1. USGS Land Remote Sensing Program Update - JACIE
Tim Newman
USGS Land Remote Sensing
Program Coordinator
5 May 2015
Tom Cecere
USGS Land Remote Sensing Program
International Liaison
U.S. Department of the Interior
U.S. Geological Survey

2. 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 community’s understanding of the impacts of, and feedbacks between, land use change and climate change
Provides a comprehensive, permanent, and impartial record of the planet’s 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

3. Landsat 8 Image Resolution
Bands 4,3,2, & 8
Landsat 8 Image taken
Landsat 8 scene size is 185-km-cross-track-by-180-km-along-track.

4. Landsat Operational Satellite Status
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

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.

6. Landsat 8 Spacecraft Status
≈ 2 years of on-orbit operations
Operational Land Imager
RF Communications
Thermal Control System
S-band System
Propulsion Subsystem
Attitude Control System
Electrical Power System
Batteries
Solar array
Thermal Infrared Sensor
10/1/ Side-A SSM Encoder
X-band System
Command & Data Handling System
Solid State Recorder

7. Landsat 7 Spacecraft Status
Power Subsystem
≈ 16 years of on-orbit operations
Batteries
Solar Array
Performance nominal
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
Attitude Control System
Power Control Unit
•05/05/2004 Gyro 3 Shut Off
•1-gyro control system in development
10/18/2014 BVR failover
Enhanced Thematic Mapper +
•5/31/2003 SLC Failure
•4/01/2007 Bumper mode
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
Remote Tlm Cmd (RTC) Box
•09/27/2014 RTC A Failover
Solid State Recorder
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
X-band System
S-band System
Performance nominal
Performance nominal

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)

9. Landsat Data Uses

10. 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
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 NOAA’s 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 President’s (EOP) Earth Observations Assessments (EOAs), defined by the National Strategy for Earth Observations

11. SLI in FY16 President’s 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:
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
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
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.
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

12. Current U.S. Agenda for Landsat
The FY2016 President’s Budget proposed a Sustainable Land Imaging Program to be implemented through 2035
Class D Thermal Infrared Free Flyer (TIR-FF) launch in 2019
Landsat 9 (Class B upgraded rebuild of Landsat 8) launch in 2023
Concurrent Land Imaging Technology and Systems Innovation for future missions
Landsat 10 “innovative mission configuration/architecture” to be defined by 2020
Congressional support TBD

13. USGS and NASA Missions & Functions
USGS Land Remote Sensing (LRS) Program
Sustainable Land Imaging Program Management
Landsat Operations Program Management
Civil Land Earth Observation Requirements, Capabilities & Analysis
Others: Civil Applications Committee, Science Investigations, International Relations
USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center
Landsat Flight and Ground System Operations
National Satellite Land Remote Sensing Data Archive
Landsat 9 Ground Systems Development
Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center
Landsat Science Team Management
NASA Earth Science Division
NASA Sustainable Land Imaging Program Management
Landsat Satellite Systems Development
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
Landsat 9 Project Office, Space & Launch Segment Development, Mission Integration Lead

14. Other Remote Sensing Data Sets in USGS EROS Archive
More than 300 Data Sets (10 petabytes) are available online through the USGS Earth Explorer website, most of them funded by the LRS Program
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.

15. 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.

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.

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.  

18. 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 km2 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

19. Land Change Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection (LCMAP)
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
Pollinator
landscapes
Energy development
Water quality
Drought monitoring
Wet / dry cycles
Channel dynamics

20. Pre-fire Crop field Year fire occurred Post-fire recovery
Longer-term recovery
Landsat Band 5
Reflectance (scale factor )
Date

21. 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 Nation’s 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 OSTP’s 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

22. 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.

23. 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