The Psychedelic Nature of 1970s NASA Landsat 1 Florida Satellite Images

Pokey By
Published on | Art & Design

Captured by Landsat 1, the first satellite of the US’s Landsat program, in the early 1970s at a scale of 1:500,000 (1 cm equals 5 km), these satellite images of Florida were superimposed with a Mercator grid, printed onto oversized poster panels, and then—likely decades later—scanned and digitized in ultra high-resolution. The resulting images, showing map keys, data, poster edges, creases and tears, paper textures, and grid lines, are accidentally psychedelic and purposefully very cool.

High res detail of archival scan of 1970s NASA satellite image of Florida showing psychedelic colors, red vegetation, neon blue water, stark white clouds, and grey land structures, all on vintage paper with a mercator grid overlay
An excerpt from a quadriptych of vintage Landsat 1 satellite images explains the false color logic behind bright red vegetation as seen from almost 600 miles above earth via Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, D.C., Library of Congress Control Number
75695586, 1973
Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, D.C., Library of Congress Control Number
75695586, 1973

From 570 miles above the peninsula, these images were recorded in “discrete spectral bands” with a “Multispectral Scanner” which creates a wild, surreal, and otherworldly effect.

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High res detail of archival scan of 1970s NASA satellite image of Florida showing psychedelic colors, red vegetation, neon blue water, stark white clouds, and grey land structures, all on vintage paper with a mercator grid overlay
Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, D.C., Library of Congress Control Number
75695586, 1973

Printed with magenta plate for bands 4 and 5 combined, yellow plate for band 4 and cyan plate for band 7

Florida, satellite image mosaic, 1973. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, D.C.
High res detail of archival scan of 1970s NASA satellite image of Florida showing psychedelic colors, red vegetation, neon blue water, stark white clouds, and grey land structures, all on vintage paper with a mercator grid overlay
Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, D.C., Library of Congress Control Number
75695586, 1973

As seen in the detail above, a particular iteration of these archival images features four large posters, each measuring 57 by 42 inches, a kind of quadriptych by something called EXPERIMENTAL PRINTING (their words not ours).

High res detail of archival scan of 1970s NASA satellite image of Florida showing psychedelic colors, red vegetation, neon blue water, stark white clouds, and grey land structures, all on vintage paper with a mercator grid overlay
Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, D.C., Library of Congress Control Number
75695586, 1973

Projection-based on composite of perspective images 20,000-metre universal transverse Mercator grid, zones 16 and 17, 1927 North American datum.

Florida, satellite image mosaic, 1973. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, D.C.
High res detail of archival scan of 1970s NASA satellite image of Florida showing psychedelic colors, red vegetation, neon blue water, stark white clouds, and grey land structures, all on vintage paper with a mercator grid overlay
Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, D.C., Library of Congress Control Number
75695586, 1973

Another iteration of these archival satellite images focuses exclusively on the Florida Keys.

High res detail of archival scan of 1970s NASA satellite image of Florida showing psychedelic colors, red vegetation, neon blue water, stark white clouds, and grey land structures, all on vintage paper with a mercator grid overlay
Florida Keys, Florida, satellite image map, NASA LANDSAT-1. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, D.C., Library of Congress Control Number
78693105, 1977

The detail of the Florida Bay and the actual key islands, with psychedelic false-color reds vibrating against neon blue waves and wizard-white speckled clouds, seems to dance around the ancient paper as well as in our minds. I bet these posters smell like old books, too.

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High res detail of archival scan of 1970s NASA satellite image of Florida showing psychedelic colors, red vegetation, neon blue water, stark white clouds, and grey land structures, all on vintage paper with a mercator grid overlay
Florida Keys, Florida, satellite image map, NASA LANDSAT-1. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, D.C., Library of Congress Control Number
78693105, 1977

Imagery controlled to photoidentified ground positions. The root-mean-square error in position of well-defined features in relation to the grid is estimated to be 200 meters

Sanibel Island, Florida, satellite image map : NASA LANDSAT-1, 1:500,000, N2557W08206 via Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, D.C., Library of Congress Control Number 79694275
Sanibel Island, Florida, satellite image map : NASA LANDSAT-1, 1:500,000, N2557W08206 via Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, D.C., Library of Congress Control Number 79694275
Sanibel Island, Florida, satellite image map : NASA LANDSAT-1, 1:500,000, N2557W08206 via Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, D.C., Library of Congress Control Number 79694275

Check out both entries at the Library of Congress here and here for full resolution viewing and downloading. As a bonus, here is the Okefenokee Swamp.

To learn more about our robot friend, Landsat 1, check out NASA’s excellent shrine to her here.

Addenda:

Catalog Number: DOI000032

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