In a post to the Washington Post’s Post Carbon blog, USGS Director Marcia McNutt reminded everyone that Landsat data was the basis for the imagery used in Google’s new Google Earth Engine (see my APB post on GEE). As if to say, "hey the USGS had a hand in collecting the data…don’t forget about us," Ms. McNutt exposed the largest glaring weakness of our earth observation program: It doesn’t shout loud enough about its investment, and the ROI on that investment, of remotely sensed data. Since the launch of the Landsat-1 in 1972, satellite data has been under appreciated by the masses and certainly under marketed by the USGS. Until Google Earth.
It is fundamental to the longevity of the the Landsat program that the USGS do a better job of promoting the benefits but has rated a grade of "D" in my book. Since my days working as a contractor for the USGS at the EROS Data Center in the early-80’s, I always felt that if the only people who could afford data were the universities with huge government grants and the oil companies, then the applications of satellite data where never going to be well understood. Thankfully Google Earth changed that. Maybe its only a private company that could afford to turn pixels into pearls…those of the wisdom kind. Because now, the world knows about satellite data. And now, the world will use satellite data. And now perhaps even businesses will use satellite data, like those counting cars in parking lots on Black Friday. Let’s hope word reaches our Congressmen who need to fund the program. Perhaps they will have already learned how to spin the Google Earth Globe to find their house. Maybe GE will turn politicians into pixel heads.
