The RST Project provides independent, technical characterization and quality assessment of land remote sensing data. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center has been an integral part of Earth remote sensing since the launch the first land imaging satellite, Landsat 1, in 1972. As holders of the world’s longest running archive of remotely sensed land data, it is critical that the USGS understand the technical capabilities and comparability of data from various satellite sources.

These comparisons are aided through RST’s technical analyses of the geometric, radiometric, and spatial characteristics of satellite data, and facilitates the assessments of other key qualities such as operability and usefulness in scientific and other applications. To accomplish this goal, RST works closely with many partners, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), academia, and state and local governments.

Results of our studies and efforts pertaining to possible data sources to meet a gap in Landsat data, as well as presentations from the Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation (JACIE) conference and a catalog of worldwide test sites, satellites, and their data characteristics, will be provided on this Web site as they become available.