Landsat Civil Agency Requirements Working Group
NASA Headquarters
February 26, 1998

Minutes of the Meeting

• Attending (Name: Organization):
  • Ron Beck: USGS/EDC
  • Tom Bickerton: USDA/WAOB
  • Ray Byrnes: USGS
  • Steven Covington: AERO/GSFC
  • Ken Dolan: NASA/GSFC
  • Jim Ellickson: NOAA/NESDIS
  • Murray Felsher: NARSIA
  • Tom Holm: USGS/EDC
  • George Komar: NASA/GSFC
  • Sue Mock: NIMA/CITO/TODC
  • Ton Palmerlee: ASPRS
  • Larry Pettinger: USGS
  • Rick Petty: DOE/OBER
  • Ed Sheffner: CSUMB
  • Lou Steyaert: USGS/EDC
  • Bill Stoney: MITRETEK
  • RJ Thompson: USGS/EDC
  • Jay Tullos: SITAC(LGI)
  • Darrel Williams NASA/GSFC

The meeting convened at 1:05pm. G. Komar chaired

G. Komar - Review of recent events

NASA personnel changes:
1. Ghassem Asrar named new Associate Administrator for the Earth Science Enterprise
2. Robert Price announced his retirement as chief of the Earth Science Systems Program Office at GSFC effective March 13.
• Landsat 7 launch delayed due to problems in the power supplies of the ETM+ instrument encountered during thermal vacuum testing in December and January.
• Land Remote Sensing Conference held first week in December
• NOAA received permission from the State Department to negotiate agreements with the Landsat international ground stations regarding data delivery and access fees.
• Landsat Advisory Process report and recommendations on a Landsat 7 follow-on working through review by the LPM agencies
• The Landsat Coordinating Group met in early February. Actions from that meeting are described below.

J. Ellickson - NOAA report

• Landsat 4/5 status
  1. Landsat 4 has not acquired imagery since 8/93. The spacecraft continues to be used as a testbed by SIE for Landsat 5 commands. In that regard, inclination maneuvers on Landsat 4 were performed around 2/1/98 to bring the mean crossing time of the descending node into specifications and keep the spacecraft useable as a "Landsat 5 simulator." - Landsat 4 can still acquire and transmit to Earth (via S band only) MSS images, but no data processing system is currently operational in the US to process MSS data transmissions into useable products.
  2. Landsat 5 status remains unchanged. Degradation of the helix current, expected to prevent further TM data transmission in early 2000, has plateaued.
• IGS MOU activities
  1. NOAA is negotiating with 18 countries. At this time, 9 are likely to participate in the Landsat 7 program, 3 are likely but a "challenge", 4 are uncertain and 2 are unlikely. (10 stations must sign to generate sufficient revenue, through access fees, to cover satellite operations costs.)
  2. Major concerns of IGSs are competition for data sales with the Landsat Program; reluctance to invest in upgrades required to receive Landsat 7 data when there is no announced follow-on to Landsat 7; reluctance to commit after Landsat 6 failure.
  3. Landsat 5 transmitted more than 277,000 TM scenes to the IGS in 1997, according to a summary from SIE.
  4. The text of the NOAA/IGS agreement has been modified to put a cap of $600K on what an IGS will have to pay for Landsat 7 data regardless of the number of scene acquisitions received.
  5. Regarding the Alaska receiving station, NOAA wants to use the Alaska station from system turnover to collect imagery of Alaska via direct downlink. NOAA cannot commit to that operational mode at this time because of uncertainty about the cost. NOAA is trying to get clarification on what it will be charged to receive the data at the Poker Flat facility. The operational capacity of the DHF to process Landsat 7 data into the archive will be 250 scenes per day at system turnover. Increasing that capacity if necessary is not a major problem.

D. Williams - Landsat 7 software distribution

• Note on ETM+ instrument: the power supply problem is not indicative of the quality of the ETM+ instrument overall. The ETM+ has undergone far more extensive evaluation prior to flight than any of its predecessors. Its performance is better understood than any of its predecessors and all indications point to it being the best performing instrument in the Landsat series.
• Public access will be provided to Landsat Processing System (LPS) and Image Assessment System (IAS) source code via the Internet. Documentation and algorithm descriptions will be provided with the code, but the Landsat Project is not prepared to support the code. In that regard, the Landsat 7 Science Office has opened discussion with CSC and Raytheon STX for software support, at least someone to respond to inquiries from the public. Also discussing with University of Maryland development, distribution and support of "IAS light" software - i.e., a version of the IAS software that can run on various platforms.
• NOAA will get an announcement into the CBD about availability of the software. Anticipated release dates:
  • LPS 2.1: 3/15/98
  • LPS 3.0: 6/15/98
  • IAS 2: 4/15/98
  • IAS 3: 8/30/98
• EDC will host the code after turnover

T. Holm/RJ Thompson - Landsat data sales and distribution

• The National Satellite Land Remote Sensing Data Archive (NSLRSDA) at EROS Data Center is the primary US archive for land observations. Data in the archive include Landsat MSS and TM, AVHRR LAC and HRPT, and declassified intelligence satellite photography. The archive will also be the repository, at a minimum, for Landsat 7, MODIS and ASTER data.
• NSLRSDA is capable of generating "Level 1" data products - through precision and terrain correction - for Landsat data in the archive through the National Landsat Archive Production System (NLAPS). NLAPS will also process Landsat 7 data. By February, 1999, NLAPS will have the capacity to process 100 Landsat 7 scenes per day to Level 1 products.
• Examples were shown of the difference between Landsat 7 Level 0R and Level 1 products. The examples will be made available on-line.
• Charts were shown illustrating the trends in Landsat data sales in FY96 and FY97.
• Input to NSLRSDA activities from the user community comes from an Archive Advisory Committee. The committee held workshops in November '96 and October '97. The next meeting is scheduled for April '98.
• Progress is continuing at EDC to get ready for Landsat 7 data product generation and distribution. Responsibilities of the agencies involved were reviewed. USGS through the NLAPS will be able to generate products beyond Level 1G, but other institutions, public and commercial, may also choose to do so. Data acquired at EDC through the LGS will be ready for distribution 48 (L0) to 60 (L1R/G) hours after transmission to the LGS. Options for electronic delivery were presented in terms of the network time required for various connections types. It was noted that the L1 production capacity is dependent one the DAAC L0R production capacity.

G. Komar - LCG issues and actions

• LCG met on February 4. LPM was represented by B. Townsend (NASA), G. Withee (NOAA) and B. McGregor (USGS). The major issues discussed were the delay in launch of Landsat 7, the financial impact of the delay on the LPM members, and actions to mitigate the impact. Action items from the meeting included:
  1. NASA would keep NOAA and USGS fully informed about the power supply problem and the launch schedule
  2. NASA would get to NOAA and USGS a schedule for implementation of billing and accounting procedures for Landsat data sales through the LPDAAC.
  3. NASA would draft a letter to the Landsat Science Team responding to concerns expressed by the team at the previous LCG meeting.
  4. To mitigate IGS concerns about a Landsat 7 follow-on, NASA would make a presentation to the IGS at the LGSOWG meeting in May
  5. NASA and NOAA would work together to resolve budget issues that arose from the launch delay.

E. Sheffner - LAP update

• The LAP report to congress is still in review by the LPM agencies. Agencies interested in receiving an electronic copy of the executive summary, in its present form, were invited to send a request to E. Sheffner.
• Regarding a Landsat 7 follow-on, it was noted that B. Townsend, at the LCG meeting, stated NASA's commitment to supplying Landsat type data after Landsat 7. If such data were available from the commercial market, that would probably be the source.
• Charts were shown illustrating connections to the Landsat Homepage at Ames Research Center. The number of connections continues to grow. Non-US connections remain the largest segment. The relative proportion of the identifiable groups of connectors has remained steady over the past year.
• A chart compiled by B. Stoney was shown illustrating the latest schedule of launches for Earth observing instruments in the next five years. Recent failures of Lewis, EarlyBird, EROS-A, the cancellation of the Clark Project and the problems of EO-1 were noted.

T. Palmerlee - Land satellite information conference

• The success of the December conference was described through feedback from those who attended. It was noted that ASPRS and NARSIA would consider organizing the third conference in the series in the fall of '99. Location was discussed, i.e. Denver versus Washington, as was coordination between the land satellite conference and the Pecora conference. Because of limited space available in the DC area for the conference, it would be best to begin now to locate a venue. In that regard, a commitment to the conference from ASPRS would be presented to the ASPRS board at the annual meeting in April. Commitment to financial sponsorship form the civil agencies would help convince the board to organize the conference. Those agencies that are interested in sponsoring the conference should try to get a letter to Palmerlee by March 19.

The meeting adjourned at approximately 4:15 pm. No action items. No date for the next meeting was selected, but it will be in approximately 3 months.

(Minutes prepared by E. Sheffner, CSUMB:NASA/Ames Research Center: esheffner@mail.arc.nasa.gov)