National Land Imaging Program
Publications
2020 Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation—Remote sensing satellite compendium
The Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation (JACIE) is a collaboration between five Federal agencies that are major users and producers of satellite land remote sensing data. In recent years, the JACIE group has observed ever-increasing numbers of remote sensing satellites being launched. This rapidly growing wave of new systems creates a need...
Ramaseri Chandra, Shankar N.; Christopherson, Jon B.; Casey, Kimberly A.
Economic valuation of landsat imagery
Landsat satellites have been operating since 1972, providing a continuous global record of the Earth’s land surface. The imagery is currently available at no cost through the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). A previous USGS study estimated that Landsat imagery provided users an annual benefit of $2.19 billion in 2011, with U.S. users accounting for...
Straub, Crista L.; Koontz, Stephen R.; Loomis, John B.
User needs for future Landsat missions
Landsat satellites have been operating since 1972, providing the longest continuous observation record of the Earth’s land surface. Over the past half century, the Landsat user community has grown exponentially, encompassing more diverse and evolving scientific research and operational uses. Understanding current and future user needs is crucial...
Wu, Zhuoting; Snyder, Gregory; Vadnais, Carolyn M.; Arora, Rohit; Babcock, Michael; Stensaas, Gregory L.; Doucette, Peter; Newman, Timothy
Landsat 9
Landsat 9 is a partnership between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) that will continue the Landsat program’s critical role of repeat global observations for monitoring, understanding, and managing Earth’s natural resources. Since 1972, Landsat data have provided a unique resource for...
Landsat: The cornerstone of global land imaging
Since 1972, the joint NASA/ U.S. Geological Survey Landsat series of Earth Observation satellites have provided an uninterrupted space-based data record of the Earth’s land surface to help advance scientific research towards the understanding of our planet and the environmental impact of its inhabitants. Early Landsat satellites offered a wealth...
Butcher, Ginger; Barnes, Christopher; Owen, Linda Analysis Ready Data: Enabling analysis of the Landsat archive
Data that have been processed to allow analysis with a minimum of additional user effort are often referred to as Analysis Ready Data (ARD). The ability to perform large scale Landsat analysis relies on the ability to access observations that are geometrically and radiometrically consistent, and have had non-target features (clouds) and poor...
Dwyer, John L.; Roy, David P.; Sauer, Brian; Jenkerson, Calli B.; Zhang, Hankui K.; Lymburner, Leo Effects of contemporary land-use and land-cover change on the carbon balance of terrestrial ecosystems in the United States
Changes in land use and land cover (LULC) can have profound effects on terrestrial carbon dynamics, yet their effects on the global carbon budget remain uncertain. While land change impacts on ecosystem carbon dynamics have been the focus of numerous studies, few efforts have been based on observational data incorporating multiple ecosystem types...
Sleeter, Benjamin M.; Liu, Jinxun; Daniel, Colin; Rayfield, Bronwyn; Sherba, Jason T.; Hawbaker, Todd J.; Zhu, Zhiliang; Selmants, Paul; Loveland, Thomas R. Landsat-8: Status and on-orbit performance
Landsat 8 and its two Earth imaging sensors, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) have been operating on-orbit for 2 ½ years. Landsat 8 has been acquiring substantially more images than initially planned, typically around 700 scenes per day versus a 400 scenes per day requirement, acquiring nearly all land scenes....
Markham, Brian L.; Barsi, Julia A.; Morfitt, Ron; Choate, Michael J.; Montanaro, Matthew; Arvidson, Terry; Irons, James R.
Landsat surface reflectance data
Landsat satellite data have been produced, archived, and distributed by the U.S. Geological Survey since 1972. Users rely on these data for historical study of land surface change and require consistent radiometric data processed to the highest science standards. In support of the guidelines established through the Global Climate Observing System...
Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) radiometric performance on-orbit
Expectations of the Operational Land Imager (OLI) radiometric performance onboard Landsat-8 have been met or exceeded. The calibration activities that occurred prior to launch provided calibration parameters that enabled ground processing to produce imagery that met most requirements when data were transmitted to the ground. Since launch,...
Morfitt, Ron; Barsi, Julia A.; Levy, Raviv; Markham, Brian L.; Micijevic, Esad; Ong, Lawrence; Scaramuzza, Pat; Vanderwerff, Kelly Validation of geometric accuracy of Global Land Survey (GLS) 2000 data
The Global Land Survey (GLS) 2000 data were generated from Geocover™ 2000 data with the aim of producing a global data set of accuracy better than 25 m Root Mean Square Error (RMSE). An assessment and validation of accuracy of GLS 2000 data set, and its co-registration with Geocover™ 2000 data set is presented here. Since the availability of...
Rengarajan, Rajagopalan; Sampath, Aparajithan; Storey, James C.; Choate, Michael J. Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) activities at the Department of the Interior
The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) is responsible for protecting and managing the natural resources and heritage on almost 20% of the land in the United States. The DOI’s mission requires access to remotely sensed data over vast lands, including areas that are remote and potentially dangerous to access. Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS...
Quirk, Bruce K.; Hutt, Michael E.