Americaview’s Panel Discussion on Landsat Needs Assessment During the 2014 ASPRS Annual Conference

Following the successful launch of Landsat 8, discussions are underway about the capabilities of future Landsat missions. The US Geological Survey (USGS) is tasked with soliciting input from users in terms of their information needs. On March 26 at the 2014 ASPRS Annual Conference in Louisville, KY, AmericaView hosted a panel discussion that highlighted the value of moderate resolution Landsat data and solicited input for future data needs.

Russ Congalton, Chair, AmericaView Board of Directors

Russ Congalton, Chair, AmericaView Board of Directors, introduced AmericaView and highlighted its various accomplishments. John Crowe, Land Remote Sensing Program, USGS, provided an overview of the Landsat program, and described its value in terms of radiometrically calibrated data, historic archive, and free access to users.

StateView PIs highlighted one or more characteristics of Landsat data from their mapping and monitoring applications. Jarlath O’Neil-Dunne (VermontView) and Rick Lawrence (MontanaView) highlighted the value of calibrated thermal bands for conducting their research on urban heat island and geothermal heat flux of lakes in Yellowstone National Park respectively. Availability of several multispectral images during one or more years was highlighted by Jim Campbell (VirginiaView), Rick Lawrence, and Haluk Cetin (KentuckyView) for applications such as monitoring pest outbreaks in white bark pine, mapping crop growth, and water quality and soil moisture mapping. Brent Yantis (LouisianaView) demonstrated the value of Landsat’s long-term archive through the land cover change analysis of Pecan Island. Ramesh Sivanpillai (WyomingView) described the value of the panchromatic band for improving our ability to map small water bodies. Russ Congalton (New HampshireView) shared his study where spectral information from Landsat bands was combined with high resolution imagery for improving forest cover mapping efforts. Ramesh Sivanpillai moderated this session.

Following these presentations input was collected from those present about: a) the value of Landsat data for their research and educational applications, and b) data characteristics that they would like to see in future Landsat missions. Input collected from this and future panel discussions will be compiled and presented to the USGS.