Landsat Missions
October 1, 2008 – Landsat 7 ETM+ Data Now Available at No Charge
September 17, 2008 – NASA Selects The Hammers Co. to Build LDCM MOE
July 15-17, 2008 – Landsat Science Team Meeting
July 31, 2008 – RFI: Landsat Raw Data Products
June 6, 2008 – Largest Continent Released for Newly Acquired Landsat Data
May 7, 2008 – Landsat Satellite Imagery Used to Assess the Impact of Myanmar's Cyclone Nargis
May 2, 2008 – RFI announcement
April 24, 2008 – Landsat Data Continuity Mission USGS Acquisition Strategy for Ground System Segments
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Department of the Interior’s U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) share responsibility for the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM). NASA will develop the flight systems including the spacecraft, instrument, mission operations element and mission launch, and perform on-orbit checkout. The USGS will develop, implement, and operate the ground data acquisition network and image processing and archive facilities and will disseminate products to the user community. In addition, the USGS will be responsible for satellite flight operations.
The USGS LDCM acquisition strategy is based upon competitive procurements for the engineering, development, integration and test, and operation of the ground system elements. The two largest USGS LDCM related contracts were awarded in March 2008—the LDCM Data Continuity Contract (LDCC) was awarded to Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) and the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Technical Support Services Contract (TSSC) was awarded to Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies, Inc. (SGT). The following list outlines the acquisition strategy for the LDCM ground system segments and their associated elements:
Flight Operations Segment:
Data Processing and Archive Segment:
Ground System Architecture Analysis and Integration:
April 22, 2008 – NASA Selects Contractor for Landsat Data Continuity Mission Spacecraft
NASA has selected General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, Inc., to build the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) spacecraft.
Under the terms of the $116,306,179 delivery order, General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems will be responsible for the design and fabrication of the LDCM spacecraft bus, integration of the government furnished instruments, satellite-level testing, on-orbit satellite check-out, and continuing on-orbit engineering support. They also will provide a spacecraft/observatory simulator.
LDCM is a component of the Landsat Program conducted jointly by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) of the Department of Interior. NASA is providing the LDCM spacecraft, the instruments, the launch vehicle, and the mission operations element of the ground system. USGS is providing the mission operations center and ground processing systems, as well as the flight operations team.
The delivery order was awarded under NASA's Rapid II Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity Contract. The Rapid II contract is for core spacecraft systems, with non-standard services such as operations, launch services, components and studies to meet the government's space science, Earth science and technology needs.
The contract includes fabrication and testing of the spacecraft with mission specific design modifications; generation of interface control documents, instrument and full spacecraft integration; testing, shipment to the launch site, launch vehicle integration support and on-orbit checkout.
With a five-year design lifetime, the LDCM satellite will continue the series of measurements begun with the Landsat-1 mission for the collection, archiving and distribution of multi-spectral imagery. This imagery will provide global, synoptic, and repetitive coverage of the Earth's land surfaces at a scale where natural and human-induced changes can be detected, differentiated, characterized and monitored over time.
The LDCM goal is consistent with the Landsat programmatic goals derived from the Land Remote Sensing Act of 1992. This policy requires that the Landsat Program provide data into the future that is sufficiently consistent with previous Landsat data to allow the detection and quantitative characterization of changes in or on the land surface of the globe.
The LDCM was conceived as a follow-on mission to the highly successful Landsat series of missions that have provided coverage of the Earth's continental surfaces since 1972. The data from these missions constitute the longest continuous record of the Earth's surface as seen from space.
April 22, 2008 – The U.S. House of Representatives honors Landsat on Earth Day.
April 21, 2008 – Imagery for Everyone
March 31, 2008 – Newly acquired Landsat 7 scenes over Africa are now available at no charge.
As Landsat 7 acquires clear scenes over Africa (less than or equal to 20 percent cloud cover), the Landsat Project is automatically processing those scenes to an L1T, applying precision ground control and the SRTM DEM for geometric correction. These scenes are accurate to within 30m. There are four areas of the continent that are still under investigation due to poor geometric adjustments (Nile region, two areas in southern Africa, Madagascar). These will be reprocessed and come online in late May.
Scenes can be found:
GloVis: glovis.usgs.gov, Collection->Landsat Science->Standard L1T
EE: earthexplorer.usgs.gov, under 1. Select your dataset, choose Landsat Science->SLC-off L1T Std L1T
March 26, 2008 – The 17th Landsat Technical Working Group (LTWG) meeting
The 17th Landsat Technical Working Group (LTWG) meeting, organized and hosted by the USGS, was held in Chantilly, Virginia, March 3–7, 2008. International Cooperator (IC) representatives from nine countries and members of the USGS Landsat Project, USGS Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) Project, NASA LDCM Project, and NASA Landsat Science Office discussed topics of technical interest. This transitional meeting focused on shifting away from the on-orbit Landsat 5 and 7 missions and toward the LDCM currently under development. A full range of presentations on the LDCM were included in the agenda, and several of the LDCM management and development team members attended to meet the IC representatives. Another transition was in the leadership of the LTWG and Landsat Ground Station Operators Working Group (LGSOWG) meetings—from the Landsat Project to the LDCM Project. In addition to the LDCM presentations, other topics covered were the Landsat 5 battery anomaly, the Landsat Pilot Project enabling no-charge data access, the Global Land Survey 2005, data validation and exchange, and the new Landsat 5 calibration parameter files. Also, a USGS Headquarters representative reported on the National Land Imaging Program.
Station reports were focused on addressing a variety of technical issues currently being worked by the Projects. Status reports were given on the China Brazil Earth Resources Satellite 2B (CBERS-2B) program by the Brazil representative, on the Thailand Earth Observation System (THEOS) program by the Thailand delegation, on TerraSAR-X by the German representative, and on the Sentinel program by the representative from the European Space Agency (ESA).
Figure 1. Group picture at Lincoln Memorial |
Figure 2. Group picture at Capitol |
March 10, 2008 – 2008 Pecora Award Nominations
Call for Nominations for 2008 William T. Pecora Award
Deadline: April 30, 2008
The William T. Pecora Award is presented annually to individuals or groups that have made outstanding contributions toward understanding the Earth by means of remote sensing. The Department of the Interior (DOI) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) jointly sponsor the award. The award was established in 1974 to honor the memory of Dr. William T. Pecora, former Director of the U.S. Geological Survey and Under Secretary, Department of the Interior. Dr. Pecora was a motivating force behind the establishment of a program for civil remote sensing of the Earth from space. His early vision and support helped establish what we know today as the Landsat satellite program.
The Award Committee must receive nominations for the 2008 award by April 30, 2008. Instructions for preparing a nomination and other information about the award can be found on the Pecora Award web site: http://remotesensing.usgs.gov/pecora.html
Any individual or group working in the field of remote sensing of the Earth is eligible to receive the William T. Pecora Award. An individual award recognizes achievements in the scientific and technical remote sensing community, as well as contributions leading to successful practical applications of remote sensing. Consideration will be given to sustained career achievements or singular contributions of major importance to the field of remote sensing. A group award recognizes a team or part of an organization that has made major breakthroughs in remote sensing science or technology, or developed an innovative application that has a significant impact on the user community or national and international policies. Individual and group achievements should be documented in the open literature.
March 3, 2008 – Mission Operations Element, Request for Proposal Announced
The LDCM Mission Operations Element Request For Proposal was released on March 1, 2008. Please direct any questions regarding this procurement to the Contracting Officer, Michelle McIntyre at Michelle.D.McIntyre@nasa.gov.
February 29, 2008 – Landsat 5 Satellite Back in Action
Orbiter's Designed Three-Year Mission, Begins its 24th Year in Operation March 1
The earth imaging satellite Landsat 5 is once again collecting and downlinking land-image data. The satellite was temporarily taken out of service in October 2007 following a cell failure within one of the satellite's two operating on-board batteries.
USGS Flight Operations Team engineers were forced to discover ways to balance the energy demand of Landsat 5's operational and imaging instrumentation with the satellite's slightly diminished energy storage capacity. The Team's solution was to reconfigure and align Landsat 5's image acquisition schedule and to rely more on direct power from its solar array. Additionally, schedule changes were made to limit imaging during the winter months and to resume all routine imaging over the continental U.S. from March through September. Some concessions will also be made to limit imaging over international sites.
Restoration of Landsat 5's image data collection and data transfer capability is considered essential by many federal, state and local government and civilian land and resource agency managers in managing response to wildfires, floods, hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes and other disasters. Since its launch on March 1, 1984, Landsat 5 has provided more than 600,000 individual images, recording clear-cutting and recovery conditions of rain forests, near- and long-term effects of the Chernobyl explosion, before-and-after records of Hurricane Katrina's impact, as well as more subtle natural and human-induced changes to the global land surface. In addition to these emergency and management applications of Landsat imagery, millions of people each day use web based mapping products supported by this and other imagery data to get where they want to go.
While the design life of Landsat 5 was only 3 years, this remarkable satellite is likely to produce imagery for a few more years. Landsat 7, launched in 1999, continues to provide the global science community with worldwide seasonal images, however, it too is operating in a slightly diminished capacity.
In an effort to ensure the continuation and improvement of global and National land imaging products and services to its users beyond the life of Landsat 5 and Landsat 7, the President recently announced a new budget initiative to create the National Land Imaging Program (NLIP) in the Department of the Interior.
NLIP planning is underway and will be designed to ensure the continuing operational and research needs for moderate resolution and multispectral land imaging products and services are met and provided to federal and civilian users.
NLIP will be responsible for the deployment and operation of future U.S.-owned, civil operational land imaging satellites and ground system assets and will be directed to facilitate the development and promotion of future land imaging technologies, applications and services to support the growing number of users.
Real-time and recent U.S. images collected by Landsats 5 and 7 are available for viewing on the USGS EarthNow! website, and archive images from both satellites can be previewed and ordered at EarthExplorer or at the USGS Global Visualization Viewer.
USGS press release: http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1881
January 25, 2008 – Landsat 5 Update
The USGS is pleased to announce that Landsat 5 tested imaging with the Thematic Mapper on January 10, 2008 during a pass over Brazil and Argentina.
Landsat 5 imaging was suspended on October 6, 2007 due to a loss of a cell within one of two batteries. The Landsat Flight Operations Team has determined the status of the power system and potential solutions for maximum imaging operations. We are still in a testing phase, as the new battery configuration is being characterized. Experts in Thematic Mapper data have determined that the sensor is operating normally. We expect to return to a new operational state in upcoming weeks.
January 22, 2008 – High Volume Distribution for the Landsat Data Continuity Mission
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is requesting information from individuals and organizations with an interest in accessing and regularly acquiring large volumes of data from the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) earth science data archive. The attached request for information (RFI) is being issued in support of ongoing requirements definition activities for the LDCM ground system. User feedback from this survey will be used in defining and prioritizing potential high volume data distribution requirements and associated future system implementation efforts for the LDCM ground system.
The USGS LDCM Project welcomes your written response to the questions included in the RFI by March 1, 2008. Please send your response to the point of contact given below. Electronic responses via email are preferred.
Mr. John Dwyer January 17, 2008 – Landsat Data Policy Released
U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://landsat.usgs.gov
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Page Last Modified: November 06, 2008
