Eyes on Earth Episode 131 – Using AI in Geospatial Work
Artificial intelligence (AI) is helping to make EROS data products better and more efficient.

Summary: Eyes on Earth tackles artificial intelligence (AI) in a 2-part episode. AI is quickly becoming a necessary part of geospatial work at EROS, helping us efficiently do science to better manage our world. In Part 1, EROS Director Pete Doucette discusses AI and its current and upcoming impact on our work at EROS. To help clarify AI terminology such as machine learning, deep learning, neural networks, transformers, and foundation models, we also talk to scientists who are using AI. And we learn about how AI enabled the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) to become an annual product.
Part 2 will discuss one more potential application of AI—keeping Landsat satellites safe and healthy in orbit. We also have all of our guests comment on AI’s challenges and benefits.
Guests:
Pete Doucette, USGS EROS
Terry Sohl, USGS EROS
Neal Pastick, USGS EROS
Rylie Fleckenstein, contractor for USGS EROS
Host: Tom Adamson, contractor for USGS EROS
Producer: Tom Adamson, contractor for USGS EROS
Release date: Monday, March 3, 2025
Download and Transcript Access
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In this episode of Eyes on Earth, we talk about the latest release of the National Land Cover Database (NLCD). More than just a map, NLCD is a stack of maps—a database. It has long been the foundational land cover source for scientists, resource managers, and decision-makers across the United States, and now the next generation of USGS land cover mapping is here. This new release includes land...
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Artificial intelligence (AI) is helping to make EROS data products better and more efficient.

Summary: Eyes on Earth tackles artificial intelligence (AI) in a 2-part episode. AI is quickly becoming a necessary part of geospatial work at EROS, helping us efficiently do science to better manage our world. In Part 1, EROS Director Pete Doucette discusses AI and its current and upcoming impact on our work at EROS. To help clarify AI terminology such as machine learning, deep learning, neural networks, transformers, and foundation models, we also talk to scientists who are using AI. And we learn about how AI enabled the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) to become an annual product.
Part 2 will discuss one more potential application of AI—keeping Landsat satellites safe and healthy in orbit. We also have all of our guests comment on AI’s challenges and benefits.
Guests:
Pete Doucette, USGS EROS
Terry Sohl, USGS EROS
Neal Pastick, USGS EROS
Rylie Fleckenstein, contractor for USGS EROS
Host: Tom Adamson, contractor for USGS EROS
Producer: Tom Adamson, contractor for USGS EROS
Release date: Monday, March 3, 2025
Download and Transcript Access
Related Episodes
-
-
Eyes on Earth Episode 126 – Annual NLCD
In this episode of Eyes on Earth, we talk about the latest release of the National Land Cover Database (NLCD). More than just a map, NLCD is a stack of maps—a database. It has long been the foundational land cover source for scientists, resource managers, and decision-makers across the United States, and now the next generation of USGS land cover mapping is here. This new release includes land...
-
Eyes on Earth Episode 120 – Mapping the California Coastline
In this episode of Eyes on Earth, we begin a series on Landsat’s usefulness in coastal studies. First, we talk with Sean Vitousek, a USGS research oceanographer, about changes to beaches in California and how he is using Landsat and other data to create models that can predict how the coastline may change in the future because of sea level rise and coastal erosion. Landsat’s global reach stretches...
-
Eyes on Earth Episode 113 – EROS Science Leader’s Vision
Terry Sohl helped develop the National Land Cover Database, NLCD, when he first arrived, and now he’s overseeing significant improvements to the widely used product. But that’s just one part of his new role. In this episode of Eyes on Earth, Sohl provides an overview of the science efforts at EROS and how artificial intelligence and machine learning help scientists focus more on the work that...
-
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EROS Center Director Pete Doucette has been at EROS for a fairly short stretch of the center’s 50-year history, but his passion for the mission of EROS and its opportunities in the future are clear in this episode of Eyes on Earth. He shares the historic event he would have enjoyed being part of in the past, and he gives insights about remote sensing work at EROS going forward.
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