USGS Land Remote Sensing Program Update - JACIE Tim Newman USGS
Land Remote Sensing Program Coordinator 5 May 2015 U.S. Department
of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey Tom Cecere USGS Land Remote
Sensing Program International Liaison
Slide 3
USGS Land Remote Sensing Program Collects, interprets, and
provides the Nation with information from satellite and airborne
instruments Supports improved water resource management,
agriculture, forest monitoring, urban planning, and disaster
recovery worldwide Contributes to the scientific communitys
understanding of the impacts of, and feedbacks between, land use
change and climate change Provides a comprehensive, permanent, and
impartial record of the planets land surface through the National
Satellite Land Remote Sensing Data Archive Provides Federal civil
agencies access to commercial and national Earth observing assets,
and supports the development of products derived from these
information sources
Slide 4
Landsat 8 Image Resolution Bands 4,3,2, & 8 Landsat 8 Image
taken 11.18.2014 Landsat 8 scene size is
185-km-cross-track-by-180-km-along-track. 3
Slide 5
03-09-2015 LAG 4 Landsat Operational Satellite Status Landsat 8
Collecting approximately 725 new scenes per day; supports 8-day
revisit cycle An anomaly in the electronics associated with the
Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) has been under investigation while
normal optical imaging operations continued with the Operational
Land imager (OLI) Thermal imaging was recently suspended while the
Flight Operations Team switched over to redundant circuitry; normal
thermal imaging will resume following recalibration of TIRS Landsat
7 Collecting about 475 new scenes per day; about 22% of pixels
missing per scene (faulty scan-line corrector) L7 collection
strategy modified to concentrate on continental coverage; L8
capturing islands and reefs Sufficient fuel for a few more years of
operation; limited subsystem redundancy
Slide 6
03-09-2015 LAG 5 Landsat 8 TIRS Update April 16, 2015 Landsat 8
Thermal Data Reprocessing Update On March 6, 2015 we reported that
the Landsat 8 Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) resumed normal imaging
operations, and outlined plans for reprocessing data acquired since
December 19, 2014, when problems occurred in the A-side electronics
of the sensor. Provisional TIRS data acquired since March 13, 2015
were expected to require reprocessing to refine the absolute
calibration; however, based on a small number of vicarious
measurements, it has been determined that these data will not need
to be reprocessed for now since the radiometry appears to be
consistent with the previous A-side data. The calibration will be
monitored and updated in the future if needed.
Slide 7
Landsat Science Team Feb 2015 Landsat 8 Spacecraft Status 6
Operational Land Imager Thermal Infrared Sensor 10/1/2014 - Side-A
SSM Encoder Propulsion Subsystem Thermal Control System Electrical
Power System Attitude Control System RF Communicatio ns Command
& Data Handling System X-band System S-band System Batteries
Solid State Recorder Solar array 2 years of on-orbit
operations
Slide 8
Landsat Science Team Feb 2015 Attitude Control System X-band
System S-band System Performance nominal Enhanced Thematic Mapper +
Batteries Performance nominal Solid State Recorder Reaction Control
System 1/07/04 Fuel line #4 thermostat #1a failure 2/24/05 Fuel
line #4 thermostat failure; Primary heater circuit disabled 4/25/13
Fuel line #2 thermostat failure; Redundant heater circuit disabled
Solar Array 5/14/2002 Circuit #14 Failure 5/16/2005 Circuit # 6
Failure 8/13/2008 Circuit #14 partial recovery 14 circuits remain
operating no impact to ops 11/15/1999 SSR PWA #23 Loss 02/11/2001
SSR PWA #12 Loss 12/07/2005 SSR PWA #02 Loss 08/02/2006 SSR PWA #13
Loss 03/28/2008 SSR PWA #22 Loss 09/03/2008 SSR PWA #23 Recovered
10/12/2013 SSR PWA #11 Loss Each PWA is 4% loss of launch capacity
Boards are likely recoverable Performance nominal 05/05/2004 Gyro 3
Shut Off 1-gyro control system in development 16 years of on-orbit
operations 5/31/2003 SLC Failure 4/01/2007 Bumper mode Remote Tlm
Cmd (RTC) Box 09/27/2014 RTC A Failover Power Subsystem Power
Control Unit 10/18/2014 BVR failover Landsat 7 Spacecraft
Status
Slide 9
03-09-2015 LAG 8 Landsat-based Information Products -- Status
Standard orthorectified L1T calibrated radiance Landsat scenes (10M
in 2014 alone) LandsatLook (full-resolution JPEGs browse/print
images) TM/ETM+ surface reflectance Climate Data Record product
released in EE May 2013 Global 30m Land Cover Forest Gain/Loss
product available through Google Earth Engine Landsat 8 OLI
provisional surface reflectance product released December 2014
Coming soon: Burned Area Extent ECV available in provisional status
Dynamic Surface Water Extent ECV available in provisional status
Global 30m Land Cover Percent Tree Cover 2010 and validation data
available for evaluation via USGS Visualization tool Landsat
TM/ETM+ provisional surface temperature scheduled for June 2015
Further out: Fractional Snow Covered Area ECV available in
provisional status Q4 FY15 Biomass ECV in early stages of
development (modeling and estimation)
Slide 10
Landsat Data Uses 9
Slide 11
Requirements Capabilities & Analysis for Earth Observations
(RCA-EO) FY 2013, USGS initiated the National Land Imaging
Requirements (NLIR) Project from Commercial Remote Sensing Space
Policy (CRSSP) and the OSTP/USGS Future of Land Imaging efforts FY
2014, USGS Land Remote Sensing Program changed effort to
Requirements Capabilities and Analysis for Earth Observations
(RCA-EO) Project http://remotesensing.usgs.gov/rca-eo/ Partnership
between USGS and NOAA for developing next generation system to
obtain, characterize, manage, maintain, and assess civil Earth
Observation (EO) requirements and capabilities user Leveraging
NOAAs past 10 years of experience Enables unprecedented view of
User Requirements and matching Earth Observing Capabilities
Provides Integrated approach allows user, data-driven decision
making for EO programs to inform future systems, products, and
services Supporting the Executive Office of the Presidents (EOP)
Earth Observations Assessments (EOAs), defined by the National
Strategy for Earth Observations
Slide 12
11 September 24, 2014Pre-Decisional, For Official Use Only SLI
in FY16 Presidents Budget Submit SLI is the joint NASA/USGS
Sustainable Land Imaging program The 3+1 part program, with the
essential investments in technology and observational innovation to
ensure a world class, sustainable, and responsible land imaging
program through 2035: 1.Class D Thermal Infrared Free Flyer
(TIR-FF) to launch ASAP (estimated NLT 2019) and to fly in
constellation with a reflective band imager Low cost mitigation
against an early loss of the Landsat 8 Class C TIRS, while
demonstrating feasibility of constellation flying 2.Landsat 9
(fully Class-B rebuild of Landsat 8) to launch NLT 2023 Low
programmatic risk implementation of a proven system with upgrades
to bring the whole system to Class B 3.Land Imaging Technology and
Systems Innovation (e.g., ACMS, hyperspectral) Conducts hardware,
operations and data management/processing investments to reduce
risk in next generation missions. 4.Landsat 10, Class B full
spectrum, launch in 2030 Mission definition to be informed by the
Technology investments in 2015 2018, leading to a key decision
point around 2019
Slide 13
Current U.S. Agenda for Landsat The FY2016 Presidents Budget
proposed a Sustainable Land Imaging Program to be implemented
through 2035 o Class D Thermal Infrared Free Flyer (TIR-FF) launch
in 2019 o Landsat 9 (Class B upgraded rebuild of Landsat 8) launch
in 2023 o Concurrent Land Imaging Technology and Systems Innovation
for future missions o Landsat 10 innovative mission
configuration/architecture to be defined by 2020 Congressional
support TBD 12
Slide 14
USGS and NASA Missions & Functions USGS Land Remote Sensing
(LRS) Program o Sustainable Land Imaging Program Management o
Landsat Operations Program Management o Civil Land Earth
Observation Requirements, Capabilities & Analysis o Others:
Civil Applications Committee, Science Investigations, International
Relations USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS)
Center o Landsat Flight and Ground System Operations o National
Satellite Land Remote Sensing Data Archive o Landsat 9 Ground
Systems Development o Land Processes Distributed Active Archive
Center o Landsat Science Team Management NASA Earth Science
Division o NASA Sustainable Land Imaging Program Management o
Landsat Satellite Systems Development NASA Goddard Space Flight
Center (GSFC) o Landsat 9 Project Office, Space & Launch
Segment Development, Mission Integration Lead 13
Slide 15
Other Remote Sensing Data Sets in USGS EROS Archive 14 More
than 300 Data Sets (10 petabytes) are available online through the
USGS Earth Explorer website, most of them funded by the LRS Program
http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/ Aerial Images 7.5M Dating from 1937
Landsat Images 5.2M Dating from 1972 Commercial Satellite Images
1.5M Dating from 1986: SPOT, Digital Globe, GeoEye, etc. Other
Satellite Data: SRTM, MODIS, ASTER, AVHRR, Declassified systems,
etc.
Slide 16
Sentinel-2 (S2) S2 data will be an important element in any
future US land imaging architecture. The USGS has been working with
ESA over the past several years to increase mutual understanding of
Landsat and S2 systems, products and concepts of operations. Goal
is to enable maximum exploitation of the upcoming S2 dataset to
satisfy US Landsat users. S2 data can be used to augment the
Landsat data record; reduce the effective Landsat revisit. A
detailed analysis of S2 system specifications and on-orbit data
quality is needed to determine the relative compatibility S2 offers
the Landsat community in terms of usability for applications.
Slide 17
16 Sentinel 2 Activities (FY14) In FY14, investigated the
technical feasibility of acquiring and distributing Sentinel 2 data
which resulted in: Tier 1 - The minimum requirement to be met to
ensure that users can discover, access, and retrieve the Sentinel-2
(S2) data. Tier 2 - An intermediate requirement which would result
in improved usability within the Landsat community Reformatting
data to be more consistent with Landsat Level 1 products.
Conversion of S2 data into Landsat metadata model and pixel
alignment for comparisons to be distributed in addition to the
original information. Resample the Level-1C data to a 30m common
grid and tiling scheme (Landsat-like) for distribution as an
on-demand Landsat-like product Tier 3 - This is a separate and
parallel scenario to Tier 2 to render the data interoperable with
Landsat and make the data as seamlessly similar as possible to
Landsat data for the user. Requires access to Sentinel-2 Level 1B
data which is not likely at this time so this option was not
pursued in detail.
Slide 18
17 Sentinel 2 Activities (FY15) In FY15 the intent is to
implement Tier 1 Initial operations capacity by August 1, 2015
Limited storage capacity which can be augmented in FY16 Develop and
test the network route from the European Hub to EROS. Initial
operational capacity will include pulling of the L1C data, ingest
and archiving of the data, full resolution browse creation as well
as search, discovery and delivery of the data with Landsat within
Earth Explorer and GloVis Viewers Tier 2 Activities - Although not
anticipated for implementation until FY16, investigation will be
conducted to assure this can be implemented quickly in FY16.
Geodetic Accuracy Assessment and Data Quality Analyses Conduct
limited radiometric characterization and we can perform some
geodetic accuracy assessment to independently verify the accuracy
of the Level-1C precision and terrain correction.
Slide 19
Long-term Perspective on National Land Imaging Needs U.S. and
international scientists, land and natural resource managers, and
geospatial product developers benefit from the very high-quality
Multispectral and Thermal Infrared data and imagery that Landsat
provides Highly standardized, global data collection (over 30
million km 2 per day) Highest-quality civil multispectral/thermal
infrared geospatial system on-orbit today Highest-quality civil
geo-rectified and co-registered data products on Earth Enduring
land change data set, now and in the future Backbone global and
regional image representation of the Earth 18
Slide 20
03-09-2015 LAG 19 Water quality Drought monitoring A robust
capability that uses daily Landsat observations to detect landscape
change as it is occurring A transformative Landsat science data
archive that is analysis ready and capable of supporting near
real-time science and applications Scientific and geographic
evidence of the value of high frequency land change monitoring for
improving the understanding of change dynamics Target all US land
area by Pecora Conference 2017 Land Change Monitoring, Assessment,
and Projection (LCMAP) Channel dynamics Energy development
Pollinator landscapes landscapes Wet / dry cycles
Slide 21
Crop field Date Landsat Band 5 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994
1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 Year fire occurred
Post-fire recovery Longer-term recovery Pre-fire
Slide 22
Recent studies: Landsat User Requirements Each Landsat
satellite passes over the same spot on the Earth every 16 days Two
Landsat satellites in staggered orbits achieve 8-day revisit
coverage for any location USGS/NASA Landsat Applications Survey of
33 Landsat information products (2012) 2/3 of the Landsat products
require 8-day or better revisit 3/4 require simultaneous
visible/near-infrared/shortwave infrared (V/NIR/SWIR) data 1/3
require thermal infrared (TIR) data in combination with either
V/NIR or SWIR bands OSTP-led National Plan for Civil Earth
Observations (2014), Assessment (2012) Assessment of 362 Earth
observing systems contributions to 13 societal benefit areas Among
132 satellite systems, Landsat ranks second-highest in impact,
behind only GPS (#1 for contributions in Biodiversity, Ecosystems,
and Energy; #2 in Ag/Forestry, Climate, Human Health, Water)
National Research Council/Space Studies Board report, Landsat and
Beyond: Sustaining and Enhancing the Nations Land Imaging Program
(2013) Coverage/repeat cycle requirement: Ability to acquire and
make available imagery anywhere on Earth, except perhaps for areas
very the near poles, at approximately weekly frequency. USGS
National Land Imaging Requirements Moderate-Resolution Pilot
Project (2014) Formalized process also used for OSTPs Assessment
and for NOAA Elicited requirements for 11 application areas across
12 Federal agencies Confirmed 60% of requirements collected require
8-day or more frequent revisit 21
Slide 23
LRS Program Affiliations AmericaView A USGS-funded nationwide
partnership of scientists and educators who support the use of
Landsat and other public-domain remotely sensed satellite data for
40 participating StateViews Committee on Earth Observation
Satellites (CEOS) Promotes international coordination of civil
space-based Earth observation programs and encourages exchange of
data to optimize societal benefits International Charter Space and
Major Disasters Combines satellite assets of various national and
private space agencies to provide data acquisition and delivery for
those affected by natural or man-made disasters US Group on Earth
Observations (USGEO) Operates to lead federal efforts to achieve a
national Integrated Earth Observation System.
Slide 24
USGS in CEOS Focal point for international space-based EO
satellite coordination and GEO support Mission planning, gap
analysis and mitigation Systems engineering analyses Compatible
data products, services, and policies Capacity building in access
to and use of space- based EO data/information LRSP Coordinator Tim
Newman serves as USGS Principal on CEOS EROS staff members support
numerous CEOS working groups, virtual land-surface imaging
constellation, etc. USGS is also participating on Carbon and Water
study teams