# Presentation: 919090

## Landsat Data Continuity MissionPre-Solicitation ConferenceLDCM Heritage and Continuity

- James R. Irons, Ph.D
- LDCM Study Scientist

## Landsat Program Background

- Landsat program has continually acquired synoptic images of the Earth’s land surfaces for almost 30 years
- Landsat 1 was the first civilian satellite designed specifically for land observations
- At least one Landsat satellite has been acquiring data since the 1972 launch of Landsat 1.
- Landsats 5 & 7 are extending a 30 year record of the land surface
- USGS is preserving this record in its National  Satellite Land Remote Sensing Data Archive (NSLRSDA)
- The Landsat Program vision:
- Acquire multispectral imagery affording global, synoptic, and repetitive coverage of the Earth's land surfaces at a scale where natural and human-induced changes can be detected, characterized, and monitored over time

## Landsat Program Background

- Responsibility for Landsat satellite operations has varied over the 30 year program history:
- 1972-1979: NASA managed Landsats 1 to 3 as experimental missions;
- 1979-1984: NOAA managed Landsats 2 to 5 as operational missions;
- 1985-2001: EOSAT and Space Imaging managed Landsats 4 & 5 as commercial missions per the Land Remote Sensing Commercialization Act of 1984;
- 1999-2001: USGS and NASA are managing Landsat 7 as a scientific global survey mission per the Land Remote Sensing Policy Act of 1992 and the October 2000 amendment to Presidential Decision Directive/NSTC-3.

## Landsat Program Background

- The remote sensing world changed considerably between the 1984 launch of Landsat 5 and the 1999 launch of Landsat 7
- In 1984, the Landsat satellites remained the only civilian remote sensing satellites dedicated to land observations
- In 1999, Landsat 7 was launched into a growing constellation of remote sensing systems

**Notes:**
Landsat 7 launched on the cusp of a new era as it was rapidly followed into orbit by EOS Terra and IKONOS

## Current Operational Environment

_**Terra /MODIS**_

_**Landsat 7**_

- 16 day orbital repeat
**seasonal global coverage**
- nadir only

- pointable, stereo capability
- tasking on demand

-  2048 km swath
-  spatial resolution, 250m, 500m, 1000m
-  spectral coverage, VIS, NIR, SWIR, MWIR, TIR
-  calibrated @ ≤ 5% absolute

- 185 km swath
- spatial resolution, 15m, 30m, 60m
- spectral coverage, VIS, NIR, SWIR, TIR
- calibrated @ ≤  5% absolute

- • **global coverage**, 2 days
- • nadir only

_**IKONOS, QuickBird**_

**Landsat Sensing Characteristics Relative to Other Satellite Systems**

- 11 km swath
- spatial resolution  ≤1m, ≤4m
- spectral coverage, VIS, NIR

## The Landsat Mission Today

- The Landsat mission is to:
- Acquire **well-calibrated,** moderate resolution, multispectral imagery affording **systematic global coverage** of the Earth's land surfaces on a **seasonal basis** and make the data readily available for **large-scale and long-term** Earth system science and land resource management

## Science and Applications

- The scientific and applied communities are advancing from hand-crafted, single scene analyses to large-scale and long-term studies that fully exploit Landsat program heritage and data archive
- The scientific know-how exists and continues to advance
- The data processing technology is adequate and continues to advance
- The data are available
- _Landsat data prices, however, remain restrictive_

## The Landsat Benchmark

- Landsat 7 has established a benchmark for its successor mission with respect to:
- Sensor and system performance,characterization, and calibration
- On-orbit characterization and calibration over mission life
- Mission operations and data acquisition
- Archive-driven, systematic , substantially cloud-free, global coverage on seasonal basis
- Data archival and data product distribution
- USGS archive provides nondiscriminatory access
- Data products are available in consistent formats on consistent media
- Secondary distribution is unrestricted

## International Cooperator Network

## Land Remote Sensing Policy Act of 1992

- The Act (P.L. 102-555) direct Landsat Program Management to study options for a successor mission to Landsat 7 that:
- “adequately serve the civilian, national security, commercial, and foreign policy interests of the United States”
- “maintain **data continuity** with the Landsat system”
- “incorporate **system enhancements...**”
- The Act list four study options:
- Private sector funding and management,
- International consortium,
- U.S. Government funding and management, and
- U.S. Government-private sector cooperative effort

## Landsat Data Continuity

- The 1992 Act defines data continuity as:
- “the continued acquisition and availability of unenhanced data which are, from the point of view of the user --
- (A)  **sufficiently consistent** (in terms of acquisiton geometry, coverage characteristics, and spectral characteristics) with previous Landsat data to allow comparisons for global and regional change detection and characterization; and
- (B) compatible with such data and with methods used to receive and process such data."

**Notes:**
As a scientist, I find this to be a pretty good definition
Note that the law states “sufficiently consistent” not “exactly the same as”
Our understanding of data requirements has advanced as the mission has evolved with the state-of-the-art.
Note also that the 1992 Act directs LPM to use advanced technology both to reduce costs and better satisfy the end user

## System Enhancements

- The Act (P.L. 102-555) direct Landsat Program Management to study options for a successor mission to Landsat 7 that:
- “incorporate **system enhancements**, including any such enhancements developed under the technology demonstration program under section 303, which may potentially yield a system that is **less expensive** to build and operate, and **more responsive to data users**”

## LDCM Events

- 		Data Buy RFI
- March ’00	LDCM Data
- 			Specification
- Jan. ‘01	First LDCM
- 			Workshop

- Joint NASA / USGS Release
- NASA AA Asrar and USGS Director Groat briefed on responses in Oct. ’99.
- Drafted by team of experts from NASA GSFC, NASA SSC, USGS EDC, and MIT Lincoln Lab
- First draft posted on web site on 11/06/00 for public review and comment
- Open workshop with five panels addressing requirements for an LDCM
- Hosted by USGS in Reston, VA

## First LDCM Workshop: General Findings

- Participants emphasized the public good of the Landsat Program for science, education, resource management, commercial/economic development
- Consensus among data providers that there is no viable commercial market for 30m data (30 m data is entry level; creates interest in hi-res data)
- Scientists, users, and VARs considered an open data policy essential; data providers offered no objections
- Current pricing practices employed for Landsat 7 should be continued; however, COFUR pricing is still too high for global research and some applications

## First LDCM Workshop: General Findings

- Sense of urgency to get RFP out as soon as possible
- Federal and state agencies require Landsat-type data to meet their operational requirements
- Federal and state agencies need to become more actively involved in LDCM
- Need a long-term U.S. strategy for satellite remote sensing of the land masses
- Reduce cost by purchasing 10 years of data rather than 5
- Importance of international cooperation was highlighted

## LDCM Events

- April ‘01	Second LDCM
- 			Workshop
- Aug. ‘01	Draft RFP
- 			released for
- 			Formulation
- 			Phase
- Oct. ‘01	RFP
- 			Pre-Solicitation
- Conference

- Review of revised LDCM Data Specification & Procurement Expectations
- Held in St. Louis, MO in conjunction with ASPRS 2001 Annual Meeting
- Comments received and reviewed by end of Sept., ‘01
- Linthicum, Maryland

## Where is the LDCM now?

- We are in the process of formulating with you a global survey mission providing Landsat data continuity for long-term and large-scale land resource management and Earth system science