1 / 14

Landsat: Earth's Oldest Satellite Program

Learn about Landsat, the nation's oldest Earth-observing satellite program, and discover its importance in addressing pressing natural resource problems. See how Landsat data is used by various federal government agencies and states for monitoring and assessing land use, climate change, wildlife habitat, and more. Gain insights into the program's history, mission, and future plans.

gswan
Download Presentation

Landsat: Earth's Oldest Satellite Program

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Landsat at 40: The Nation’s oldest Earth-observing satellite program Matt Larsen USGS Associate Director, Climate and Land Use Change May 10, 2013 Yukon delta Landsat “Earth as Art”, on display atLibrary of Congress U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey

  2. “…the time is now right and urgent to apply space technology towards the solution of many pressing natural resource problems being compounded by population and industrial growth.” Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall, 1966 2013: National Strategy for Civil Earth Observations

  3. Landsat is moderate resolution Moderate resolution - 30 m Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus Very high resolution - 1 m IKONOS Panchromatic Low resolution - 1 km Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer Optimal for weather and meteorological satellite imagery Optimal for site-specific studies; too fine to easily conduct studies of regional scale phenomena Optimal for studies at regional, national, or continental scales

  4. Increasing demand for free Landsat data Total Landsat scenes provided to users since January 2008 Scenes Free datapolicy October 1, 2008

  5. Who uses Landsat? Federal government • USDA estimates domestic and global crop yields • NOAA assesses coastal change • BLM monitors rangeland conditions in the West • BoR monitors water demand • FWS maps and monitors wildlife habitat • NPS produces wildfire burn severity maps for 30 million acres • USGS assesses potential for ecological carbon sequestration

  6. Who uses Landsat? Federal government • USDA estimates domestic and global crop yields • NOAA assesses coastal change • BLM monitors rangeland conditions in the West • BoR monitors water demand • FWS maps and monitors wildlife habitat • NPS produces wildfire burn severity maps for 30 million acres • USGS assesses potential for ecological carbon sequestration

  7. National Land Cover Database 16 land coverclasses: • agriculture • tree canopy • water bodies/ wetlands • shrubland/grassland • impervious surface

  8. Drought Monitoring http://vegdri.unl.edu/

  9. 1973 1978 1984 1989 1990 2000 1997 2000 1999 1996 2004 2002 2002 2002 2001 Mesa Verde National Park Fire Atlas

  10. Mitigation of climate change National assessment of ecological carbon sequestration

  11. Who Uses Landsat? States • Arkansas tracks land use change • Texas conducts annual forest inventories • California assesses fire risk and tracks land use change • Idaho (and other states) monitor consumptive water use • Louisiana plans and monitors coastal restoration • Ohio develops environmental compliance-monitoring tools • Wisconsin develops disaster-recovery maps • Kansas monitors unpermitted dams • Nebraska maps agricultural land use • Minnesota monitors lake clarity 12

  12. Understanding policy outcomes 40 years of land use change in the Chesapeake Bay region, and consequences for water quality and wildlife habitat Change In Impervious Surface - 2010

  13. A 40-year policy and budget challenge • The President’s 2014 budget: • the Administration has committed to continue the Landsat program and its invaluable data stream • contains language calling on NASA and DOI-USGS to jointly develop a follow-on mission to Landsat 8 • we’ve begun, and look forward to a sustained operational mission

More Related