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Remote sensing of the Earth from orbital altitudes was recognized in the mid-1960’s as a potential technique for obtaining information important for the effective use and conservation of natural resources.

The studies began when the Tiros satellites (1960) provided man’s first synoptic view of the Earth’s weather systems.

The manned Gemini and Apollo Programs (1962-1972) led to further consideration of space-age remote sensing for study of the planet Earth.

The Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS), later designated Landsat, provided repetitive multispectral observation of the Earth.

Earth Rising

The photo was taken by William Anders, an astronaut on the Apollo 8 mission, in the early hours of a clear December morning 4 days before Christmas 1968.

As Apollo 8 raced backward away from the Earth,Anders snapped a picture of “a fist-sized fuzzy little ball of color against the immense backdrop of space.” (Parker, RI News, Projo Oct. 24, 2010)

(Anders lived in Barrington for about 5 years in 1980s as an executive at RI-based Textron. He was inducted Into Rhode Island Aviation Hall of Fame for his role on Apollo 8.)

Taken by astronaut William Anders from Apollo 8, this December 1968 photo of the Earth rising over the lunar surface would become one of the most famous images of the 20th century. Although it is often shown with the moon below the earth, this is how Anders saw the image.

NASA

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Skylab, the largest manned space station placed at low Earth orbit at the time, was lunched in May 14, 1973 and carried into space the Earth Resources Experiment Package (EREP).

EREP was designed to view the Earth with sensors that recorded data in the visible, infrared, and microwave spectral regions. EREP became another step in space exploration by testing the high spatial resolution camera systems with film return capability, narrow frequency bandwidth scanner systems in the visible through thermal-infrared spectral region, and initial use of active and passive microwave systems in Earth resources surveys.

A significant feature of EREP was the use of man to operate the sensors in a laboratory fashion.

Landsat represents the world's longest (since 1972) continuously acquired collection of space-based land remote sensing data.

The instruments on the Landsat satellites have acquired millions of images. The images, archived in the United States and at Landsatreceiving stations around the world, are a unique resource for global change research and applications in agriculture, geology,forestry, regional planning, education and national security.

Landsat Missions

Landsat 1 (07/12/1972 - 01/06/1978) - RBV, MSS (80m)Landsat 2 (01/22/1975-07/27/1983) - RBV, MSS (80m)Landsat 3 (03/05/1978-09/07/1983) - RBV, MSS (80m)

Landsat 4 (07/16/1982 - ) - MSS, TM (30m, 120m TIR)Landsat 5 (03/01/1984 - ) - MSS, TM (30m, 120m TIR)

Landsat 6 (10/05/1993): ETM

Landsat 7 (04/23/1999 - ) - ETM+ (30m, 60m TIR, 15m Pan)

Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) 2012 ....??????

RBV = Returned Beam Vidicon camera flown on Landsat 1-3MSS = Multispectral Scanner (flown on Landsat 1-5)TM = Thematic Mapper (flown on Landsat 4-5)ETM+ = Enhanced Thematic Mapper (flown on Landsat 7)

August 17, 2007, The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released the National Land Imaging Program (NLIP) strategy.

This program is designed to meet U.S. civilian moderate resolution land imaging needs to monitor the changes in land surface, Polar Regions, and coastal zones due to the changes in population growth, development and climate changes. It establishes a program office in the DOI to provide focused leadership and management for the nation’s land imaging efforts.

NLIP will focus on maintaining a core, operational government commitment and capability to collect moderate-resolution land imagery through the procurement and launch of a series of U.S. owned satellites thereby ensuring the continuity of U.S. collected and managed Landsat-like data, well into future decades.

As reported by NASA on June 1 2010 – The LDCM reached a major milestone on May 27 when it successfully completed its Mission Critical Design Review (CDR). The CDR certifies that the maturity of the LDCM design is appropriate to support proceeding with full-scale fabrication, assembly, integration, and test of the mission elements leading to observatory integration and test.

Band 1: 0.45-0.52µm (blue).Provide increased penetration of water bodies, as well as supporting analysis of land use, soil, and vegetation characteristics.

Band 2: 0.52-0.60µm (green).This band spans the region between the blue and red chlorophyll absorption bands and therefore corresponds to the green reflectance of healthy vegetation.

Band 3: 0.63-0.69µm (red).This is the red chlorophyll absorption band of healthy green vegetation and represents one of the most important bands for vegetation discrimination.

Spectral Cover ofLandsat Sensors

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• Band 4: 0.76-0.90µm (reflective infrared). This band is responsive to the amount of vegetation biomass present in the scene. It is useful for crop identification and emphasizes soil-crop and land-water contrasts.

• Band 5: 1.55-1.75µm (mid-infrared)This band is sensitive to the amount of moisture in plants and therefore useful in crop draught and in plant vigor studies.

• Band 6: 10.4-12.5µm (thermal infrared)This band measures the amount of infrared radiant flux emitted from surface.

• Band 7: 2.08-2.35µm (mid-infrared)This is an important band for the discrimination of geologic rock formation. It is effective in identifying zones of hydrothermal alteration in rocks.

Spectral Cover ofLandsat Sensors

Comparison of Landsat Sensors

Thematic Mapper (TM) Landsat 4 and 5

Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+)

Landsat 7

Multispectral Scanner (MSS)

Landsat 1-5 Spectral Resolution (µm)

1. 0.45-0.52 (B) 2. 0.52-0.60 (G) 3. 0.63-0.69 (R) 4. 0.76-0.90 (NIR) 5. 1.55-1.75 (MIR) 7. 2.08-2.35 (MIR) 6. 10.4-12.5 (TIR)

1. 0.45-0.52 2. 0.53-0.61 3. 0.63-0.69 4. 0.78-0.90 5. 1.55-1.75 6. 2.09-2.35 7. 10.4-12.5 8. 0.52-0.90 (Pan)

0.5-0.6 (green) 0.6-0.7 (red) 0.7-0.8 (NIR) 0.8-1.1 (NIR)

Spatial Resolution (meter)

30 x 30 120 x 120 (TIR)

15 x 15 (Pan) 30 x 30 60 x 60 (TIR)

79 x 79

Temporal Resolution (revisit in days)

16 16 18 (Landsat 1,2,3)

Spatial coverage (km)

185 x 185 183 x 170 185 x 185

Altitude (km) 705 705 915 (Landsat 1,2,3)

Landsat-7 ETM+ Data of Providence

Landsat-7 ETM+ Data (30 m), Bands 4, 3, 2 in RGB

Landsat-7 Panchromatic Data (15 m) Landsat-7 ETM+ Data (30 m), Bands 3, 2, 1 in RGB

Landsat-7 ETM+ Data (30 m), Bands 4, 5, 3 in RGB

Rhode Island: Path 12/Row 31

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Landsat Ground Stations Landsat Images of the World

https://zulu.ssc.nasa.gov/mrsid/mrsid.pl

1990/2000 Landsat coverage available.

Mangroves in the Niger River Delta: 1990 Landsat Image

Mangrove Forests On Landsat Images Over 100 kilometers

crisscrossing streams and rivers of the Kibasira Swamp

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Streams and rivers eroding the banks of the Rufiji river

Stiegler’s Gorge section of the Rufiji River

USGS EROS Data Centerhttp://edcsns17.cr.usgs.gov/EarthExplorer/

USGS EROS Data Centerhttp://eros.usgs.gov/#/Remote_Sensing

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TERRA (EOS AM) - Launched December 18, 1999

The following instruments fly on TERRA:

ASTER: Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (15m - 3 bands in VNIR;30m - 6 bands in SWIR; 90m - 5 bands in TIR)

MODIS: Moderate Resolution Spectroradiometer (0.4 - 14.4 µm)(250m - 2 bands, 500m - 5 bands, 1000m - 29 bands)

CERES: Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy SystemMISR: Multi-angle Imaging SpectroradiometerMOPITT: Measurements of Pollution in

the Troposphere.

Provisional Land Cover Product June 01Provisional Land Cover Product June 01

MODIS data from Jul 00–Jan 01

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The MODIS Global Vegetation Phenology product (MOD12Q2) provides estimates of the timing of vegetation phenology at global scales. As such, MOD12Q2 identifies the vegetation growth, maturity, and senescence marking seasonal cycles.

EO-1: successfully launched on November 21, 2000

ALI - Advanced Land Imager consists of a 15° Wide Field Telescope (WFT) and partially populated focal plane occupying 1/5th of the field-of-view, giving a ground swath width of 37 km.

Hyperion – Hyper-spectral sensorsa grating imaging spectrometer having a 30 meter ground sample distance over a 7.5 kilometer swath and providing 10nm (sampling interval) contiguous bands of the solar reflected spectrum from 400-2500nm.

Hyperspectral dataHyperion sensor on board the EO-1 Satellite

Spectral profile in a single pixel location from 0.4 to 2.5 µm at 10 nm interval for a continuous coverage

over 220 bands

EO-1 launched November 21, 2000

EOS AM Constellation / Ground Tracks

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SPOT satellites

SPOT 2 - Jan. 22, 1990

SPOT 3 - Sept. 25, 1993

SPOT 4 - March 24, 1998

SPOT 1 - Feb. 21, 1986

SPOT-4 VEGETATION

SPOT 5 was successfully launched on May 3, 2002 The SPOT Sensor

The position of each HRV entrance mirror can be commanded by ground control to observe a region of interest not necessarily vertically beneath the satellite. Thus, each HRV offers an oblique viewing capability, the viewing angle being adjustable through +/- 27degrees relative to the vertical.

Two spectral modes of acquisition are employed, panchromatic (P) and multispectral (XS). Both HRVs can operate in either mode, either simultaneously or individually.

SPOT 4-VEGETATION:

This program marks a significant advance to monitor crops and the continental biosphere. The VEGETATION instrument flying on Spot 4 provides global coverage on an almost daily basis at a resolution of 1 kilometer, thus making it an ideal tool for observing long-term environmental changes on a regional and worldwide scale.

With a swath width of 2,250 kilometers, the VEGETATION instrument covers almost all of the globe's land masses while orbiting the Earth 14 times a day. Only a few zones near the equator are covered every day. Areas above 35°latitude are seen at least once daily.

Ground resolution:1 meter panchromatic (0.45-0.90 µm), 4 meters multispectral (same as Landsat TM bands 1 - 4)

(Band 1: 0.45-0.52 µm Blue)(Band 2: 0.52-0.60 µm Green)(Band 3: 0.63-0.69 µm Red)(Band 4: 0.76-0.90 µm Near IR)

Launched: September 24, 1999

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On October 19, 2001 DigitalGlobe launched the QuickBird 2 satellite.

September 3, 2003 QuickBird Satellite Panchromatic Images (0.6-m Spatial Resolution) September 3, 2003

QuickBird Satellite True-color and

Pseudo-color Images2.5-m Spatial Resolution

Concept of MultispectralOr spectral resolution

Natural color, high-resolution DigitalGlobe satellite image featuring the Golden Gate Bridge and Toll Plaza.

Image collected March 7, 2010

GeoEye-1, a Google sponsored satellite, was launched September 6, 2008.

Camera Modes• Simultaneous panchromatic and multispectral (pan-sharpened) • Panchromatic only • Multispectral only

Resolution• 0.41 m / 1.34 ft* panchromatic • 1.65 m / 5.41 ft* multispectral

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GeoEye's next satellite, GeoEye-2, is in a phased development process for an advanced, third-generation satellite capable of discerning objects on the Earth’s surface as small as 0.25-meter (9.75 inch) in size, due to launch in 2013.

Mt. Kilimanjaro

(5,895 m)

Tanzania/Kenya

Coastal Zone

Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), February 11-22, 2000, obtained the high-resolution

digital topographic database of the Earth

Digital Elevation Model (DEM) in GIS

Credit line for all images: Provided by the SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center and ORBIMAGE

SeaWiFS October 2001

SeaWiFS October 1997

Examples Of SeaWiFSImages