Landsat Civil Agency Meeting
NASA Headquarters
March 20, 1997

Minutes of the Meeting

• Attending (Name: Organization):
  • Tom Bickerton:USDA/WAOB
  • Steve Covington: AERO/GSFC
  • Dan Deely: USAID/G/ENV
  • Ken Dolan: NASA/GSFC
  • John Faundeen: HSTX/GSFC
  • Samuel Goward: UMCP
  • Tony Janetos: NASA/HQ
  • George Komar: NASA/GSFC
  • Tom Mace: EPA
  • Mike Mignogno: NOAA/NESDIS
  • Larry Pettinger: USGS/DOI
  • Phil Sabelhaus: NASA/GSFC
  • Ed Sheffner: JCWS/NASA ARC
  • Bill Stein: NIMA/SA
  • Bill Stoney: MITRETEK Systems
  • Jim Thomas: NOAA/NMFS
  • R.J. Thompson: USGS/EDC
  • Jay Tullos: SITAC
  • Mark Whitney: FEMAS/MT
  • Darrel Williams: NASA/GSFC
  • Greg Williams: NASA/MTPE

AGENDA

1. Review of events since last meeting - G. Komar
2. Landsat activities at NOAA - M. Mignogno
3. Landsat 7 status - P. Sabelhaus
4. Landsat 7 activities at EDC - RJ Thompson
5. Landsat science report - D. Williams
6. Landsat long term acquisition plan - S. Goward
7. Landsat advisory process - E. Sheffner
8. Discussion and agency reports - G. Komar

• Landsat Technical Working group (LTWG) met at Santa Barbara November 19-21. Data transfer issues (metadata, browse and image data) were the primary topics.
• ETM+ delivery to Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space slipped because of problem with the pan band. Now looking for delivery by 30 June. No slip in launch, still scheduled for May, 1998
• NOAA operations funding issue settled in February.
• Biennial review in MTPE. Process reviewed. G. Williams noted that an EOSDIS team was added for Phase 1 and NAS may not be involved in organizing the ÒExternal expert panelÓ. In reponse to question form L. Pettinger, the users were defined as the science community. What will happen with post L7 sytem still undecided. [ T. Mace - Task Force on Observations and Data Management would be better source than limiting ÒusersÓ to science community.] On the Mission Model, the science community defines the measurement set.

  ---

  
  
• IAR on April 8.
• LAP report delayed again. Recommendation is to fold it over into report due this year and add the recommendatins on L7 follow-on. Janetos noted that decision may not be possible because to many unknowns remain. Fact that report may not make a recommendation was accepted as possible, and likely, conclusion.
• Land Satellite Information in the Next Decade II: Sources and Applications - Conference scheduled for first week in December.

• Landsat 4/5 operations:
  • 13th year of Landsat 5 operations. Status unchanged
  • Two recent anomalies on L5. 1) Instrament and X-band left on beyond operational limits due to bad command load.. Three passes were lost out of Prince Albert, one out of Norman, OK. 2) One of three batteries seems to be experiencing intermittent short. Battery 1 taken off line - mission will continue on other two batteries.
  • Equatorial Crossing time for L5 improving. Crossing time now is 09:37:57 am, almost back within spec (9:45 am +/- 15 minutes)
  • Landsat 4 is still available, technically, but the orbit has continued to drift.
• Landsat 7 activity:
  • NOAA/IGS agreement being circulated by state department. NOAA would like to get the agreement to the IGSs prior to May meeting. NASA and USGS have opportunity to review the document, as do other agencies (16). State Depatment contact is Jeff McClure in OES. Comments are due back by April 1.
  • LGSOWG meeting May 6-8 in Ottawa. LTWG meeting last November focused on metadata and browse.
  • Landsat 7 seminar developed for presentations to agencies. DOA and NIMA scheduled.
  • NOAA supporting development of long-term plan for scene acquisition.
  • International ground stations now can choose among various systems. May not choose to take Landsat data. Curreent price for connection is $600K
  • NOAA has cash flow problem in 1998. Will talk to potential users to commit to purchases prior to launch in exchange for break on the price.

• L7 On schedule for May 98 launch. Recent failure of Delta launch vehicle will not delay the launch.
• Level 1 products from the LPGS will not be available until 1/99. In response to S. Goward's question if codeto generate Level 1 products from Level 0 would be available to the community prior to 1/99, D. Williams noted that the algorithms will be made available, but, with a May launch for L7, and a 90 day check out period, the difference is only a few months. Williams also noted that the L7 Image Assessment System (IAS) will generate Level 1 for testing and quality assurace prior to 1/99, but that is not the Level 1 production system. The LPGS will be delivered in August, but the system will not be certified until 1/99. Problem with product distribution is partly due to Landsat being part of EOS and data distribution beign handled through the DAAC.
• Level 0R will be HDF; Level 1 will be GEOTIFF and EOSAT Fast Format as well.
• Landsat 7 data processing requirements:
  • Landsat requirements:
    • Capture and process 250 ETM+ scenes to Level 0R with corresponding metadata and browse files per day
    • Archive the Level 0R scenes in the EDC DAAC
    • Make available to users a maximum of 100 Level 0R scenes per day
  • EOS requirement:
    • Retrieve up to 25 L:evel 0R scenes per day from the EDC DAAC and process then to Level 1G and distribute them to EOS science users
• Project status
  • Instrument:
    • Delivery to LMMS has been delayed to June 1997 due to 1) Pan band noise problems; 2) required rework of optical cavity video cable; 3)schedule realism
    • Calibration activities scheduled to start in April
  • Ground system:
    • Flight ops team staffed and in place
    • Mission ops review completed in January
    • Decision made to locate EOS Alaska ground station at Poker Flat
    • Ground station delivery to EDC scheduled for May
• Science
  • Second Landsat Science Team meeting scheduled for April 15-17 at LMMS, Valley Forge
  • Image Asessment System (IAS) CDR scheduled for April 8 at GSFC

• Ground systems engineering accomplishments:
  • Completed mission operations review, netwrok connectivity design descriptiuon, EDC security policy, and antenna pad/cable run installation
  • Updated site preapration plan
  • Developed anomaly resolution plan
  • Defined test van support requirements
  • Drafted requirements definition for antenna UPS
  • ECS mass storage systems delivered
  • Schedule of events:
    • Ground station installation completed: 6/97
    • ECS testbed delivery: 6/97
    • ECS release B.) delivery: 1/98
    • ECS release B.1 delivery: 1/99
• Image Assessment System (IAS) accomplishments:
  • Release 2 geometry algorithms delivered
  • IAS project plan completed
  • Geometry calibration plan delivered
  • Version 2.0 of geometry ATBD delivered
  • IAS SDR/PDR completed
  • IAS schedule of events:
    • Installation of IAS development computer: 4/97
    • IAS CDR: 4/97
    • Installation of IAS integration and test computer: 5/97
    • Release 1, Level 1 geometry software to GSFC: 6/97
    • IAS Release 1 delivery to EDC: 10/97
    • Release 2, Level 1 geometry software to GSFC: 11/97
    • IAS Release 2 delivery to EDC: 4/98
• DHF operations planning:
  • FY 97/98 draft operations budget completed
  • Request submitted to initiate staff recruiting
  • Initial definition of NOAA/USGS principles of agreement
  • Initiated definition of operational procedures
• Issues:
  • DHF operations funding and staffing
  • ECS release replan impact
  • Impending training requirements
• Summary of recent NSLRSDA activity:
  • EOSAT to operate Landsat 4/5 until practical demise of the satellites
  • Data distribution shared by USGS and EOSAT: USGS distributes all MSS data, TM data 10+ years since acquisition, TM data less than 10 years since acquisition to USGAU; EOSAT distributes TM data less than 10 years since acquisition to all non-USGAU users.
  • The National Landsat Archive Production System (NLAPS), built by MDA, went on line for processing TM data in 12/95, augmented for SPOT processing 3/96, augmented for MSS processing 3/97. Date for operational use with SPOT data TBD.
  • NSLRSDA Archive Advisory Panel met for the first time last November. The minutes of the meeting are on-line. The panel reports to the Secretary of the Interior. Next workshop scheduled for July 15-16 in Reston.

• Recent activities:
  • The Landsat 7 Level 1 Product Generation System (LPGS) development team conducted a successful System Requirements Review (SRR) combined with a System Design review (SDR) on December 10. The LPGS is scheduled to become operational at EDC 90 dyas after launch (~August 20, 1998)
  • The landsat 7 Image Assessment System (IAS) development team conducted a successful delta-Preliminary Design review (PDR) on December 11. The IAS will be operational at launch.
  • Project science office personnel helped calibrate the 100 cm and 48 un integrating spheres with the Landsat Transfer Radiometer (LXR) at Santa Barbara Remote Sensing in early January. The LXR has been developed to monitor the stability of the ETM+ laboratory calibration sources as ETM+ testing moves from SBRS to the Hughes El Segundo facility and then to Lockheed Martin Valley Forge facility for spacecraft integration.
  • The project science office is developing an ETM+ Radiometric Tester to monitor the radiometric stability of the ETM+ in the Valley Forge thermal/vacuum chamber
  • S. Goward and D. Williams participated in the EOS Investigator's Working Group (IWG) meeting in San Diego Feb. 25-27
  • The bidirectional reflectance distribution function and the uniformity of a qualification full-aperture calibrator (FAC) diffuser panel were measured at GSFC. Flight panels are scheduled to follow this month
  • Project science office working closely with SBRS to evaulate ETM+ test data and SBRS'd attempts to fix the noise problem in the pan band
• Upcoming events:
  • IAS CDR at GSFC: April 8
  • Landsat Science Team meeting, Valley Forge: April 15-17
  • Special issue on Landsat being prepared by "Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing" to commemorate 25th anniversary of Landsat 1.

• This work is being done at University of Maryland in conjuction with NASA and NOAA
• Issue is how to run the sensor to get the best data given limitation of 250 scenes/day and the objective of periodically refreshing a global archive with substantially cloud free, sunlit, scenes of the land - with maximum radiometric fidelity
• "periodic": - use NDVI [NDVI = (VIS-NIR)/(VIS+NIR) ] to capture seasonality of vegetation and acquire an image every time the index changes. Acquisition rates based on that rule vary from one per year to acquire always.
• "substantially cloud free" - definition varies with region; deserts = 0%, mid-latitude = less than 30%, rainforests = less than 75% (?) cloud cover. Use ISSCP data for climatology and NOAA 24-hour-prior-to-acquisition predicts to base acquisition schedule.
• "radiometric fidelity" -
  • Requirements:
    • maximize scene dynamic range
    • avoid sensor saturation
  • Strategy:
    • sensor with dual high/low settings
    • seasonal variations in reflected spectral radiance determine settings
  • Entropy concept
    • Entropy metric selected to determine gain settings
    • Measure of scene information content to maximize contrast

• LAP activities since November:
  • Maintained and updated Landsat Program homepage: http://geo.arc.nasa.gov/sge/landsat/landsat.html
    • added new sections:
      • LAP Questionnaire: http://geo.arc.nasa.gov/sge/landsat/newsurvey.html
      • table of links to international ground stations
      • table of contents of all sub pages
      • minutes of previous LCARWG meeting
    • revised page appearance and re-organized page contents
    • update Program news
  • Responded to questions on the Landsat Program received through the Homepage (with assistance from the Landsat science and L7 Project offcies and the DHF at EDC
  • Meeting participation
    • Landsat technical Working Group
    • Landsat 7 Mission Operations Review
• LAP report to Congress:
  • PL 102-555 requested 3 reports on the Landsat Advisory Process. Reports were due 10/93, 10/95 and 10/97.
  • First report was completed by September, 1993; not released because of Landsat 7 re-programming after loss of Landsat 6 and DoD withdrawal from the Program
  • Completion of "second" report delayed to include information from the ASPRS land remote sensing conference held in 9/95; draft delivered to NASA HQ in January '96, reviewed by NOAA and EDC, release delayed by transfer of MTPE responsibilities from HQ to MTPE office at GSFC.
  • Current recommendation is to issue report on Landsat Program in October, 1997. The report will include materials from the first two reports, update of LAP materials from the new survey, Landsat Science Team input, civil agency input and evaluation and recommendations on Landsat 7 follow-on.
• Another estimate of L7 scene acqusition requirements and data sales estimates was presented:

  ---

  

  ---

  The data promted discussion on the need for the new questionnaire, how the data from the questionnaire would be analyzed so that the needs of large data viewers would be represented adequately, and the mechanism for setting the price of L7 data.

• Actions from discussion:
  • Get information on Space Commercialization Act out on the Internet.
  • Distribute list of email addresses to all participants
  • Send information on the survey to the participants.

Next meeting - July 17, 1997.

Return to Landsat Homepage