USGS Director Lauds Landsat Virtues vs. Google Earth Engine

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.

Podcast: Remote Sensing for Detecting Urban Growth and Open Space Loss: A Case Study from New Jersey

In this interview, Editor in chief Joe Francica speaks with Dr. Richard Lathrop, Director for the Center for Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis at Rutgers University. Dr. Lathrop recently published a study on land use and land cover classification of the entire State of New Jersey entitled "Changing Landscapes in the Garden State: Urban Growth and Open Space Loss in NJ 1986 thru 2007."(pdf) Francica discusses some of the GIS and remote sensing technology applications used to produce this study. The podcast highlights the specifics about the GIS technology and techniques he used and the implications for New Jersey’s communities and legislature to act upon his findings for smart growth initiatives within the state.

Subscribe to Podcast RSS

Listen Now (to download, right click on the link at left and choose "save target as")

Missed any podcasts? Want to subscribe via iTunes, Yahoo, etc? Here’s the index.

Technology, USGS and the President’s 2011 Fiscal Budget

ZDNet dug into the president’s budget looking for where the emphasis will be for technology expenditures. Some of the highlights that they found that were somewhat related to geospatial technology spending were as follows:

• The National Science Foundation is getting $766 million for a “cross-agency sustainability research effort focused on renewable energy technologies and complex environmental- and climate-system processes.
• Support for the modernization of the U.S. electric grid.
• NASA’s budget will increase for funding to science, exploration and aeronautics and space research technology.

The USGS budget of $1.1 Billion has several areas where geospatial technology might be leveraged:

• Climate Change Adaptation - $11.0 million - Management and policy decisions made in response to climate change impact
• WaterSMART - $9.0 Million - The information will provide tools to address a new set of water resource challenges, including aging infrastructure, rapid population growth, depletion of groundwater resources, water quality impairments associated with land uses, and climate variability.
• Increasing Resilience to Natural Hazards -  $4.0 million - The USGS Multi-Hazards Demonstration Project in Southern California will continue to support emergency planning by developing earthquake early warning capabilities and conducting impact analysis of environmental, human-health and ecosystem responses to earthquakes and other hazards. This project will be expanded into the coastal communities of Alaska, and the USGS will invest in earthquake, tsunami and volcano science to support community planning in the Pacific Northwest.
• Landsat Data Continuity Mission - $13.4 Million - The USGS will accommodate ground-system requirement changes for the Landsat Data Continuity Mission associated with moving the Operational Land Imager to a free-flying satellite and the addition of a Thermal Infrared Sensor on board the spacecraft.
• Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning - $4.0 million - USGS mapping, monitoring and research provide information to assess the status and vulnerability of ocean, coastal and Great Lakes resources.

UK Launches National Centre for Earth Observation and Goce Satellite

The BBC reports that the UK’s National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO) will have as its first "official" activity the launch of Europe’s Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer (Goce) satellite that will monitor a variety of environmental conditions to support the work of the European Space Agency (ESA). The NCEO was opened earlier this month on March 5.