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Space Studies Board Annual Report 2013 (2014) / Chapter Skim
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5.1 Landsat and Beyond: Sustaining and Enhancing the Nation's Land Imaging Program: A Report of the SSB Ad Hoc Committee on Implementation of a Sustained Land Imaging Program
Pages 35-39

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From page 35...
... The committee was asked to identify stakeholders and their data needs, recommend characteristics and critical program support areas expected of a sustained land imaging program, suggest critical baseline products and services derived from land imaging, and provide recommendations to facilitate the transition from NASA's research-based series of satellites to a sustained USGS land imaging program.2 The committee met with stakeholders, including the DOI, NASA, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Forest Service, commercial data providers, and multiple land imaging data users, and analyzed earlier reports on the uses and value of moderate-resolution multispectral data.
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From page 36...
... Such a program would • Develop a plan for a comprehensive, integrated program that capitalizes on the strengths of USGS and NASA, maintains current capability and the existing archive, and enhances the program as technology enables new imaging capabilities and data products; • Ensure acquisition of land imaging data continuously from orbital platforms and, periodically, from airborne platforms, to respond to the needs of producers and consumers of derived data products along with users who analyze imagery; • Establish partnerships with commercial firms and international land imaging programs to leverage enhanced capabilities; • Coordinate land imaging data buys across the U.S. government; and • Include a research and development component to improve data products based on core measurements and to develop new measurement methods and consider evolving requirements.
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From page 37...
... Some incorporation of other types of data requires only better coordination across the government by increased sharing of existing or planned data. The committee recommends that the Sustained and Enhanced Land Imaging Program integrate measurements from commercial partners, spaceborne sensors recommended by the 2007 NRC report Earth Science and Applications from Space,4 and a variety of airborne sensors and acquisitions to enable analyses not possible using only moderate-resolution multispectral data.
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From page 38...
... USGS should • Improve search capabilities and transparency to users and • Continue to interface with the private sector to improve access to public- and private-domain land imaging data products and services. The Sustained and Enhanced Land Imaging Program should develop a systematic process for identifying and prioritizing a wider suite of products, including essential climate variables, that can be derived from moderate-resolution land imagery, and for documenting and validating algorithms, including their modifications or replacements.
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From page 39...
... This integrated approach, as recommended, will take into consideration the land-imaging needs of federal and state agencies, academia, and value-added providers and will determine which data are critical to national interests, including national security, food security, natural resource management, and natural hazard risk reduction. An optimized program will look to the future, ensuring readily interoperable data among spaceborne and airborne sensors, some with finer spatial resolution and some with more frequent coverage.
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Key Terms

  • imaging program
  • enhanced land
  • data products
  • sustained land
  • imaging data

  • core program
  • multispectral data
  • operational land
  • imaging capabilities
  • imaging capability

  • landsat data
  • program landsat
  • derived products
  • mission development
  • airborne sensors

  • enhanced capabilities
  • current mission
  • products based
  • core land
  • tainable land

  • improve land
  • robust land
  • land imagery
  • land cover
  • coordinate land

  • imaging programs
  • international land
  • detailed land
  • multiple land
  • usgs land


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