Science: The Earth in Living Color

As Landsat 4 struts its stuff, a debate arises about its future

With their splashes of strong color and rectilinear features, they look like the canvases of a painter. In fact, the pictures are a new form of art, of the high-tech kind. Photographed from 440 miles out in space, they are views of the earth by the U.S.'s newest and most versatile earth-observing satellite, a multieyed robot called Landsat 4. Launched last July, it has been faithfully circling the globe, swinging from pole to pole and back again once every 98.9 minutes, taking electronic shots of every spot on the planet,...

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