture and Natural Resources -- conduct research using remotely sensed data on a topic of their interest, says Ramesh Sivanpillai, research scientist in the Wyoming Geographic Information Science Center. He teaches the college's digital image processing for natural resources management course.

"Most of these students select the farms or ranches owned by family members or forests and public land they have worked on during summer months," he says. "Familiarity about their study areas provides them a unique advantage when analyzing and interpreting satellite images, and for conveying the findings of their study to the landowners or agencies."

Matthew Thoman of Riverton worked on a dryland winter wheat farm east of Cheyenne and was familiar with the fields. By processing Landsat images from the growing seasons of 2007 and 2009, he found growth variations within fields -- despite higher soil moisture levels in 2009 than 2007.

He will share the information with the producer, who could devise plans to correct the deficiencies, Sivanpillai says.

Brandt Schiche of Buffalo used Landsat images to glean information about surface area changes on Woodruff Narrows Reservoir. Water from the reservoir is used for irrigation, recreation and industry, and is shared between Utah and Wyoming.

"He found a significant relationship between the surface area estimates derived from Landsat images and the corresponding water levels in the reservoir," Sivanpillai says.

Jason Pindell of Wheatland used MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) data to assess differences in the growing pattern of aspen stands in the Medicine Bow National Forest. His research showed aspen put out leaves relatively earlier (bud-burst) in a drought year (2002) in comparison to the bud-burst in a normal year (2009).

Orin Hutchinson of Newcastle (pictured above) had worked with the U.S. Forest Service managing wildfires. He evaluated indices derived from Landsat images that highlighted burned (immediately) and revegetated (few years later) areas after the 2004 Basin Draw fire northwest of Aladdin in Crook County. The fire burned more than 4,500 acres in three days, but its impact and severity varied throughout the landscape.

"His results pointed out that burn severity index values were in good agreement with the data collected in the field," Sivanpillai says. "However, extraneous factors, such as precipitation and management practices, influenced the vegetation regrowth, limiting the effectiveness of satellite data for monitoring regrowth after several years."

Students presented their findings during UW's recent Undergraduate Research Day.

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UW Ag students use satellite images to evaluate crop- & range-land

Source: UW Extension Service's press release
By: Steven L. Miller, Senior Editor
Date: 28 Dec 2008

Agriculture students in a University of Wyoming class used remote sensing information to analyze crop and rangeland they are either familiar with or farm and ranch upon. 

The class, taught by Ramesh Sivanpillai, remote sensing scientist with the Wyoming Geographic Information Science Center (WyGISC) in the College of Agriculture building, examined crop and pasture lands using satellite images obtained through WyomingView. 

WyomingView is a consortium, headed byWyGISC and the University of Wyoming, aimed at increasing opportunities for remote sensing through outreach, data distribution, education, training and research activities in Wyoming. WyomingView is part of AmericaView, which is funded by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). 

Student Vince Holton wanted to eye his crop land in northern Colorado and pasture he leases between Laramie and Cheyenne. He could not obtain free satellite images for his Colorado cropland for the years he was interested in, but images collected by Landsat satellites of his Wyoming pasture were available through WyomingView. 

He had a “prove it” attitude. “I wanted to see how it worked; if it actually showed what I had observed on the ground,” he said.  The images provide variations in light reflectance of vegetation, which can show levels of plant vigor. 

“That tells you if it’s real productive, dormant or dead,” said Holton, of Greely, Colo. “But you have to know what you are looking at. You can’t take somebody else’s place; not having been there, you only can guess. You still have to do the groundwork to know what you are looking at. It works slick on farm ground, but it works good on rangeland, too. But you need help on which satellite image to use and how to configure it so you get the right values. It’s not something you can jump on and pop it out.” 

Holton said he’d like to use remote sensing in future operations. “I’d like to get more advanced so I know what I’m doing,” he said. “I got enough out of it I sure could see a heckuva value, especially in farming.” 

Garrett Klein and his lab partner, Laramie Wigington, both of Pavillion, northwest of Riverton, used the class to look at center pivots on Klein’s family land near Fort Washakie. 

“We changed from flood irrigation to pivot irrigation in 1998,” said Klein. “I wanted to see if the crop yields were increasing or if helping improve the ground (fertility).” 

The project was of particular interest to both. “I grew up a half-mile away from the ground,” said Wiginton. “We worked on the same ground together since elementary school.” 

They examined Landsat images from July and August from 1998 to 2006. The software program illustrates crop vigor through the years. “It allows us to see if an area of the field is consistently good or consistently bad,” said Klein. 

Klein, familiar with the farm ground, said he remained a skeptic of the process while using the program. “So far, it’s been correct,” he said. 

In the satellite images, they were able to match the growth patterns observed in the barley and alfalfa fields and distinguish areas where barley grew well and poorly due to alkaline soil, said Sivanpillai. “However, Landsat images were less useful when portions of the field were covered with weeds. For smaller farms, they concluded that high-resolution imagery taken at right time of growing season could be more helpful.” 

Landsat images are useful for monitoring crop growth, although the information content are less than the images seen in programs such as Google Earth, Sivanpillai noted. Landsat images are updated every 16 days, and the USGS is planning to make the entire Landsat image archive (going back to early 1970s) free in a year or two, enabling everyone to use these applications for monitoring their agricultural lands.

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Satellite imagery can help producers identify problems early

Source: UW Extension Service's press release
By: Vicki Hamende, Writer and Editor, Office of Ag Communications and Technology
Date: 2 Dec 2003

Orbiting satellites collecting data about land surfaces can help Wyoming producers learn information like where leafy spurge infestations are on the move and whether pastures are being overgrazed or undergrazed.

Through a year-old U.S. Geological Survey-funded program called WyomingView, investigators with the Wyoming Geographic Information Science Center (WyGISC) hope to partner with the University of Wyoming Cooperative Extension Service to use mapping and spatial analysis at the grass roots level to save time and money for ranchers and farmers.  Located in newly remodeled offices in the College of Agriculture building, the center is the state’s largest repository of geospatial data used by industries, state and federal agencies, nonprofit organizations, and private citizens.

WyomingView is part of AmericaView, a program that promotes remote sensing technology, education, and research. “CES fits in on the education side,” says Kenneth Driese, principal investigator for the project. “Extension agents can make contact with individual ranchers and farmers who might be interested in improving their operations.”

The services are free to producers, who simply file a request for particular overhead images of their property and receive the records they have asked for either through their own computers or through a limited number of provided satellite dishes and computers.

Information gleaned from downloaded photographs can distinguish cured grass from new growth, monitor the necessity for fungicide treatments, test the success of variable rate nitrogen applications, determine spray drift damage, and analyze how the discharge of water from coalbed methane operations is impacting rangelands.

One farmer in North Dakota, headquarters of the Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium of which UW is a member, was able to increase his income by $33 per acre after learning through satellite imagery that he was applying herbicides inadequately.

“The satellite can pick up plant distress caused by things like wind damage or pest attack or nutrient deficiencies long before the human eye can,” explains Ramesh Sivanpillai, coordinator of WyomingView. By studying color-coded aerial material, he says, producers can monitor their fields to spot damage before it is too late to reverse it. Driese points out that WyGISC’s direct connection to the USGS data center guarantees that producers can receive current information within a day or two of when it is requested.

Satellite image of Farson, WY

“This year we collected several images during the growing season that we gave to the Natural Resources Conservation Service to report to farmers,” Sivanpillai says. “CES can be using the same technology.”

The two scientists say College of Agriculture Dean Frank Galey and Associate Dean and CES Director Glen Whipple have expressed excitement about the opportunity. The WyomingView colleagues have also met with some CES agents and say they are eager to travel to different counties to make presentations about the services and free software they offer.

“One area we are discussing with Glen is how we can work together to train CES people and to find out what type of information they need,” Sivanpillai says. “I think this technology can help the way CES people do their jobs. They can help producers use images to do comparative analyses and pilot studies to predict yields. We hope the CES people will be able to help the end users.”

Driese says WyomingView is trying to build a UW-based consortium of data consumers in the state. “We are reaching out to federal agencies and community colleges and CES and NRCS to get the coalition growing,” he explains. “We’d like to make educational opportunities more available both at the UW level and outside the university.”

Driese says the program is also trying to add more data to the www.wygisc.uwyo.edu/wyview Web site. “For a state so sparsely populated, Wyoming is pretty far ahead of some areas in developing spatial data that farmers and ranchers can access,” Driese says. “There’s quite a lot of expertise growing on how to use it.” He notes that there are companies that provide sophisticated spectral analysis in parts of the country with more industrialized farming.

Sivanpillai says the program can help most producers in the state no matter how limited their holdings. “We’re small enough in Wyoming that they can just stop by or give us a call.”