How does the Sun affect Landsat acquisitions?

Sun glint occurs when sunlight reflects off a water surface toward a satellite sensor. This can change the appearance of the water, making smooth areas shine like a bright mirror.

🛰️ When this happens, it can make it difficult to use satellite imagery to study water because the reflected sunlight can obscure ocean color, aquatic vegetation and other features beneath the surface.

🌟 USGS scientists have been studying when sun glint is most likely to occur and how future Earth-observing missions could reduce it.

Their new article uses machine learning and observations from more than 14,000 cloud-free Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 images to estimate the likelihood of sun glint. The researchers also evaluated whether a modest across-track tilt, which changes the satellite’s viewing angle, could reduce sun glint over tropical and subtropical waters.

The results show that tilting the sensor westward, away from the point of strongest reflection, could substantially reduce sun glint. They conclude that this approach, combined with methods for detecting and correcting glint after acquisition, could improve aquatic observations from future missions.

Follow the link below to learn more about their methods and findings:

🔗 https://t.co/HXa4dWth2e

📸 1: A true-color, nadir-viewing Landsat 8 image along the northern coast of Australia on November 17, 2021. Bright sun glint is visible across the water, particularly on the eastern side of the image.
📸 2: A true-color Landsat 9 image of the same area acquired a few minutes later with the satellite tilted westward. The water appears darker and clearer because the altered viewing angle largely avoided sun glint.

Credit: USGS

#AquaticRemoteSensing #SunGlint #RemoteSensing

USGS Landsat

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#Severe #thunderstorms are likely to bring damaging wind gusts to a swath of the U.S. from the eastern Great Lakes to the Mid-Atlantic as well as part of Montana today. This water vapor imagery comes from @NOAA’s #GOESEast (#GOES19) 🛰️, which continues to monitor these areas that are at a #SlightRisk of severe weather.

Latest: https://t.co/9oGbRRxx4s

NOAA Satellites

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Sep 2 | 15Z | Here are the latest Marine Key Messages for Tropical Storm Marie over the Eastern Pacific. For the latest NHC advisory visit: https://t.co/flL526VJHE, and for the latest marine information visit: https://t.co/Wk7xxBlxYC https://t.co/5KKNo14gCk

NHC_TAFB

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🌱 The Multilateral System of the @PlantTreaty is the world's largest mechanism for sharing crop diversity.

It gives farmers, researchers and breeders access to the genetic resources needed to build resilient agrifood systems.

👉 https://t.co/gL1pAn0uGz https://t.co/zaCMwCarx0

FAO Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment

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🤝 WRI Finance’s Nick Robins has been re-appointed to @JTCScotland for a second term.

As climate shocks and fossil fuel dependence continue to put pressure on economies, Nick will focus on helping ensure the transition is fair for all. Read more: https://t.co/cp8Un5KA6z https://t.co/894yb0zQLh

WRI Climate

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Hurricane Karina is centered near 18.8N 132.8W at 02/1500 Z moving west-northwest at 9 kt. Maximum sustained wind speed is 125 kt with gusts to 150 kt. Peak seas are around 42 ft. Numerous moderate to scattered strong convection is noted from 17N-22N between 131W-135W. https://t.co/h4bA4ys5mP

NHC_TAFB

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.@NOAA announces priorities to promote science-based American seafood dominance

News release: https://t.co/OjoKBGXjFU

via @NOAAFishMedia

NOAA Communications

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From Texas to Maine, coastal wetlands and marshes are releasing over 1.45 billion pounds of carbon into the ocean each year.

The finding comes from a study analyzing Landsat images and @USGS elevation data to track marsh loss in the area from 1985-2022. https://t.co/T0uxkl5fJg https://t.co/jDGD4bZNN4

NASA Earth

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Three women. Three ways of protecting the Amazon: defending its forests, preserving its languages, and carrying ancestral knowledge forward.

LEARN MORE: https://t.co/Nfty2cXgZy

Conservation Intl

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It’s the middle of the week, and we all know what that means…it's #WhereInTheWorld Wednesday!

On June 22, 2026, #NOAA20 🛰️ captured this imagery of the eighth-largest lake in the United States. Despite being too large to see across, this freshwater body of water has an average depth of less than 10 feet!

NOAA Satellites

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Finding trade data is one challenge. Understanding what those data mean for policy is another.

A newly AI-powered tool now combines data discovery & methodological guidance in a single interface, helping users move more faster from numbers to insight: https://t.co/VphFRbEBzs https://t.co/orTAFctVUG

World Bank Group Climate and Environment

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Two Category 4 storms march across the Pacific Ocean following Hurricane Lowell's recent rapid intensification.

Both Karina and Lowell are currently expected to keep their distance from the Hawaiian Islands. https://t.co/JrR2OqjgZZ

CIRA

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Join the #ForestFarmFacility 2026 Global Conference online with the theme 'Scaling what works: Producer-led solutions for improved livelihoods & forest landscapes'

🗓️ 9-13 September 2026
Register now 👉 https://t.co/sawwAhPCQ9

@IIED @IUCN @FFP_AgriCord @FAOBolivia @FAOAmericas https://t.co/854GwSbBeX

FAO Forestry

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Ahead of #COP17Armenia and #COP31, this timely @UNEP report is a reminder that now is the time to double down on #ClimateAction & #BiodiversityAction, because climate change and biodiversity loss are two sides of the same planetary crisis and must be addressed together.

Global warming is set to cross 1.5°C, pushing climate risks and impacts to increasingly dangerous heights, a new UNEP report warns.  

Predicted impacts include extreme weather and threats to human health and economies.  

Action now can still limit the magnitude and duration of the peak and preserve the possibility of returning to or below 1.5°C through an ‘overshoot, peak, and decline’ pathway 

 Explore more: https://t.co/kbvezGTyar - UN Environment Programme

UN Biodiversity

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📘 How can climate reporting better capture adaptation and loss and damage?

A new @FAO technical brief draws on countries’ first Biennial Transparency Reports to identify ways to strengthen reporting guidelines.

👉 https://t.co/vRCZvGEdv0

#ClimateTransparency https://t.co/mf8QsfI1Hw

FAO Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment

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NASA engineers recently traveled to the @AusSpaceAgency 🇦🇺 to support integration and testing of a sensor for a NASA technology payload that will fly aboard Australia’s first lunar rover, Roo-ver.

🌕 Roo-ver is expected to be delivered to the Moon’s South Pole in 2030 through NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. The commercial lunar lander mission is part of the broader effort to build humanity’s first @NASAMoonBase.

🔗 Learn more about NASA’s lunar surface technologies:
https://t.co/MR4TmzUNub

NASA Technology

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RT @marcosathias: Climate change is pushing the Amazon Basin to a tipping point.

A 🆕 @UNDP study found that if no action is taken, the impact of climate disruptions in the Amazon could cost the region between $404 & $941 billion by 2050 - 2070.

More in this explainer: https://t.co/kVpXDTrBjC https://t.co/LBUl62siOg

UNDP Planet

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💧 What can Europe learn from Africa about drought?

📡 Early warning in Kenya
🌱 Nature-based solutions in South Africa
🧩 Indigenous knowledge in Eswatini

Through @UNCCD sharing what works can strengthen drought resilience.

➡️ https://t.co/tDTTr07jSw https://t.co/X4RGIkCtCo

UNDRR

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.@NOAA’s #GOESEast (#GOES19) 🛰️ continues to closely monitor #TropicalDepression #Edouard, which made landfall in Louisiana yesterday as a #TropicalStorm.

#FloodWatches associated with Edouard continue to be in place in East Texas.

Learn more about Edouard in our latest Satellite Snapshot: https://t.co/ifBokpsWhi

NOAA Satellites

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