USA ‘Earthscapes’ Issue Features Aerial and Satellite Imagery

USA 2012-10-01

On October 1st, 2012, the US Postal Service issued a new sheet of Forever stamps featuring fifteen aerial views of landscapes. Two of the stamps are images from the Landsat 7 satellite. The sheet was released October 1 to kick off National Stamp Collecting Month, and portrays a number of landscapes as viewed from heights of several hundred feet above the Earth to several hundred miles in space. The sheet contains imagery in three categories: natural, agricultural, and urban. The two stamps that feature Landsat images Volcanic Crater and Center-pivot irrigation — depict a natural disaster site, Mount Saint Helens, and an agricultural practice that is common in the Garden City, Kansas area. As part of the Landsat 40^th Anniversary Celebration this summer, the USGS and NASA held an online contest in which more 14,000 people voted on their Top Five favorite Earth as Art images.