The Landsat archive, the world’s longest continuously acquired collection of space-based, moderate-resolution land remote sensing data, has now surpassed 7 million scenes since Landsat 1 first began collecting data in July 1972. This Landsat 8 image acquired on June 27, 2017, represents one of those millions of scenes to be added to the archive.

Across the lower portion of this image in northeastern Alaska, clouds cover the Franklin Mountains area of the Brooks Range. Several rivers flow north from the mountains into the Beaufort Sea. The Canning River marks the western border of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a largely primitive and undisturbed region.

The prominent mountain range in the center of the image running east to west is the Sadlerochit Mountains. North of the mountains, the land becomes a flat-to-hilly treeless area called the North Slope coastal plain tundra. Off the coast, sea ice floats on the Beaufort Sea, and dark represents open water in this summer scene.

Northern Alaska receives sunlight 24 hours a day this time of year. Landsat normally acquires imagery only during the day on the descending part of its polar orbit, when the surface of the Earth is in sunlight. But at these high latitudes, Landsat 8 takes the opportunity during summer to acquire imagery during the ascending “nighttime” part of its orbit.

The day-lit ascending campaigns in high latitude regions increase the Landsat coverage in these persistently cloudy areas. The sun angle is different from a typical Landsat scene, providing a twilight glow to the scene.

The 7+ million Landsat scenes are available for download at no charge from EarthExplorer, GloVis, and the LandsatLook Viewer. Follow the Landsat Program on Twitter @USGSLandsat or Facebook @NASA.Landsat.