[geology] remote sensing of environment - ikonos special issue [geologos]

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Preface

A new direction in Earth observations from space: IKONOS

As guest editors, we are pleased to present this special

issue of Remote Sensing of Environment, dedicated to the

characterization and scientific applications of Space Imag-

ing IKONOS data. In recent years, U.S. federal agencies

have more aggressively explored using commercial sources

of remote sensing data to meet their science and applications

needs. This special issue documents progress achieved

during the last 5 years in working with one commercial

vendor, Space Imaging, and its IKONOS land imaging

satellite.

The Space Imaging IKONOS system represents a signif-

icant technical advancement in space-acquired land obser-

vation. Upon its successful launch in 1999, the system

provided the finest spatial resolution publicly available from

space1-m panchromatic and 4-m multispectral (blue,

green, red, and near-infrared)with high radiometric fidel-

ity and impressive geometric accuracy (Dial, Bowen, Ger-

lach, Grodecki, & Oleszczuk, 2003). This system provided a

major new complement to the multiscale observations

provided by systems, such as Landsat, ASTER, SPOT,

AVHRR, and MODIS.The governments purchase of IKONOS imagery pre-

sented a new management and fiscal model for supplying

satellite remote sensing imagery to the user community.

Until quite recently, most satellite-based Earth observations

have been acquired by government-developed and -funded

systems. Space Imagings IKONOS, and more recently

DigitalGlobes QuickBird, have offered a new model for

acquiring Earth observations, where private companies

raised the financial capital required to develop and operate

a remote sensing satellite. Rather than the U.S. government

building and operating such systems, federal agencies can

simply purchase imagery and products from the commercial

sector as needed(Birk et al., 2003). The successful use of

IKONOS imagery in science- and defense-related applica-

tions is a testament to the level of cooperation and collab-

oration that has developed between the government and

Space Imaging. The experiences gained through this rela-

tionship should serve as an example for other current and

future government data purchase programs.

This special issue explores the successes and possible

shortcomings of one source of commercial imagery, and

addresses some of the skepticism regarding the U.S. private

sectors ability to acquire the level of science and applica-

tions measurements that have historically been supplied by

the government. The technical performance of IKONOS has

proven to be exceptional, while independent characteriza-

tions have provided further confidence in IKONOS product

quality (Goward, Davis, Fleming, Miller, & Townshend,

2003; Helder, Coan, Patrick, & Gaska, 2003; Pagnutti et al.,

2003; Ryan et al., 2003).

This publication is a result of cooperation between

several U.S. government agencies, Space Imaging, and the

international Earth science community. Through a Joint

Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation (JACIE) team,

the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

(NASA), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and the

National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) have

performed thorough and independent characterizations of

IKONOS radiometric accuracy, image quality, and geo-

positional accuracy (Zanoni et al., 2003). The results of

these efforts are published for the first time in this issue.

Several examples of IKONOS imagerys extensive use in

Earth science research are also presented here(Andrefouet

et al., 2003; Goetz, Wright, Smith, Zinecker, & Schaub,

2003; Hurtt et al., 2003; Masuoka et al., 2003; Morisette etal., 2003; Sawaya, Olmanson, Heinert, Brezonik, & Bauer,

2003; Seelan, Laguette, Casady, & Seielstad, 2003; Small,

2003). These results clearly show that confidence in this

commercial approach requires substantial interaction over

extended periods of time between the users and the data

providers(Goward et al., 2003),not unlike experiences with

the traditional government approach. The role of the gov-

ernment agencies as brokers in this process is vital to the

successful use of commercial remote sensing measurement

sources.

As guest editors, we are pleased to present the following

manuscripts encompassing technical and scientific aspects

of IKONOS for Earth observation. We thank the many

authors and co-authors for their research and documenta-

tion, for their willingness to participate in this endeavor, and

for their patience in bringing this issue to fruition. We also

thank the many anonymous peer reviewers who donated

their time to ensuring the technical quality of each manu-

script. Special thanks also go to Ms. Laura Pair, Ms. Marcia

Wise, and Ms. Kim Levens of Stennis Space Center for their

hard work and administrative support to this publication.

We hope that you find this special issue informative and

that the articles provide a valuable stimulus and a reference

for future research.

0034-4257/$ - see front matterD 2003 Published by Elsevier Inc.

doi:10.1016/j.rse.2003.08.011

www.elsevier.com/locate/rse

Remote Sensing of Environment 88 (2003) 1 2


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W. H., Zubia, M., Brock, J. C., Phinn, S. R., Naseer, A., Hatcher, B.

G., & Muller-Karger, F. E. (2003). Multi-sites evaluation of IKONOS

data for classification of tropical coral reef environments. Remote

Sensing of Environment, 88, 127142. (this issue).Birk, R. J., Stanley, T., Snyder, G. I., Hennig, T. A., Fladeland, M. M., &

Policelli, F. (2003). Government programs for research and operational

uses of commercial remote sensing data. Remote Sensing of Environ-

ment, 88, 316. (this issue).

Dial, G., Bowen, H., Gerlach, F., Grodecki, J., & Oleszczuk, R. (2003).

IIKONOS satellite imagery, and products. Remote Sensing of Environ-


Goetz, S. J., Wright, R. K., Smith, A. J., Zinecker, E., & Schaub, E. (2003).

IKONOS imagery for resource management: Tree cover, impervious

surfaces and riparian buffer analyses in the Mid-Atlantic region. Remote

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Goward, S. N., Davis, P. E., Fleming, D., Miller, L., & Townshend, J. R.

(2003). Empirical comparison of Landsat 7 and IKONOS multispectral

measurements for selected Earth Observation System (EOS) validation

sites. Remote Sensing of Environment, 88, 7998. (this issue).Goward, S. N., Townshend, J. R. G., Zanoni, V., Pollicelli, F., Stanley, T.,

Ryan, R., Holekamp, K., Underwood, L., Pagnutti, M., & Fletcher, R.

(2003). Acquisition of Earth science remote sensing observations from

commercial sources: Lessons learned from the Space Imaging IKONOS

example.Remote Sensing of Environment, 88, 200218. (this issue).

Helder, D., Coan, M., Patrick, K., & Gaska, P. (2003). IKONOS geo-

metric characterization. Remote Sensing of Environment, 88, 6878.

(this issue).

Hurtt, G., Xiao, X., Keller, M., Palace, M., Asner, G. P., Braswell, R.,

Brondzio, E. S., Cardoso, M., Carvalho, C. J. R., Fearon, M. G., Guild,

L., Hagen, S., Hetrick, S., Moore III, B., Nobre, C., Read, J. M., Sa , T.,

Schloss, A., Vourlitis, G., & Wickel, A. J. (2003). IKONOS imagery for

the large scale biosphere atmosphere experiment in Amazonia (LBA).

Remote Sensing of Environment, 88, 110126. (this issue).

Masuoka, P. M., Claborn, D. M., Andre, R. G., Nigro, J., Gordon, S. W.,Klein, T. A., & Kim, H. (2003). Use of IKONOS and Landsat for

malaria control in the Republic of Korea. Remote Sensing of Environ-


Morisette, J. T., Nickeson, J. E., Davis, P., Wang, Y., Tian, Y., Woodcock,

C. E., Shabanov, N., Hansen, M., Cohen, W. B., Oetter, D. R., &

Kennedy, R. E. (2003). High spatial resolution satellite observations

for validation of MODIS land products: IKONOS observations acquired

under the NASA scientific data purchase. Remote Sensing of Environ-


Pagnutti, M., Ryan, R. E., Kelly, M., Holekamp, K., Zanoni, V., Thome, K.,

& Schiller, S. (2003). Radiometric characterization of IKONOS multi-

spectral imagery. Remote Sensing of Environment, 88, 5267. (this

issue).

Ryan, R., Baldridge, B., Schowengerdt, R. A., Choi, T., Helder, D. L., &

Blonski, S. (2003). IKONOS spatial resolution and image interpretabil-

ity characterization. Remote Sensing of Environment, 88, 3751. (this

issue).

Sawaya, K., Olmanson, L., Heinert, N., Brezonik, P., & Bauer, M. (2003).

Extending satellite remote sensing to local scales: Land and water re-

source monitoring using high-resolution imagery. Remote Sensing of

Environment, 88, 143155. (this issue).

Seelan, S. K., Laguette, S., Casady, G. M., & Seielstad, G. A. (2003).

Remote sensing applications for precision agriculture: A learning com-

munity approach. Remote Sensing of Environment, 88, 156168. (this

issue).

Small, C. (2003). High spatial resolution spectral mixture analysis of urban

reflectance.Remote Sensing of Environment, 88, 169185. (this issue).

Zanoni, V., Stanley, T., Ryan, R., Pagnutti, M., Baldridge, B., Roylance, S.,

Snyder, G., & Lee, G. (2003). The Joint Agency Commercial Imagery

Evaluation (JACIE) team: Overview and IKONOS joint characteriza-

tion approach.Remote Sensing of Environment, 88, 1722. (this issue).

Vicki M. Zanoni

NASA Earth Science Applications Directorate,

Mail Code MA20, Stennis Space Center, MS 39529, USA

E-mail address:[email protected]

Samuel N. Goward

Department of Geography, University of Maryland,

2181 LeFrak Hall,

College Park, MD 20742, USA

E-mail address:[email protected]

Preface2


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Government programs for research and operational uses

of commercial remote sensing data

Ronald J. Birka,*, Thomas Stanleyb, Gregory I. Snyderc, Thomas A. Hennigd,Matthew M. Fladelande, Fritz Policellib

aNASA Office of Earth Science, 300 E Street SW, Washington, DC 20546, USAbNASA Earth Science Applications Directorate, Stennis Space Center, MS USA

cUSGS National Center, Reston, VA, USAdNational Imagery and Mapping Agency, Bethesda, MD, USA

eNASA Ames Research Center, Moffe tt Field, CA, USA

Received 14 February 2003; received in revised form 6 June 2003; accepted 30 July 2003

Abstract

The private sector is delivering products and services derived from an expanding array of airborne and spaceborne remote sensing

systems. The successful commercial launches of the IKONOS, QuickBird, and OrbView-3 satellites in 1999, 2001, and 2003,

respectively, combined with commercial airborne sensors such as the Positive Systems ADAR 5500 (multispectral), the Intermap

STAR-3i (interferometric synthetic aperture radar), and TerraPoint, LLC, LIDAR System have ushered in an era of expanded capability

and capacity for the field of remote sensing of our Earth. Remote sensing data from commercial sensors offer the public and private

geospatial information communities important new sources of timely and accurate spatial information that can augment data provided

by public-sector remote sensing systems. Several Federal agencies, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

(NASA), the U.S. Geological Survey, and the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), have established data purchase

programs and related activities to access, evaluate, and assimilate new commercial remote sensing products to serve research and

operational requirements. Plans for future commercial systems and data products indicate an expanding set of data types using

hyperspectral, radar, LIDAR, and microwave technologies. The availability of new data sources has established the basis for Federal

programs to provide for systematic characterization of the products, consistent with the characterization of data products enabled by

traditional sources that include Landsat, SPOT, and the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR). An overview of

commercial remote sensing initiatives within the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the U.S. Department of the Interior,

and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), and of their Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation (JACIE) team, illustrates these

points, highlights lessons learned from these activities, and outlines recommendations for the future.

D 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Earth science; Commercial remote sensing; Multispectral; Imagery; Digital elevation model; Mapping; Monitoring; IKONOS; QuickBird;

OrbView-3; LIDAR; Radar; Hyperspectral

1. Introduction

The United States Government has significant responsi-

bilities in providing mapping and monitoring information to

meet the needs of its citizens. Traditionally, Federal agen-

cies, including the National Aeronautics and Space Admin-

istration (NASA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration (NOAA), and the Department of Defense

(DoD), have deployed the primary spaceborne sources of

remote sensing data for our Nation. Spaceborne remote

sensing systems, such as the Advanced Very High Resolu-

tion Radiometer (AVHRR) on NOAAs Polar Orbiting

Environmental Satellites and the Landsat satellites jointly

managed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey

(USGS), continue to provide observational data for scien-

tific research, economic security, and operational missions

to serve weather prediction, navigation, monitoring, and

0034-4257/$ - see front matterD 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1016/j.rse.2003.07.007

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-202-358-1701; fax: +1-202-358-

3098.

E-mail address: [email protected] (R.J. Birk).


Remote Sensing of Environment 88 (2003) 3 16


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mapping. Information capacity from U.S. civil government

space-based assets, typically of low to moderate spatial

resolution (kilometers down to tens of meters), is being

complemented by data from commercial remote sensing

systems with submeter resolution.

The recent growth in commercially deployed multi-

spectral, hyperspectral, radar, LIDAR, and thermal remotesensing systems on airborne and spaceborne platforms

offers important sources of timely, quality spatial infor-

mation that can serve the research and operational needs

of our Nation. In response to these new sources of data

for research and applications, Federal agencies are evolv-

ing national data policies to incorporate these new

sources of information into their operations (for a review

of Federal policies on commercial remote sensing data,

see National Research Council, 2002).

Federal agencies are keenly interested in evaluating the

potential of commercial remote sensing solutions to meet

their requirements for geospatial information and have

established activities to verify and validate the character-

istics of the data products and their utility to address

agency mission needsparticularly those that contribute

to the protection of life and property. This review process

provides an opportunity for the commercial remote sens-

ing community to establish an understanding of the

Nations research and operational requirements that may

be served by commercially provided solutions.

Federal policies have expanded the opportunities for

commercial suppliers to augment systems owned and

operated by the public sector. Privatization policies of

the 1980s evolved to commercialization and licensing

policies in the 1990s, including the Land Remote Sensing

Policy Act of 1992 (U.S. Government, 1992) and Pres-

idential Decision Directive 23 (OPS, 1994) encouraging

private-sector investment in land-related Earth observing

systems. The U.S. Commercial Remote Sensing Policy(OSTP, 2003) directs government agencies to rely to the

maximum practical extent on U.S. commercial remote

sensing space capabilities for filling imagery and geo-

spatial needs for military, intelligence, foreign policy,

homeland security, and civil users. These policies en-

courage the U.S. Government to use data provided by the

private sector to meet mission requirements and not to

compete with commercial suppliers.

Executive Order 12906 (Clinton, 1994), calls for a

National Spatial Data Infrastructure to support public- and

private-sector applications of geospatial data in such areas

as transportation, community development, agriculture,

emergency response, natural resource management, and

communications. This Executive Order established the

basis for a national remote sensing strategy that uses

civil, commercial, and military assets (including airborne

and satellite assets) to support U.S. information needs. A

national civil remote sensing strategy could focus on

solutions to meet the fundamental needs of these com-

munities to optimize data acquisition and utilization

approaches and to extend collaboration in data manage-

ment and end-user applications.

Table 1

Government data purchase program comparisons

Characteristics Scientific Data

Purchase (Part I)

Scientific Data

Purchase (Part II)

Commercial imagery

data purchase

SeaWiFS

Sponsor NASA NASA NIMA NASA

Purpose Determine utility of

commercial data for

NASA science and

applications research

Examine utility of

additional commercial

datasets for NASA

science and

applications research

Acquire high resolution

imagery to support the

warfighter

Acquire ocean color

imagery for science

research

Funding US$50 million US$20 million US$30 million US$43 million

Time frame 1997 2003 2000 2003 2000 2002 1997 2003

Centralized tasking/

distribution hub

Yes Yes Yes Yes

Payment on data delivery Yes Yes Yes Yes (20%)

Up-front cash payment No No No Yes (80%)

Centralized verification

and validation effort

Yes Yes Yes Yes

Contract mechanism Indefinite delivery,

indefinite quantity/

fixed price

Indefinite delivery,

indefinite quantity/

fixed price

Basic ordering

agreement

(fixed price)

Fixed price

Tasking panel Yes Yes Yes No

Deviation from

commercial

specifications

Small Small None None

Multiple data sources Yes Yes Yes No

Multiple products Yes Yes Yes Yes

R.J. Birk et al. / Remote Sensing of Environment 88 (2003) 3164


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Federal government programs and activities that cur-

rently acquire commercial data include the USGS The

National Map,1 the Federal Emergency Management Agen-

cy (FEMA) Flood Map Modernization Program, the NOAA

Shoreline Mapping program, the U.S. Department of Ag-

riculture Foreign Agriculture Service programs, the Nation-

al Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) CommercialImagery Program (CIP), the NASA Solid Earth and Natural

Hazards program, and the U.S. Global Climate Research

Program (USGCRP). The implementation of U.S. govern-

ment policies to procure remote sensing data from the

private sector are reflected in specific agency programs

that assess the use of commercial data products to meet

agency mission requirements. NASA, the USGS, and

NIMA have taken different approaches in implementing

commercial data purchase programs and related activities.

Table 1 lists data purchase programs representative of these

agencies and compares several important program features.

Following are descriptions of the different types of data

products available through these programs, recent research

and operational applications, and discussion on current and

future requirements for commercial geospatial data. Les-

sons learned in the performance of the commercial data

purchase programs to date are also highlighted, along with

remaining challenges and recommended approaches related

to future commercial data purchase opportunities for Fed-

eral agencies.

2. NASA commercial data initiatives

NASAs Earth Science Enterprise conducts researchand development of aerospace science and technology

associated with remote sensing systems to seek answers

to fundamental questions about how the Earth system

functions (see Fig. 1). NASA uses Earth observation

systems to provide detection, monitoring, and mapping

solutions for research on the water and energy cycle, the

carbon cycle, the chemistry-climate connection, weather

and climate predictions, and solid Earth and natural

hazards. NASA Earth science results contribute to global

change research, advanced weather prediction, and natural

hazards research (NASA Office of Earth Science, 2000,

2002).

NASA works with the private sector in partnerships

and through procurements to provide the Earth science

community with remote sensing data provided by com-

mercially owned and operated aerospace systems. Data

purchase projects include the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-

view Sensor (SeaWiFS) Project for ocean color data, the

Scientific Data Purchase (SDP) project for high-resolution

terrestrial and specialized atmospheric data products.

In support of the NASA mission to understand and

protect our home planet, NASA also partners with federal

agencies and national organizations to benchmark the

benefits of assimilating results of NASA Earth science

research and development to enhance decision support for

applications of national priority. The focus is on Earth

science and remote sensings capacity to contribute tosolutions for community growth, energy management, risk

assessments for public health, detection of environmental

indicators for homeland security and biological invasive

species, aviation safety, agricultural efficiency, and man-

agement of global to regional issues associated with carbon

sequestration, disasters, coastal ecosystems, water, and air

quality.

2.1. Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor project

The Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor Project2 is

a public/private partnership to deliver ocean color data to

meet NASA science requirements from a space-based

mission developed and operated by a commercial remote

sensing company. The SeaWiFS system, deployed by

Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC) in 1995, has provided

measurements of global ocean bio-optical properties

through NASA to the Earth science community and to

commercial applications, such as fisheries. NASA con-

tracted with OSC to pre-purchase SeaWiFS data with

payments made to OSC prior to the construction and

launch of the instrument. NASA shared in the financial

risk of the project and helped enable private-sector de-

ployment of an ocean imaging system that could provide

specific data products to serve the ocean science researchcommunity with systems engineering, instrument calibra-

tion, algorithm validation, and ocean science. This ap-

proach contributed to OSCs success in building and

deploying the satellite ocean color observatory. The Gov-

ernment benefited from the delivery of ocean color data-

sets at costs and risks that were shared with the private

sector, as compared to traditional government satellite

development programs where all of the costs and risks

are borne directly by the taxpayer.

2.2. NASA Scientific Data Purchase project Part I

In 1996, Congress funded NASA to support a project

for the systematic acquisition of commercial data and

products for Earth science research. NASAs Earth Science

Enterprise established the Scientific Data Purchase project

in 1997 to explore the viability of using commercial

remote sensing data to meet a subset of Earth science

research objectives. The program was initiated with a

US$50 million budget to serve as a pathfinder to evaluate

the capacity of the private sector to supply remote sensing

2 http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEAWIFS.html.1 http://www.nationalmap.usgs.gov.

R.J. Birk et al. / Remote Sensing of Environment 88 (2003) 316 5
http://%20http//www.seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEAWIFS.htmlhttp://%20http//www.seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEAWIFS.htmlhttp://%20http//www.nationalmap.usgs.govhttp://%20http//www.nationalmap.usgs.govhttp://%20http//www.nationalmap.usgs.govhttp://%20http//www.seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEAWIFS.html


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data for Earth science research programs. Through this

program, NASA investigators had the opportunity to

submit requests for the acquisition of select commercial

remote sensing data products that augment public data

sources.

With over 600 registered users for the data purchase

project, NASA has distributed over 2700 individual data-

sets representing over 26 terabytes of data storage capacity.

Fig. 2 shows statistics on the affiliation of science com-

munity researchers using commercial data provided by the

NASA Scientific Data Purchase project. Fig. 3 indicates

the types of science research benefiting from the evalua-

tion of the commercial data products. The NASA data

purchase project has demonstrated that commercial data

can be useful for terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem re-

search. By assimilating data from different commercial

sources, a range of remote sensing data products can be

used to contribute to complex models of coral reefs

(Andrefouet et al., 2001; Capolsini, Andrefouet, Rion, &

Payri, 2003; Palandro, Andrefouet, Dustan, & Muller-

Fig. 1. ESE science questions about how the Earth system functions.



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Karger, 2003), forestry (Ashton et al., 2002; Hansen,

DeFries, Townshend, Marufu, & Sohlberg, 2002; Thenka-

bail, Lin, Hall, Ashton, & Harris, submitted for publica-

tion), and agricultural systems (Mercuri, Engel, &

Johannsen, 2000; Hipple, 2001). In addition, high-resolu-

tion imagery has been important for such diverse applica-

tions as public health(Masuoka, Claborn, & Andre, 2001),

natural resource conservation(Jenkins & Anderson, 2002),

and archeology (Sever & Irwin, 2003). The National

Imagery and Mapping Agency used over 7000 orthorecti-

fied Landsat scenes provided by the Scientific Data Pur-chase project, covering most of the land surface of the

Earth, to build a global landcover dataset(Koeln, Jones, &

Melican, 2000).

NASA conducted Part I of the data purchase project in

two phases. The first phase started in May 1997 with a

Request for Offers (RFO) inviting interest from vendors

offering commercial remote sensing data products with the

potential to serve the (then) four primary ESE science theme

areas(Table 2). In response to the RFO, NASA received a

total of 18 proposals offering 65 Phase I products. Through

a review and selection process, 10 contracts for 22 Phase I

products were awarded in December 1997. Working with

the vendors and with panels of scientists having expertise in

remote sensing, NASA evaluated, verified, and validated the

products delivered under the Phase I contracts.

Five companies were selected to negotiate contracts for

Phase II data products in 1998: Earth Satellite (EarthSat),

Space Imaging, DigitalGlobe (doing business as EarthWatch

at the time of the contract award), Positive Systems, and

AstroVision International. As of July 2003, four of the five

companies successfully delivered data products to NASA

for use by the Earth science research community. AstroVi-

sion International is contracted to provide high-temporal

resolution, full-disk imagery (7-km spatial resolution), and

higher (600-m) spatial resolution imagery of regions of

interest upon successful launch and operational checkout

of its planned geosynchronous satellite system. Table 3

provides an overview of the selected products3 that have

been delivered and profiles a subset of the types of data

available from the private sector. A synopsis of the products

follows.

EarthSat provides orthorectified Landsat imagery cov-

ering global land areas for two time periods. The first

dataset is Multispectral Scanner (MSS) imagery collected

during the mid-1970s (representing the earliest multispec-tral images of Earth taken from space). The second

dataset is Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery collected

around 1990 that serves as a baseline for studies of

change detection. Control points from available govern-

ment sources were made available to EarthSat to orthor-

ectify both datasets. The contract provides for mosaic

scenes of the TM coverage. The USGS Earth Resources

Observation Systems (EROS) Data Center provided the

systematically corrected data for scenes available in the

U.S. archive. EarthSat was contracted to provide the

required data from foreign ground stations to complete

the dataset. The orthorectified TM data is and the MSS

data will be archived and distributed to the public on a

cost recovery basis by the USGS EROS Data Center

through the Earth Observing System Data Gateway

(http://edcimswww.cr.usgs.gov/pub/imswelcome/). NASA

makes the TM mosaics available to the public at no cost

athttp://zulu.ssc.nasa.gov/mrsid.

The Intermap Technologies STAR-3i airborne radar

data, provided through the DigitalGlobe contract, enables

Fig. 2. NASAs Scientific Data Purchase project user affiliation.

3 Detailed descriptions ofeach of the products are accessible on the

ESA Directorate Web page at http://www.esad.ssc.nasa.gov/datapurchase/.

http://%20http//www.edcimswww.cr.usgs.gov/pub/imswelcome/http://%20http//www.edcimswww.cr.usgs.gov/pub/imswelcome/http://%20http//www.zulu.ssc.nasa.gov/mrsidhttp://%20http//www.zulu.ssc.nasa.gov/mrsidhttp://%20http//www.esad.ssc.nasa.gov/datapurchase/http://%20http//www.esad.ssc.nasa.gov/datapurchase/http://%20http//www.esad.ssc.nasa.gov/datapurchase/http://%20http//www.esad.ssc.nasa.gov/datapurchase/http://%20http//www.zulu.ssc.nasa.gov/mrsidhttp://%20http//www.edcimswww.cr.usgs.gov/pub/imswelcome/


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scientists to study phenomena related to elevation and

hydrography at high spatial resolutions. Researchers are

using STAR-3i digital elevation model (DEM) data prod-

ucts in monitoring glacial changes (Muskett, Lingle,

Tangborn, & Rabus, 2003), in validating the elevation

models produced from interferometric synthetic aperture

radar (IFSAR) data for mapping Arctic drainage patterns

(Nolan & Prokein, in press), in studying archeological

sites in Central America through the NASA Global

Hydrology and Climate Center (Sever & Irwin, 2003),

and in studying hydrological processes in support of

research being conducted by the University of Alaska-

Fairbanks (Gieck, Kane, Hinzman, Overduin, & McNa-

mara, 2002).

Researchers conducting studies focused on agriculture

(Chang, Clay, Dalsted, & ONeill, 2002), urban sprawl

(Hipple & Daugherty, 2000), and habitat management

(Driscoll & Lawrence, 2002)have validated the use of data

acquired by the Positive Systems ADAR 5500 airborne

system. The 0.7-m multispectral data from this system

emulates the now-current-generation commercial space-

based remote sensing systems, giving Earth system scien-

tists a head start in developing techniques for satellite-acquired, high-spatial resolution datasets.

Scientists use Space Imagings 1-m panchromatic and 4-

m multispectral IKONOS datasets synergistically, with

techniques such as band sharpening, to observe many

phenomena that previously could only be inferred. High-

resolution imagery enables improved solutions for ground

truth validation for accuracy assessments of land use and

land cover classifications derived from coarser spatial res-

olution systems, such as Landsat and SPOT(Homer, Huang,

Yang, & Wylie, 2002).

NASA participates in the Joint Agency Commercial

Imagery Evaluation (JACIE) team, which is a NASA,

USGS, and NIMA partnership formed to validate data from

commercial satellite vendors(Zanoni et al., 2003).The work

is performed cooperatively with industry and has demon-

strated benefits to the government, to industry, and to the

broader user community in understanding the performance

of spatial information products derived from commercially

provided remote sensing instruments.

2.3. NASA Scientific Data Purchase project Part II

Part II of the Scientific Data Purchase, established in

2000 with US$20 million in funding, includes the pro-

Fig. 3. NASAs Scientific Data Purchase project data use statistics on new acquisitions.

Table 2

Four primary ESE science theme areas in 1997

Theme area and purpose

Land-cover and land-use change research

Qualify the past, current and future land cover and land use patterns at

regional and global scales

Understand natural and human-induced influences that lead to changes in

land cover, land use, shorelines, or terrestrial and marine ecosystems

Support the scientific information requirements for national environmental

monitoring and research

Support design of a prototype environmental report on trends in, and the

status of, the U.S. environment

Improve methods for the sustainable management of farmlands, forests,

rangelands, and coastal marine environments

Seasonal-to-interannual climate variability and prediction

Measure globally distributed atmospheric wind profiles

Provide atmospheric soundings from Global Positioning System (GPS)

satellites for weather and climate prediction

Natural hazards research and applications

Improve methods and understanding of how best to characterize and

mitigate the consequences of natural hazards for both managed and

natural ecosystems

Long-term climate: natural variability and change research

Test the utility of new measurements to meet the continuity requirements of

the EOS science program



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curement and evaluation of additional sources of com-

mercial remote sensing data. DigitalGlobes QuickBird

high-resolution optical imagery is being evaluated as a

source of information for Earth science research and

applications. NASA contracted with EarthSat to provide

a global database of orthorectified scenes from Landsat

7 and mosaics made from these scenes. These scenes

were orthorectified using the TM dataset procured in the

NASA SDP Part I as a baseline to provide for easy

change detection between the periods. NASA procured

commercial LIDAR data from TerraPoint; unmanned

aerial vehicle based multispectral data from AeroViron-

ment; and additional Intermap Technologies radar data

and Positive Systems multispectral data for a variety of

research and applications projects, including NASA Solid

Earth and Natural Hazards program research (TerraPoint),

agricultural research (AeroVironment, Positive Systems),

and aviation safety (Intermap). NASA also purchased

SPOT 4 Polar Ozone and Aerosol Measurement III

(POAM III) sensor data from Computational Physics

to support NASA-funded atmospheric research. Addition-

ally, NASA supported a number of competit ively

awarded research projects with funding from the SDP

Part II for procurement of various commercial data

products (including Radarsat, radar data; SPOT Image

multispectral data; Spencer B. Gross, LIDAR data; and

hyperspectral data from a variety of commercial sources).

Table 4 provides an overview of the data products that

Table 3

Overview of NASA Scientific Data Purchase Part I products

Data provider and

image product

Platform and sensor Data type Pixel size Positional accuracy Encoding Radiometric

accuracy

Cloud

%

Data provider: EarthSat

Circa 1975

orthorectified scene

Satellite, Landsat 13,

MSS

MSS (4-band) 57 m F 100 m RMSE 8 bits NA < 20%

Circa 1990orthorectified scene

Satellite, Landsat 4and 5, TM

TM (7-band) 28.5 m F 50 m RMSE 8 bits NA < 20%

Circa 1990

orthorectified mosaic

Satellite, Landsat 4

and 5, TM

TM (3-band) 28.5 m F 50 m RMSE 8 bits NA < 20%

Data provider: DigitalGlobe/Interma p

Orthorectified

radar image

Airborne,

STAR-3i IFSAR

X-SAR 2.5 m F 2.5 m RMSE

RMSE (1j)

8 bits NA NA

DEM Airborne,

STAR-3i IFSAR

DEM 5 10 m F 2.5 m horizontal

F 13 m vertical

RMSE (1j)

32 bits NA NA

Data provider: Positive Systems

IM-R1I-55

single-frame

imagery

Airborne,

ADAR 5500

MS1 0.7 m F 100 m (center pt) 8 bits F 10% absolute,

F 5% relative


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Table 4

Overview of NASA Scientific Data Purchase Part II products

Image data product Platform and sensor Data type Pixel size Positional accuracy Encoding Radiometric

accuracy

Cloud

%

Data provider: EarthSat

Circa 2000 orthorectified Satellite, Landsat 7, Pan (1-band) 14.25 m F 75 m absolute 8 bits NA < 20%

scenes ETM + MS (8-band) 28.5 m F 40 m relative

57 m 1990 RMSECirca 2000 orthorectified, Satellite, Landsat 7, PS MS (3-band) 14.25 m F 75 m absolute 8 bits NA < 20%

pan-sharpened scenes ETM + F 40 m relative

1990 RMSE

Circa 2000 orthorectified, Satellite, Landsat 7, PS MS (3-band) 14.25 m F 75 m absolute 8 bits NA < 20%

pan-sharpened, mosaics ETM + F 40 m relative

1990 RMSE

Data provider: Positive Systems

IM-R1I-55 single-frame Airborne, ADAR MSa 0.7 m F 100 m (center pt) 8 bits F10% absolute < 10%

imagery 5500 F5% relative

MOS-G1 georeferenced Airborne, ADAR MSa 0.7 m F 12.2 m (benign) 8 bits NA < 10%

mosaic 5500 F 50 m

(extreme relief)

RMSE

Data provider: DigitalGlobe/Intermap

Orthorectified radar image Airborne, STAR-3i X-SAR 2.5 m F 2.5 m horizontal 8 bits NA NA

IFSAR RMSE (1j)

Digital elevation models Airborne, STAR-3i DEM 5-10 m F 2.5 m horizontal 32 bits NA NA

IFSAR F 1 3 m vertical

RMSE (1j)

Data provider: DigitalGlobe

Basic image (full scene) Satellite, QuickBird Pan 0.62 0.82 m NA 11 bits F10% absolute < 20%

Radiometric correction MSa 2.48 3.28 m F5% relative

Standard image Satellite, QuickBird Pan 0.62 0.82 m F 23 m (CE 90%) 11 bits F10% absolute < 20%

Radiometric and geometric

correction

MSa 2.48 3.28 m F5% relative

Orthorectified image Satellite, QuickBird Pan 0.62 0.82 m 11 bits F10% absolute < 20%

Radiometric correction MSa 2.48 3.28 m F5% relative

1:50,000 F 15.2 m (CE 90%)

1:25,000 F 7.6 m (CE 90%)

1:24,000 F 7.3 m (CE 90%)

1:12,000 F 6.1 m (CE 90%)

1:10,000 F 5.0 m (CE 90%)

Pan-sharpened Satellite, QuickBird MS PS 0.62 0.82 m Varies with product 11 bits NA < 20%

Data provider: TerraPoint

Bald Earth digital terrain Airborne, LIDAR DTM 1.83 m x,y = 1.83 m (CE 90%) NA NA

model zbald = 0.3 m (CE 90%)

zveg = 0.9 m (CE 90%)

Highest surface digital Airborne, LIDAR DSM 1.83 m x,y = 1.83 m (CE 90%) NA NA

surface model zbald = 0.3 m (CE 90%)

zveg = 0.3 m (CE 90%)

Data provider: AeroVironment

Unmanned aerial vehicle

Level A, calibrated and

ground-registered image

DuncanTech MS3100

digital camera

MS 1 m NA 8 bits NA 0 10%

Unmanned aerial vehicle

Level A, calibrated and

ground-registered image

Kodak DCS

Hasselblad 555ELD

digital camera

MS 0.5 m NA 8 bits NA 0 10%

Data provider: Computational Physics

No image product solar

occultation measurements

of O3, NO2, H2O, total

density, and aerosol

extinction

Polar Ozone and

Aerosol Measurement

(POAM III) on

SPOT 4

Vertical

profiles

Horizontal

resolutionb

200 km

NA 15 Estimated

retrieval errorscNA



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have been delivered for Part II of the Scientific Data

Purchase project.

3. USGS commercial imagery initiatives

3.1. Introduction

The USGS uses remote sensing technology as a funda-

mental source of data, products, and tools for mapping, for

making scientific observations of the Earths land surface,

and for a host of other vital uses ranging from resource

assessments and emergency management to homeland

security. Remote sensing from aircraft and space systems

has been a basic USGS tool for more than half a century.

The USGS commitment to acquire, archive, distribute, and

apply remotely sensed data has evolved as a result of its

mission history.

The recent growth of the commercial remote sensing

industry, both within the U.S. and abroad, offers a wealth of

new sources to the USGS for potential applications across a

dozen or more of its Earth science programs. The USGS Land

Remote Sensing Program (LRSP) has created a Commercial

Remote Sensing Project to evaluate commercial remotely

sensed data and to develop contracts to procure data forThe

National Map, for other Department of the Interior (DOI)

Bureaus, and for other Federal civilian agencies.

3.2. Commercial imagery acquisition

The USGS is developing contracts to obtain a broad

range of commercially available satellite and airbornedata, including panchromatic, multispectral, hyperspectral,

LIDAR, and radar data. These contracts are distinguished

by their focus on off-the-shelf commercial sources and on

flexible data use and distribution terms to allow the data

to be shared with USGS partners and through The

National Map. Across Federal civil agencies using re-

motely sensed data, experience shows that centralized

procurement offers considerable cost savings to the Gov-

ernment through volume discounts, through reduction of

redundant contract administration costs, and through

avoidance of duplicate purchases. The USGS has provided

commercial data procurement assistance and expertise for

other agencies for several decades. It is expected that the

terms negotiated by the USGS on behalf of civil govern-

ment agencies will be advantageous for the purchasing

organization. Consolidated contracts can also simplify the

ordering process for all parties and provide an opportunity

to identify overlapping requirements in advance of data

procurement.

3.3. Verification and validation

The USGS needs to understand the performance char-

acteristics of the sensors and geospatial data used tosupport its mapping and science missions. For many

years, the USGS has calibrated the Nations analog aerial

mapping cameras. With the advent of a new generation

of digital cameras and high-resolution commercial satel-

lite systems, the USGS is establishing a digital camera

laboratory and is upgrading field-based in-situ test ranges

to allow for the characterization of new products. In

addition, the USGS is contracting with academic institu-

tions and is partnering with NASA to develop new

digital calibration methods and capabilities. For purposes

of assessing the geometric properties of remotely sensed

data, the USGS maintains and utilizes surveyed field test

sites located at or near its regional mapping centers and

has characterized optical, radar, and LIDAR technologies.

The test sites possess a significant number of accurate

ground control points that can be compared to locations

in satellite imagery or to elevation data to substantiate

vendor product specifications. The USGS utilizes partner

sites for testing radiometric properties of remote sensing

data and participates with NASA and NIMA in the Joint

Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation team.

3.4. Application examples

Remotely sensed data and technology have been widelyused within the DOI for decades, beginning with the

availability of aerial photography in the 1930s. During

the ensuing decades, USGS applications have encompassed

topographic mapping, land characterization, watershed

analysis, environmental assessments, mineral exploration,

global change research, geologic structure identification for

hazard assessment, floodplain assessment, biological re-

source and habitat analyses, and inventory and monitoring.

Various sensors have been deployed to generate panchro-

matic, multispectral, hyperspectral, infrared, and radar data

products. The successful launches of commercial high-

resolution satellites significantly expand the Nations im-

aging capacity and have stimulated the USGS to evaluate

these data for programmatic use. Within the USGS, IKO-

NOS-derived digital elevation models were characterized,

and the use of IKONOS data has contributed significantly

to the agencys National Land Cover Characterization

Notes to Table 4:

MS = Multispectral, Pan = panchromatic, PS MS = pan-sharpened multispectral, CE = circular error, RMSE= root mean square error.aMultispectral data emulating first four TM bands.b Vertical resolution: O3 = 1 km (1050 km), NO2 = 1.52.5 km (20 40 km), H2O = 1 2 km (1040 km), aerosols = 1 1.5 km (1030 km).c O3 = 3 5% (10 60 km), NO2 = 5 10% (2045 km), H2O = 5 8% (1050 km), aerosols= 1020% (10 30 km).



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Project4 and to research on forest structure and stand

density(Zanoni et al., 2003).Commercial satellite imagery

has the potential to contribute to The National Map, which

includes orthorectified imagery,5 elevation data, and select-

ed data for transportation, hydrography, boundaries and

structures, land cover delineations, and geographic names.

The USGS believes that it will be possible to makesubstantial improvements in the availability of current

orthorectified imagery by sharing the available high-reso-

lution photography that is collected for state and local

government agencies, by directing the contracting for

additional aerial imagery, and by purchasing satellite im-

agery. Orthorectified imagery will be collected and main-

tained using the most efficient and effective combination of

airborne and spaceborne remote sensing capabilities.

4. NIMA Commercial Imagery Program

The NIMA CIP was established in early 1998 to assist

NIMA and its customers in the acquisition and use of

commercial imagery to support their missions. Because

the CIP came into being prior to the successful launch of

the first licensed 1-m commercial system, the early empha-

sis of the CIP was on educating the customer community on

the capabilities of the soon-to-be-available imagery and on

working with the licensed vendors to minimize the interface

issues associated with adding their data as a new source type

to be utilized by NIMA and its customers.

4.1. Commercial imagery acquisition

The provisions of DoD Directive 5105.60 (U.S. De-

partment of Defense, 1996)designate NIMA as the action

agency for purchases of commercial imagery for the DoD

and, upon request, for other Federal agencies. This direc-

tion led NIMA to establish the Commercial Imagery

Program to focus on the establishment of cost-effective

purchasing contracts with commercial vendors. An area of

groundbreaking work had to be focused on the develop-

ment and successful negotiation of detailed licensing

concepts to address the costs associated with a variety

of single- and multi-user scenarios. The licensing of

imagery provided by commercial remote sensing compa-

nies has evolved along with other working relationships

between vendors and the government. The evolution will

continue as government and industry continue to learn

more each day about the complexities and capabilities of

the industry. The emphasis has been on keeping the

environment truly commercial and on not dictating

NIMA-specific requirements.

Additional emphasis early-on was on educating the

potential customers and on assisting them in the selection,

ordering, and purchasing of appropriate commercial imag-

ery sources to satisfy their requirements. By taking the

program office approach, NIMA brought together the capa-

bility to address commercial imagery from end-to-end in

one organizational element as opposed to working the issuesin each of the business-as-usual elements. This organiza-

tional approach is typically followed for quick-start, high-

visibility efforts in new or emerging areas not yet mature

enough to integrate fully into the business-as-usual ele-

ments. NIMAs CIP has responsibility across the full Task-

ing, Processing, Exploitation, and Dissemination (TPED)

cycle(Fig. 4)and has tried to establish minimal capabilities

in each functional area.

Part of the early emphasis with any new data source is on

understanding the quality of the data, and commercial

satellite imagery shares this requirement. NIMA participates

in the JACIE team activities along with NASA and the

USGS. The initial JACIE evaluation of IKONOS took

longer than a year to accomplish. Additionally, JACIE has

continued evaluations of IKONOS for temporal stability.

Future evaluations of new systems and periodic re-evalua-

tions of existing systems are required to be accomplished in

less time.

4.2. Evolution of NIMAs CIP

At the inception of the CIP, NIMA was faced with

taking on a new responsibility without the benefit of

additional funding, so the agency assigned modest resour-

ces to address the requirements at an acceptable level ofrisk. Limited resources became a pacing factor of how

fast? and to what extent? NIMA could move to

expanded use of commercial imagery. NIMA is now

4 http://www.mrlc.gov.5 A subset of The National Map layers corresponds to the National

Spatial Data Infrastructure primary data layers of orthoimagery, elevation,

hydrology, and transportation. Fig. 4. NIMA TPED information cycle.

http://%20http//www.mrlc.govhttp://%20http//www.mrlc.govhttp://%20http//www.mrlc.gov


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acquiring IKONOS imagery from Space Imaging, Quick-

Bird imagery from DigitalGlobe, and a variety of other

spaceborne and airborne data types in response to diverse

customer requirements.

Since the events of 9/11, emphasis on the use of

commercial imagery has been growing for a variety of

reasons, not the least of which is the need to have theflexibility of sharing imagery and imagery-derived products

with a diverse group of customers ranging from foreign

coalition partners to domestic first responders. This attribute

of commercial imagery was recognized from the beginning

of NIMAs involvement in the Commercial Imagery Pro-

gram, but it has become much more important after 9/11 and

the birth of the Homeland Security mission.

Not only has there been increasing demand for unclas-

sified imagery and its derived products, there has also been a

demand for improved spatial and temporal resolution, caus-

ing NIMA to expand its use of airborne data, such as

imagery with resolution of less than 1 m and LIDAR data

to capture very high levels of elevation detail over discrete

areas.

Concurrent with these increasing demands has been a

significant increase in funding that will facilitate increased

use and will address a more robust system engineering of

appropriate capabilities across the TPED cycle. In the same

time period, the number of operational spaceborne systems

has grown from one to two; a third system is planned to be

deployed and operational during calendar year 2003.

These factors have all come together to drive a maturing

of the industry and NIMAs usage of commercial remote

sensing data. NIMAs Commercial Imagery Program is

reflecting this maturity by moving each of the functionsgathered under a general program office umbrella out into a

business-as-usual operational scenario.

4.3. NIMA applications of commercial imagery

It is safe to say that commercial imagery is finding usage

in an expanding number of traditional imagery, imagery

intelligence, and geospatial intelligence applications. It is

also true that NIMA has been given clear guidance by those

responsible for the agencys oversight to expand the use of

commercial imagery.

Without going into specific details of where or why

commercial imagery has been collected in support of

Operation Enduring Freedom and the Global War on Ter-

rorism, it is impressive to know that since 9/11, NIMA and

the commercial imagery industry have worked together to

achieve the following:

Commercial sources have collected and delivered more

than 400,000 km2 of imagery to NIMA. NIMAs Commercial Satellite Imagery Library (CSIL)

data holdings have increased by more than 37%. NIMA has disseminated each new image from the CSIL

an average of four times.

NIMA has disseminated over 35,000 images electroni-

cally or on CD-ROMs.

4.4. Future of commercial imagery

Commercial imagery utilization by NIMA and its cus-

tomers is progressing at a significant pace. As with mostemerging technologies, a measure of success comes when

new technology matures to the point of no longer being

regarded as new or is dealt with outside of business-as-usual

processes. NIMA is working to improve responsiveness and

contract efficiency by pushing hard to evolve from simply

the delivery of pixels to the delivery of value-added prod-

ucts that directly meet its customers needs. NIMA contin-

ues to increase its use of commercial imagery and to seek

value-added production solutions that employ both com-

mercial data and government-provided data.

5. Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation

As discussed earlier, the Joint Agency Commercial

Imagery Evaluation (JACIE) team includes NASA, the

USGS, and NIMA through an interagency government

partnership that works with industry and university affiliates

to validate and characterize data from commercial satellite

vendors (Zanoni et al., 2003). The cooperation between

government and industry has benefited all parties, including

the broader user community, in understanding the actual

characteristics and performance of remote sensing instru-

ments with respect to both the specifications (verification)

and the use in geospatial solutions (validation). Each of thepartners brings different requirements and capabilities to the

joint evaluation process, allowing the partners to stay

focused on their own unique core functions and require-

ments while benefiting from the contributions and the

strengths of other team members. This approach reduces

the cost of a full evaluation by minimizing duplication of

effort by the government and industry. To date, this joint

effort has addressed a variety of independent verification

and validation areas including radiometric calibration, im-

age quality, and geometric calibration.

The JACIE team is established under a NASA Space

Act Agreement to establish interagency collaboration for

characterizing commercial imagery. The JACIE team pro-

vides a single government interface for data characteriza-

tion to commercial remote sensing companies. When

working with Space Imaging, the JACIE working group

characterized the IKONOS system and coordinated its

efforts to obtain appropriate system information from the

company. The initial effort focused on IKONOS because it

was the first commercial remote sensing satellite to achieve

operations on orbit, but as each new system becomes

available, similar evaluations will be needed. Likewise,

periodic re-evaluations will be required so that government

and industry can continue to use the systems with the



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confidence of knowing that the systems are performing

according to expectations.

6. Lessons learned

The following summarizes findings and lessons learnedby the three agencies in the course of developing and

implementing programs to procure and use geospatial data

products delivered from commercial sources of remote

sensing systems.

NIMA, the USGS, and NASA have determined that the

commercial sector can deliver remote sensing data

products to serve our Nations economic, homeland,

and national security interests. Procuring commercial

remote sensing data from vendors through contracts with

terms of payment based on delivery of products makes

information and data products available to the govern-

ment with no associated risk of system development and

deployment (i.e., for government procurements of

commercial geospatial data, the taxpayer does not

assume the burden of risk associated with the develop-

ment and deployment of the remote sensing systems). As the commercial remote sensing industry continues to

develop its capacity to meet Earth science and defense

requirements, findings from all three agencies indicate

that there are opportunities for the companies to enhance

customer service, product delivery times, and optimiza-

tion of tasking over identified areas of interest. Data

specifications, minimum order sizes, licensing, pricing,

distribution policies, and acquisition windows are areasthat can be evolved to serve government purposes better.

As performance requirements are diverse across the three

agencies, solutions may need to be tailored to individual

agency missions and needs. There does not appear to be a

one size fits all solution. NASA, the USGS, and NIMA have found that the

government requires data products to be characterized,

verified, and validated for use in Earth science research

and national defense applications. In contrast to govern-

ment-owned systems and in the interest of protection of

intellectual property, commercial providers do not readily

release detailed engineering descriptions of their systems.

The commercial sectors limited descriptions of compo-

nent performance or of the specific processes employed

to produce data products introduce a new paradigm for

the government community, which historically has had

significant insight into sensor design and operational

characteristics through direct oversight of contractors and

systems engineers. Commercial providers may not

characterize systems in the manner needed to support

government applications because of differences in

expectations for performance. The JACIE approach to collaboration on geospatial data

product and remote sensing system performance provides

an effective solution to the challenge of diverse require-

ments for verification and validation. The JACIE

approach has been so successful that companies have

proposed using the university teams participating in the

JACIE to support their in-house performance character-

izations. The JACIE team recognizes that if university

teams participated in in-house calibrations for compa-nies, that it would severely impact the governments

ability to perform independent assessments of the

companies data. It is apparent that more teams and

methods for calibration and validation are needed. The commercial sector plans to expand the availability of

data sources and types of remote sensing data products

with the potential to serve even broader needs of Earth

science and mapping communities within the U.S.

Government. The successful launches of Space Imag-

ings IKONOS, DigitalGlobes QuickBird 2, and Orb-

Images OrbView-3 are providing increasing capacity for

the delivery of high-spatial resolution optical imagery

and derived products. New licenses issued by the Department of Commerce

authorize on-orbit commercial systems to provide data

with spatial resolutions of 0.5 m. High-spatial resolution

products correlate to higher market shares, which may

correlate to increased interest by remote sensing

companies to provide higher spatial resolution datasets

on future systems. Remote sensing companies will continue to be a primary

source of high-spatial resolution products available to the

Earth science and mapping communities supported by

federally funded acquisitions and/or by land remote

sensing programs, given current policies restricting theU.S. Government from competing with the private sector.

The majority of the datasets offered by the commercial

sector have been in the form of terrestrial imagery

products and digital elevation model products. Govern-

ment policies to populate the National Spatial Data

Infrastructure with the primary framework data layers

and other national priority applications projects continue

to increase demand for these types of commercial

geospatial data products. Advancements in remote sensing technologies and

systems indicate increased capacity in currently deployed

approaches and project a trend for additional types of

data products from both airborne and spaceborne

platforms.

NASA assessed the performance of the Scientific Data

Purchase through surveys distributed with each dataset

delivered to participating scientists. The survey evaluated

the usefulness of the data and the quality of the services

provided and reported a favorable response rate of ap-

proximately 90%. Survey results indicate that the members

of the Earth science research community who participated

in the program realized benefits from provision of the

private-sector geospatial data delivered through the pro-



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gram. The licensing and distribution practices negotiated

between NASA and the companies participating in the

Scientific Data Purchase were determined to be effective

in meeting a subset of the governments needs for geo-

spatial data products to contribute to Earth science re-

search and applications.

In response to the lessons learned in the Scientific DataPurchase experiment, NASA has implemented a policy to

include a provision in each solicitation for Earth science

research and applications proposals for the option to use

commercial remote sensing data products.

7. Recommendations

Specific recommendations associated with U.S. Govern-

ment agencies regarding the future of commercial data

purchases to serve national purposes include the following:

To facilitate widespread use and acceptance of commer-

cial sources of remotely sensed data in the science and

operational communities, government-funded data pur-

chases need to ensure adequate data rights for all

anticipated distribution and sharing. The continuity of measurements must be considered

when evaluating the use of commercial data for Earth

science, monitoring, and mapping applications. Where

data is deemed necessary for public research or

operations, reliance on commercial assets comes with

the risk that the data stream may not be sustained or

remain consistent. Government policies must ensure the

compatibility of data from different sources throughrigorous calibration and validation activities.

Increase collaboration between and among Federal

agencies to promote data product standards to the

commercial remote sensing industry, facilitating econo-

mies of scale. Maintain coordinated joint activities, such as the JACIE

team, to provide independent performance assessments

that combine the interests of several agencies while

providing a single interface to the commercial remote

sensing industry. Benefits include improved communi-

cations with industry, greater government and consumer

confidence in commercial products, and improved

techniques within industry. As the number of sources

increases for any given product type, the importance of

calibration and characterization against a baseline

performance standard becomes a critical element in

establishing the capacity of multiple sources to serve

specific applications on an interchangeable basis. Increase cooperation with state and local governments in

the area of validating new datasets and sensors by sharing

infrastructures, experiences in methods development, and

empirical knowledge from real-world applications. Create a national civil remote sensing strategy that

establishes a framework for government requirements

and funding to meet the range of common and disparate

needs for geospatial information to serve science and

operational uses. Historically, commercial data purchases

have been implemented on an ad hoc basis throughout

the U.S. Government. The private sector has difficulty in

responding to the range of mission requirements with

product lines that can serve multiple applications andagency needs. National market surveys indicate that a

dependable U.S. Government market is critical to the

viability of the commercial remote sensing industry. Benchmark the use of commercial data in decision support

systems administered by U.S. Government Federal

agencies to expand applications and demand; this is key,

as indicated by the Civil Imagery and Remote Sensing

Task Force of the Federal Geographic Data Committee in

its report to the Office of Science and Technology Policy

and Office of Management and Budget (Federal Geo-

graphic Data Committee, 2002). The Task Force has

assessed the importance of a systematic evaluation of civil

data acquisition, management, and distribution require-

ments along with the legislative, management, and budget

options needed to develop a national civil imagery and

remote sensing strategy.

References

Andrefouet, S., Muller-Karger, F., Palandro, D., Hu, C., Carder, K., Hoch-

berg, E., & Maeder, J. (2001). High resolution IKONOS data for coral

reefs studies. Proceedings of the 2001 High Spatial Resolution Com-

mercial Imagery Workshop, March 19 21, Greenbelt, MD, USA.

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The Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation team:

overview and IKONOS joint characterization approach

Vicki Zanonia,*, Tom Stanleya, Robert Ryanb, Mary Pagnuttib, Braxton Baldridgec,Spencer Roylanced, Greg Snydere, George Leee

aNASA Earth Science Applications Directorate/MA20, Stennis Space Center, MS 39529, USAbLockheed Martin Space OperationsStennis Programs, Bldg. 1105, St ennis Space Center, MS 39529, USA

cBooz Allen Hamilton, NIMA Commercial Imagery Program, now with Research Systems, Inc., Vienna, VA 22180, USAdBooz Allen Hamilton, NIMA Commercial Imagery Program, USA

e U.S. Geological Survey, USA

Received 15 July 2002; received in revised form 17 April 2003; accepted 9 July 2003

Abstract

The Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation (JACIE) team was formed to leverage government agencies capabilities for the

characterization of commercial remote sensing data. The team is composed of staff from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

(NASA), the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Each JACIE agency has a vested

interest in the purchase and use of commercial imagery to support its research and applications. It is critical that this imagery be assessed for

its accuracy and utility. Through JACIE, NASA, NIMA, and USGS jointly characterized image products from Space Imagings IKONOS

satellite. The JACIE team acquired IKONOS imagery of several study sites to perform the assessments. Each JACIE agency performed an

aspect of the characterization according to its area of expertise. NASA and its university partners performed a system characterization

focusing on radiometric calibration, geopositional accuracy, and spatial resolution assessment; NIMA performed image interpretability and

feature extraction evaluations; and the USGS assessed the geopositional accuracy of several IKONOS products. The results of the JACIE

teams IKONOS effort, which were discussed with Space Imaging and then presented at an industrygovernment workshop, ensured and

improved overall product quality and benefited both the commercial industry and the government. Additional JACIE activities include the

characterization of other commercial products such as those from the DigitalGlobe QuickBird and the Orbital Imaging (Orbimage) OrbView-

3 satellites.

D 2003 Published by Elsevier Inc.

Keywords: Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation team; IKONOS; Remote sensing

1. Introduction

The purchase of commercial remote sensing data by U.S.

federal agencies is a relatively new way of doing business

that has been and is continuing to be implemented within

government agencies. Commercial data has been purchased

to support the fields of Earth science research, civil gov-

ernment applications, and defense-related intelligence gath-

ering. Strategic partnerships that capitalize on common

commercial data purchase goals can be beneficial. Both

the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

and the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA)

have purchased large amounts of commercial satellite data.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is also planning to

implement commercial satellite data purchase activities.

Because these agencies experience common issues dealing

with the purchase of commercial imagery, they have formed

a Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation (JACIE)

team. The JACIE team leverages capabilities for commer-

cial data characterization, and provides a unified govern-

ment voice when interfacing with industry.

2. Background

In 1997, the NASA Earth Science Enterprise (ESE)

initiated the Scientific Data Purchase (SDP), a US$50

0034-4257/$ - see front matterD 2003 Published by Elsevier Inc.

doi:10.1016/j.rse.2003.07.005

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-228-688-2305; fax: +1-228-688-

7455.

E-mail address: [email protected] (V. Zanoni).


Remote Sensing of Environment 88 (2003) 1722


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million project to ascertain the utility of commercial remote

sensing datasets for Earth science research and applications.

Through the SDP, NASA purchased commercial remote

sensing data products from four data providers: Earth

Satellite, Positive Systems, DigitalGlobe (formerly Earth-

Watch)/Intermap Technologies, and Space Imaging. The

NASA Stennis Space Center (SSC) Earth Science Applica-tions (ESA) Directorate implemented the SDP and was

responsible for the verification and validation of the deliv-

ered datasets. A more detailed description of the SDP is

available inBirk et al. (2003).

NIMA established the Commercial Imagery Program

(CIP) in 1998 to support the acquisition and exploitation

of commercial imagery for its own use and for use by its

Department of Defense (DoD) customers. The CIP pur-

chases imagery products from Space Imaging, SPOT Image,

DigitalGlobe, and Intermap Technologies. Imagery pur-

chases through the CIP also include license upgrades so

the data can be shared across all DoD/Intelligence activities.

The CIP also purchases Landsat 5 and Landsat 7 data from

the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) EROS Data Center.

Assessments of image quality and of the utility of commer-

cial imagery sources are performed by NIMAs Civil and

Commercial Applications Project, which is part of the

agencys Imagery Support and Assessments Branch(NIMA,

2000).

The USGS expects to increase its use of commercial

geospatial data in its science and mapping programs. To-

ward this end, the USGS Land Remote Sensing Program is

exploring contractual mechanisms and agreements to facil-

itate cost-effective access to a wide range of commercial off-

the-shelf remote sensing data sources. The USGS is alsointerested in validating the accuracy and utility of such data

sources, both U.S. and foreign. Planned contracts would be

available for optional use by other civil agencies to help

meet their commercial imagery needs. This work is a

continuation and expansion of the USGSs historical and

long-standing service to the civil community.

Because Space Imaging, was the first company to launch

a commercial high-resolution remote sensing system suc-

cessfully, NASA, NIMA, and the USGS were interested in

understanding IKONOS utility for science research and for

civil- and defense-related applications. Commercial data

products must be highly characterized to be useful to the

governments science and applications communities. How-

ever, commercial providers might not characterize systems

in the manner desired by scientific researchers because

commercial and science requirements often differ. This

paradigm is new to the governments imagery user commu-

nity, which historically has had significant insight into

sensor design and operation. Today, government-built sat-

ellite systems cannot compete with commercial industry

(National Research Council, 2002).Thus, commercial pro-

viders must fill government requirements for high-resolu-

tion data. This procurement of data from the commercial

sector requires independent data characterization.

3. JACIE formation and activities

As part of its SDP program, NASAs conducted an

extensive effort to independently characterize the perfor-

mance of the IKONOS system. Because NIMA also pro-

cures IKONOS data and because the USGS has interest in

procuring IKONOS data, the three agencies formed theJACIE team in February 2000 t

[geology] remote sensing of environment - ikonos special issue [geologos]

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