Kuwait Oil Fires, Mt. St. Helens Eruption Featured in Landsat's 40 Years Top Ten Stories List

First Posted: Jul 23, 2012 07:22 PM EDT

Black smoke plumes stream into the skies around Kuwait City in April 1991 five weeks after the fires were set. (Photo : NASA's Earth Observator)

The Landsat program had its initial satellite in space on July 23, 1972. Since then, the program has been tracking and recording changes on the Earth's surface via satellite imagery.

It has been 40 years worth of priceless photos the Landsat has acquired and NASA commemorated the anniversary by selecting and compiling a list of its top ten stories or revealing images it had stored up during its four decades of existence.

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The list contains imagery of the devastating Kuwait Oil Fires that were ignited by Iraqi troops as they withdrew from Kuwait at the end of the first Gulf War.

Also, imagery of one of the most significant natural disasters in the U.S. - the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980 -was added on to the list.

The advantages of Landsat are straightforward. It can accurately display the condition of hundreds of thousands of acres of land in few shots benefiting various endeavors such as human and environmental health, urban planning, agriculture etc.

Of the program, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said, "Landsat has given us a critical perspective on our planet over the long term and will continue to help us understand the big picture of Earth and its changes from space. With this view we are better prepared to take action on the ground and be better stewards of our home."

According to a NASA release, interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar on the other hand said, "Over four decades, data from the Landsat series of satellites have become a vital reference worldwide for advancing our understanding of the science of the land. The 40-year Landsat archive forms an indelible and objective register of America's natural heritage and thus it has become part of this department's legacy to the American people."

Here are NASA's Landsat's top 10 stories.

Eruption of Mount St. Helens, 1980

he 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption was one of the most significant natural disasters in the US in the past half-century. Landsat captured the extent of and recovery from the destruction. (Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/NASA's Earth Observatory)

Kuwait Oil Fires, 1991

As Iraqi troops withdrew from Kuwait at the end of the first Gulf War, they set fire to over 650 oil wells and damaged many more, just south of the Iraq border (yellow line). These Landsat images show before, during and after the release of 1.5 billion barrels of oil into the environment, the largest oil spill in human history.

Amazon Deforestation, 2000-2010

in this images from 2000, acquired by the Landsat by the 7 satellite, Amazonian forest is still largely untouched in Rondônia, Brazil. (Credit: NASA)

in this image 2000, acquired by the Landsat by the 7 satellite, Amazonian forest is still largely untouched in Rondônia, Brazil. (Credit: NASA)

In this image from 2010 acquired by the Landsat 7, enormous tracts of Amazonian forest disappear in Rondônia, Brazil. (Credit: NASA)

Shrinking Aral Sea

The Aral Sea in Central Asia began disappearing in the 1960s because of the diversion of its two feeder rivers for agriculture. This series of images illustrates unintended consequences of water management decisions. From left to right, the images were produced in 1977, 1998 and 2010. (Credit: USGS EROS Data Center)

Columbia Glacier, a Swift Retreat

The Columbia Glacier in Alaska is one of many vanishing around the world. Glacier retreat is one of the most direct and understandable effects of climate change. The consequences of the decline in alpine glaciers include contributing to global sea level rise. (Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center)