The Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC), a Distributed Active Archive Center for U.S. National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), presents Urban Landsat: Cities from Space. This collection of remote sensing maps and data from cities around the world is available for free from SEDAC site.

According to the program's mission, the research presented on the site is "primarily focused on the physical properties of a wide range of urban environments using passive measurement of optical reflectance and thermal emission as well as optical emission of nighttime lights. Comparative analyses of urban reflectance (visible and infrared color) and surface temperature allow us to develop robust criteria for distinguishing urban land cover from non-anthropogenic land covers. These analyses also provide important constraints on the physical properties that control mass and energy fluxes through the urban environment. These constraints are used as inputs to physical models of climatic, hydrologic and ecologic processes."

Each city is linked to a jpeg image of a Landsat visible/IR composite collected by Landsat 5 (pre 1999) or Landsat 7. Most of the image areas are 30x30 km but a few are larger. All images are shown at full resolution (30 m pixel).

The site also features an interactive map, a list of all city images, a list of images with accompanying data, and a bibliography of research conducted by the project.