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Requirements Capabilities & Analysis for Earth Observations

The USGS National Land Imaging Program evaluates satellite capabilities to determine effective solutions for addressing civil agency and societal challenges, allowing land managers and policymakers to make informed decisions about natural resources and the environment. A user-centered, solution-driven approach creates a robust suite of innovative earth observation technology, data, and services.

Meetings and Workshops

 

Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation (JACIE) Workshops

Annual JACIE Workshops are sponsored by government agencies and allow remote sensing experts to discuss system capabilities, calibration, and the impacts of data quality on various applications. The JACIE 2024 Workshop was held on March 11-14, 2024 at the USGS Headquarters in Reston, Virginia. 

The JACIE 2025 Workshop will be held April 7 - 11, 2025. 

 

High Resolution Orthoimagery Hoover Dam 2006

 

Imagery Quality Assessment

We assess the quality of commercial high-resolution satellite imagery and provide the results in a series of system characterization reports. 

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Landsat Dynamic Surface Water Extent Example

 

Explore Landsat Science Products 

Landsat science products provide analysis ready data, including surface reflectance, surface temperature, aquatic reflectance, dynamic surface water extent, fractional snow covered area, burned area, and provisional actual evapotranspiration. 

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Landsat 9 Image of Shiveluch Volcano April 15, 2023

 

Look for Data 

Landsat and other land imaging products are available from multiple data portals, including EarthExplorer, commercial cloud access, and the EROS Science Processing Architecture On Demand Interface (ESPA), which supports higher-level data processing requests. 

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News

USGS-hosted JACIE Workshop Reflects Industry’s Growth

USGS-hosted JACIE Workshop Reflects Industry’s Growth

2024 William T. Pecora Award Nominations Now Being Accepted

2024 William T. Pecora Award Nominations Now Being Accepted

GOES-16 ABI Added to Land Product Characterization System

GOES-16 ABI Added to Land Product Characterization System

Publications

Earth observation remote sensing tools—Assessing systems, trends, and characteristics

With the ever-increasing number of civil and commercial remote-sensing satellite launches in recent years, the Earth Observation community needs to better understand the quality of new data products as they become available for scientific research purposes.
Authors
Simon J. Cantrell, Jeff Clauson, Cody Anderson

Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation (JACIE)

The Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation (JACIE) was formed to leverage resources from several Federal agencies for the characterization of remote sensing data and to share those results across the remote sensing community (U.S. Geological Survey, 2024).Remote sensing data and the quality of that data are vital to (1) understanding the physical world and (2) supporting the science and engine
Authors
Jeff Clauson, Cody Anderson, Jim Vrabel

System characterization report on the Gaofen-6

Executive SummaryGaofen-6 represents a series of Chinese high-resolution Earth observation satellites. More than 12 satellites have been launched in the Gaofen series, beginning with Gaofen-1 in 2013. Satellites within the series have varying infrared, radar, and optical imaging capabilities. The primary goal for the satellites in this series is to provide near real-time observations for climate c
Authors
Aparajithan Sampath, Jon Christopherson, Seonkyung Park, Minsu Kim, Gregory L. Stensaas, Cody Anderson
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