Adopt a Pixel

Adopt a Pixel is a citizen science program that engages the public in collecting data, in this case landscape photographs, for scientific research. The science community has easy access to Landsat satellite data but has limited resources for acquiring ground reference photographs to verify land cover type. The goal of Adopt a Pixel is to acquire ground-based photographs to improve satellite data interpretation for operational and research science. Photographs from volunteers provide scientists with ground-based landscape data that would be too expensive or time consuming to acquire by other means. You can adopt a Landsat pixel by taking photographs of it that will help scientists interpret data from the new Landsat satellite. We want you to take a series of landscape photographs and make a few simple observations. Volunteers can share their land cover photographs and participate in the program by visiting the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center Adopt a Pixel interface (adoptapixel.cr.usgs.gov). Images show the terrain from a single point facing North, South, East, West, Up, and Down to give a clear view of landscape features in all directions. Field observations include land cover classification and any notable comments about conditions, patterns, or changes.