Landsat Missions
25 Years of Landsat 5 – A Remarkable Satellite, A Unique Legacy
On March 1, 1984, Landsat 5 headed into space with an expected life span of three years. No one could have foreseen that this fifth satellite in the Earth-observing Landsat program would far exceed that expectation. For a quarter century, the Thematic Mapper (TM) sensor aboard Landsat 5 has captured images of Earth’s changing surface and has amassed a legacy of Earth observation unmatched by any other satellite of its kind.
Keeping a Satellite Functioning for 25 Years…What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Figure 1. Landsat 5 Components
Landsat Free Archive Update – Stats and Interesting Items
Figure 2. Landsat Standard L1T Downloads Through March 3, 2009
Figure 3. WRS-2 Standard L1T Downloads Through March 3, 2009
Landsat Science Team Spotlight – Dr. Warren Cohen, U.S. Forest Service
Figure 4. Dr. Warren Cohen
Dr. Warren Cohen brings over 25 years of remote sensing experience to the Landsat Science Team. He is a research forester for the U.S. Forest Service and is the Director of the Laboratory for Applications of Remote Sensing in Ecology (LARSE), located on the campus of Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon.
Cohen’s research includes translating remotely sensed data into useful ecological information for process modeling and resource management applications. Primary applications include disturbance ecology, succession, inventory and monitoring, and carbon dynamics. He is actively engaged in exploiting newer sensor data, such as lidar, and in integrating data from multiple sensors with field data for effective use in ecology.
Change detection using historical Landsat data has become a mainstay of Cohen’s research efforts, and he works to demonstrate that the rich global archive of data can be exploited to great advantage for change detection across regional to continental scales.
Cohen has published over 100 research articles in a variety of peer-reviewed journals. He was the guest editor for a special issue of the journal BioScience in 2004 that focused on remote sensing in ecology and biology. He has been a member of the editorial board of the journal Remote Sensing of Environment for the past 10 years.
LARSE Web site: http://www.fsl.orst.edu/larse/
Tips and Tricks – Creating a Gap Mask
Question: If gap mask files are not provided with the data, can I create my own?
Answer: Yes. Since pixels with missing data have digital number (DN) values of 0, you can differentiate between valid and missing data pixels using a number of different remote sensing software packages. A gap mask can then be created to show where valid and missing data pixels are located.
The process used to create a gap mask using ENVI is shown below. (Please note that this does not signify an endorsement by the USGS EROS Center; we cannot endorse any specific remote sensing software. Other remote sensing software packages may also contain similar functionality.)
Upcoming Meetings
ASPRS 2009 Annual Conference
AAG 2009 Annual Meeting
EROS Authors in Recent Publications
Senay, G.B., 2008, Modeling landscape evapotranspiration by integrating land surface phenology and a water balance algorithm: Algorithms, v. 1, no. 2, p. 52-68.
Tan, Z., Tieszen, L.L., Tachie-Obeng, E., Liu, S., and Dieye, A.M., 2009, Historical and simulated ecosystem carbon dynamics in Ghana–land use, management, and climate: Biogeosciences, v. 6, no. 1.
Li, M., Huang, C., Zhu, Z., Shi, H., Lu, H., and Peng, S., In Press, Assessing rates of forest change and fragmentation in Alabama, USA, using the vegetation change tracker model: Forest Ecology and Management.
LDCM News - Ball Aerospace Completes CDR for Landsat's Operational Land Imager
November 26, 2008 - The Operational Land Imager (OLI) being built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. for the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM), the eighth in the Landsat satellite series, has successfully passed the Instrument Critical Design Review (ICDR).
The ICDR, a four-day process in Boulder, included more than 60 representatives from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center project office and review team, members of the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) Independent Review Board, Landsat scientists from the U. S. Geological Survey, and industry participants. The team reviewed OLI systems architecture and a detailed analysis of integration and the test approach including validation and calibration.
“We are focused on delivering an advanced instrument to support the government’s continuation of the vital Landsat program,” said David L. Taylor, president and CEO of Ball Aerospace. “Successful on-time completion of OLI will further complement Ball’s strong legacy in both Earth science and remote-sensing missions.” ICDR participants noted Ball’s heritage from similar instruments in congratulating the OLI team for retiring major risks and moving well beyond ICDR in most areas.
The OLI instrument provides 15-meter panchromatic and 30-meter multispectral Earth-imaging spatial resolution capability. OLI includes a 185-km swath allowing the entire globe to be imaged every 16 days.
(View the Ball Aerospace press release at http://www.ballaerospace.com/page.jsp?page=30&id=314)
LDCM News – Landsat Science Team Meeting Held January 6-7, 2009
The fifth meeting of the Landsat Science Team was held January 6–8, 2009, in Fort Collins, CO, and was hosted by the USDA Forest Service.
In addition to status reports on LDCM development and Landsat 5 and 7 operations, the meeting focused on technical issues associated with future Landsat data products and requirements for future missions. The Team also had the opportunity to tour Ball Aerospace facilities in Boulder, CO, and view OLI flight hardware.
Some actions from the meeting included:
Demonstrate the importance of the USGS no-cost Landsat data archive
Prioritize the International Cooperator's Global Landsat archive data acquisition
Define the characteristics of future Landsat missions
Document L1T product specifications
The meeting agenda and presentation materials can be found on the USGS Landsat Web site: http://landsat.usgs.gov/science_LST_Team_Meetings.php.
The next Landsat Science Team meeting will be held June 22–24, 2009, in Rochester, New York.
Landsat Images of Interest - Osaka Bay, Japan (2000 and 2008)
Osaka Bay Area, Japan, 2000 .jpg (13.6 MB) and 2008 .jpg (18.0 MB)These images show the land use change in Japan’s Osaka Bay from 2000 to 2008. A collective population of over 16 million people reside in the cities of Osaka, Kobe, Sakai, and others around the Bay. A number of artificial islands have been created in the Bay. Expansion of Kansai International Airport can be seen in the right-center of the 2008 image.
2000, August 25 - Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) Path 110 Row 36
Figure 5. Osaka Bay, Japan area. Landsat 7 ETM+ Path 110, Row 36. Acquired August 25, 2000.
Figure 6. Osaka Bay, Japan area. Landsat 7 ETM+ Path 110, Row 36. Acquired October 18, 2008.
U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://landsat.usgs.gov
Page Contact Information: landsat@usgs.gov
Page Last Modified: November 24, 2009
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