The 1996-2001 Landsat Science Team took on the responsibility to conduct basic research, develop new and innovative methods for using Landsat observations for global change studies, and to evaluate the quality of data acquired by Landsat and other land-surface imaging missions prior to the launch of Landsat 7.
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In September 1995, the NASA Office of Mission to Planet Earth issued an announcement (NRA-95-MTPE-03) soliciting research and education proposals, with a goal to select those that involved improving the understanding of the Earth as a coupled and integrated system, how it responds to natural and human-induced perturbations, and how this response manifests itself as global changes. There was a specific focus on proposals that addressed Landsat continuity and the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) onboard Landsat 7.
More than 300 proposals were received and evaluated by scientific peers. NASA selected 14 Landsat proposals that collectively provided the strongest research needed to accomplish NASA’s mission objectives. Those selected became the Landsat Science Team and took on the responsibility to conduct basic research, develop new and innovative methods for using Landsat observations for global change studies, and to evaluate the quality of data acquired by Landsat and other land-surface imaging missions sponsored by other U.S. Government agencies and private industry in order to assess alternatives in addressing the Landsat continuity requirement.
The 1996-2001 Landsat Science Team members and their focus areas included:
Robert Bindschadler, Goddard Space Flight Center: Enhanced Antarctic Research with Landsat: Ice-sheet Dynamics, History, and Cartography
Robert Cahalan, Goddard Space Flight Center: Clear Sky and Cloud: Characterization and Correction for Landsat
Kendall Carder, University of South Florida: Bottom-Assessment and Water-Constituent Algorithms for the ETM in the Coastal Zone
Luke Flynn, University of Hawaii, Manoa: Analysis of Volcanic Eruptions and Fires Using Landsat 7
Alexander Goetz, University of Colorado, Boulder: Land and Land-Use Change in the Climate Sensitive High Plains: An Automated Approach with Landsat
Samuel Goward, University of Maryland: Terrestrial Monitoring at High Spatial Resolution: The Role of Landsat-type Sensors in Mission to Planet Earth
Susan Moran, U.S. Department of Agriculture: LANDSAT TM and ETM+ Data for Resource Monitoring and Management
Frank Palluconi, Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Landsat 7: Calibration and Atmospheric Correction for Thermal Band 6
John Price, U.S. Department of Agriculture: Surface Classification for MODIS, Radiometric Calibration and Project Support
John Schott, Rochester Institute of Technology: Absolute Calibration, Atmospheric Correction and Application of LANDSAT ETM+ Thermal Infrared Data
David Skole, University of New Hampshire: Acquisition and Analysis of Large Quantities of Landsat 7 Data for Measuring Tropical Land Cover Change
Kurtis Thome, University of Arizona: Absolute Radiometric Calibration and Atmospheric Correction of Landsat-7 Thematic Mapper
James Vogelmann, U.S. Geological Survey: Characterization of Landsat 7 Geometry and Radiometry for Land Cover Analysis
Curtis Woodcock, Boston University: Monitoring Changes in Temperate Coniferous Forest Ecosystems
Although the members’ terms had ended in 2001, the USGS requested members to contribute to the analysis of the Scan-Line Corrector failure on ETM+ that occurred in May 2003. Background, analyses, and a summary of thise work was published in this July 2003 report: Preliminary Assessment of the Value of Landsat 7 ETM+ Data Following Scan-Line Correction Malfunction .