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).
