NASA To Release Landsat 7 Data On the Web

UAVThumper writes "The US Geological Survey homepage is featuring an article about the upcoming release of select Landsat 7 image data (on June 4) at glovis.usgs.gov or earthexplorer.usgs.gov. This is to be a pilot project for a larger effort called the Landsat Data Continuity Mission, whose end result looks like a version of Google Earth using Landsat data. Seven Landsat satellites were launched over a period of 27 years, the last in 1999. More on Landsat can be found here on Wikipedia or here at the official NASA Page."

World wind

[TapeCutter]

Hmmm, by chance I installed NASA's "world wind" last night and it comes with LandSAT-7 overlays?

Re:Space exploration is always a good thing

[pinkocommie]

It's the other way around, not space exploration but 'earth' imagery taken from space. It's a GIS thing not a space thing, just that NASA has the satellites that do the actual imaging. From Wikipedia - "The Landsat program is the longest running enterprise for acquisition of imagery of Earth from space"

People are missing the point here...

[toby34a]

The fact of the matter is that Landsat-7 data has been publicly available for free in some form in the past (e.g. NASA World Wind, etc.) However, this is in three-color overlays (good for people to look at, but of limited scientific value). There have been satellites where the data is freely available (such as MODIS or NOAA AVHRR), but at larger resolution (1 KM, usually.) The true power of the imager comes in dealing with the individual bands. These image datasets are at far finer resolution (30 m for visible, 60 m for thermal IR) and can tell us quite a bit about the land surface. With the free release of Landsat data, it will become possible to get a very high-resolution dataset of land surface types and processes that are not able to be resolved with either NOAA AVHRR and MODIS data. Within the scientific community, to create a global dataset using Landsat images took a lot of money- now, it'll be a lot easier. I'll be definitely downloading some of this- a 30m global vegetation product can be a lot more useful then a 1 KM vegetation product if your resolution on your simulation is very, very small. As a scientific dataset, Landsat has quite a few uses, and I applaud the free release, even if it is only selected data. As long as it is the FULL dataset (all seven bands), then I'll be happy.

Re:World wind

[jofer]

The short answer is that what you're seeing in WorldWind (or what you're seeing in a color image, regardless) is only part of the data collected by the landsat satellites. The landsat satellites are multispectral sensors--they collect data over a broad range of the spectrum, not just visible light.

The article doesn't specifically say, but it's referring to releasing the full multispectral images...

3 band false color composites have been available free globally for quite awhile; here they're talking about releasing the full 7 band images. I would assume they'll have multiple date ranges for most locations, as well...

Sites like the GLCF already have a lot of this data available, but this is an effort to get much more of it processed, georeferenced, and online.

Or that's what I gather, anyway... Actually, I'm not quite sure why this is on slashdot. It's just a quick news relase about the project, and it's not really much in the way of news, either. Must be a slow day!

Re:Landsat data now inferior to, eg, Indian data

[SadGeekHermit]

A recent study ( http://www.issues.org/23.3/wadhwa.html [issues.org] ) done by the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University determined that the number of ACTUAL engineers produced by India, China, and the U.S. were comparable.

The reason the Indian and Chinese numbers are so ridiculously inflated is that they boost their counts by considering everyone who does something even slightly technical, including things like small engine repair, to be an "engineer". Partially this is because of problems in translation -- the article mentions that the word "Engineer" doesn't translate well to Chinese, for example.

In contrast, in the U.S. the title "engineer" is very specific and refers only to a few specializations that require an advanced degree -- in fact, most states require licensing (with very difficult tests) and several years of experience working under a P.E. (Professional Engineer) before a person can technically call himself one. Here we're not discussing "software engineers" but REAL engineers -- i.e. people who work with physical engineering, i.e. mechanical, civil, and electrical engineers.

So relax about THAT at least. We produce just as many ACTUAL engineers as anyone else, even if we don't give them jobs when they graduate. :(

As far as some of the other things you mentioned, well, what you're describing is the general state of civil service itself. The lawyers HAVE taken over, and they DO only respect other lawyers. As most Americans know (or at least suspect) our current federal government is a "great big pile of dumb" (in the words of a guy I used to work with).

Things are better (somewhat) at the state level. Try New York; we've got our heads screwed on straight.

Re:People are missing the point here...

[VirtualSquid]

I agree about the individual bands being important.
However, a great deal of LandSat _is_ available freely through GLCF ESDI (http://glcfapp.umiacs.umd.edu:8080/esdi/index.jsp [umd.edu]), with all its bands, and has been for years. So while most of the posters here aren't quite informed, their basic question is relevant: Why is NASA making this new website? I can imagine a few possible reasons.
1. They want to do GLCF a favor by offloading their servers?
2. Maybe they will offer more complete set of LandSat with different timestamps?
3. Some political reason?
-Ben