February 9-13, 2009 - Landsat Technical Working Group (LTWG#18) Meeting
This year's Landsat Technical Working Group (LTWG#18) meeting was held in Maspalomas, Spain, February 9–13, 2009.
The meeting was jointly organized by the USGS and NASA and was hosted by the European Space Agency (ESA) and Spanish Space Agency Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (INTA). Participants from 11 countries, including members of the USGS Landsat and Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) Projects, represented 14 international ground stations and discussed a wide range of technical topics.
Presentations included Landsat 5 (L5) and Landsat 7 (L7) mission statuses, which outlined recent L5 battery management improvements, the Landsat Project’s Web-enabled product distribution, the Global Land Survey 2005 and 2010 Projects, the Landsat Global Archive Consolidation initiative, and other technical items and future plans. With LDCM sensor and spacecraft development well underway, this was the primary topic of discussion. Related presentations included project and ground system status, ground system and downlink overview, data processing flow, and the Landsat Science Team. A new International Cooperator Landsat/LDCM Web portal was also introduced, as well as current and future data validation and exchange plans.
Each International Cooperator briefed the group on the technical status of their systems, provided information on the status of their new L5 Thematic Mapper Calibration Parameter File and Landsat Metadata Description Document metadata and browse implementations, and addressed the future satellite mission and ground system plans of their agencies.
Australia briefed the attendees on a recent reorganization and on the creation of their new National Earth Observation Group. The Japanese delegation presented data distribution status for the Advanced Land Observation Satellite (ALOS) and its associated data node infrastructure. The German delegation presented information about several recent and future programs, including TerraSAR-X, TanDEM-X, EnMap, and RapidEye. The Brazilian delegation presented the status of the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS) programs and a compelling briefing on the Satellite Monitoring of the Brazilian Amazon (PRODES and DETER Projects). ESA briefed the group on many programs in progress, including the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) and their multi-mission architecture. The China Centre of Earth Observation and Digital Earth (CEODE) presented information about their new building planned for 2010 and extended an invitation to all participants for their 6th International Symposium on Digital Earth (September 9–12, 2009, in Beijing). Finally, the Thailand delegation capped the meeting with an interesting presentation on their recent and successful launch of the Thailand Earth Observation System (THEOS).
