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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."
will it help me find my keys?
http://twitter.com/OLDTELEGRAM
Hmmm, by chance I installed NASA's "world wind" last night and it comes with LandSAT-7 overlays?
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Not that I'm qualified to actually do any, other than look through a telescope and go "ooh, pretty, that's Venus", but it's still cool. Any time we can get more knowledge about The Unknown, that's a very cool thing.
Maybe it's just me, but that article had too many Frammis rods and Johnson bars in it. It looked like someone was making the story up as they wrote...
This is really fantastic! I've done some academic work in geospatial analysis, and finding good data is always the biggest challenge--especially on a tight budget.
It won't always be perfectly aligned with the project objectives, but to have it easily available and pre-processed (ortho-rectified, with metadata) will help with many projects.
In Soviet Russia, satellite watches YOU!
Er, wait a minute....
Anyone know how this is different from the existing Landsat 2000 data that's been available for years ?
https://zulu.ssc.nasa.gov/mrsid/
Other than the fact that its mostly in the MrSid format ?
Having open, free data is in many ways as important as open, free software. I look forward to interesting uses of this information.
Hmm, sounds a lot like NASA World Wind ( http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/ ) - Landsat7, 3D globe, free data. And hi-res ortho imagery to boot. So what am I supposed to be excited about that's new?
You all have Oo.o and Firefox, so get World Wind.
Are these the keys you're looking for?
Even U.S. federal government agencies are ceasing use of Landsat,
...) have received virtually no new books.
after using it for years.
For example, in USDA (United States Department of Agriculture),
Landsat images have become essentially unuseable.
The Landsat satellite remaining has been producing alternate good data and striped data.
The data has been very slow (less frequently produced) compared to some Indian data.
The Indian satellite data has been far cheaper until now and more frequent, but must be ordered.
So, eg, data on U.S. geographic sites on specific dates does not exist unless ordered.
This is understandable when you realize how much disk space would be consumed
and that Indian satellites make much more fequent passes than Landsat
For almost half a century, the U.S. had a lead in space,
almost solely from its efforts in the 1960's.
On numerous fronts, this is no longer true.
Indeed, it can no longer be true.
The United States stocks its legislature with lawyers, not engineers.
The President stocks its agencies heads largely with lawyers, not engineers.
For example, the U.S. Federal Highway Administration was first headed in the 1890's by
an engineer, and similarly reputable people until about 1976.
That agency puts a picture of its heads and primary qualification on a wall.
For a few decades now, that agency's heads have been outrages to technology.
One head's picture puts his qualification as "football player".
Then there are the many heads that are lawyers.
Indeed, in the super agency, U.S. Department of Transportation,
a few years ago lawyers came to line management positions,
lawyers who thought so much of themselves that they actually demoted (including less salary)
numerous engineers.
After a few years, this egregious act was reversed,
but that act merely reflects a great deal of what has become the U.S. Federal Government.
For example, a sample of Federal Agencies' libraries reveals that
its libraries (USGS, USDOT, USDA,
Its as if the need for books in Federal Government ceased around 1980.
At USDOT, one researcher sought a book that detailed regulations that it set for vehicles.
That book was in a library, a locked room with no open hours.
The telephone number on that library's door led to no-one with a key.
Finally, someone was found with a key to the library,
but the book, produced by USDOT no longer existed,
and the only hope of a copy now lie in the hands of a contractor.
The U.S. government once provided some good service.
Its vast expenditures guaranteed that, amongst its enormous expenditures, something good
would get produced.
My impression is that the last quarter century has greatly reduced that amount of good
coming out the the U.S. Federal Government.
How can a government spending several trillion dollars a year,
spend but about $25 billion on space technologies,
and then manage to hobble even that?
How can a nation that had engineering marvels,
now produce but about 50,000 engineers a year.
This is about the same number produced by the little country of South Korea.
Japan, with less than half the U.S. population, produces twice as many engineers.
India produces somewhere between 100,000 and 400,000 (according to one Indian entrepreneur)
engineers. China produces several times more engineers than the U.S.
A country does not advance using air-in-its-head; it advances using something more tangible.
The U.S. is massive (in area, population, and resources), but has put itself on a diet.
It's shedding engineers, scientists, and technology like Landsat.
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.
Face facts people, by and large, in the majority of cases , for all intents and purposes, the United States of America has jumped the shark.
It was once (a long time ago, relatively speaking) the obvious world leader in technical advances, science and research.
This is no longer the case more often than not.
I'm not saying it's dead, I'm not saying all-y'all should mass-exodus like lemmings, but seriously folks - the US of A is getting a little grey and wrinkly these days.
Visit CryptoGnome in his home.
... on-line, in various places. The University of Maryland has a fairly complete set of Landsat 5 and 7 data, all bands, available via ftp (not my place to give out the url, though).
Landsat 7 has been ailing for the last four years and Landsat 5 is older than most slashdotters, though still soldiering on (Landsat 6 was lost on launch.) The delay in launching a continuity mission is a scientific crime, as 35 year's worth of continuous acquisition is going to be interrupted -- unless the ailing birds can keep going to 2011 (+).
There is a gallery of Landsat imagery here.
Science fiction for grown-ups...
Send Gojira.
IMHO, Landsat 6 has the best resolution of any of its siblings; thanks to its ultra-low orbit.
What those who want activist courts fear is rule by the people.
If you have ever been in any offices doing any type of logistics work you'll hear the word "engineer" thrown around a lot. What does "System's Engineer" mean anyway? They're sure as heck not doing any *actual* engineering work.
Why is higher detail of antarctica not being published, it should at least compress real well , but its still very poor.
There should be lots of data from nasa, its not like they can miss the south pole.
Judging from the bad rendering on a sphere, i notice lots of math errors/scewing around the pole. A pole is the same everywhere, this is a static
render.
Is it (C)?
Same as below ocean views, we have good undersea maps, so that would be good too even if its is of much lower resolution.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
Incidentally, J-Track - 3D, NASA's realtime Java-based satellite tracker, lists only three LANDSAT satellites in orbit: LANDSAT 4, LANDSAT 5, and LANDSAT 7. Although they are in polar orbits, these three gathered only non-visual data. Information about each of these satellites can be obtained by clicking on "Sat. Info" in the JTrack - 3D window.
To
To
Put a bunch of right-wing war-mongering drum-beaters into office, have them rig the election so a moron can lead them, and stock the executive, judicial and legislative branches with the minions of wall street, the fat-cat oil companies and telcos, appoint cronies to sub-cabinet positions who will run roughshod over civil rights, the environment, get rid of insurance and other safety-net items for the middle class, lower taxes on the rich, raise taxes on the middle class, start some wars in foreign countries while telling the allies to go pound sand, and then sit back and let it all simmer. Your bidding will be complete in about 4-to-8 years. Salt liberally and serve raw. Feeds about 365 million.
Pakistani people are from a pure Persian Turkic stock, Pakistani data is vastly superior to grovelling degenerate cow-worshipping monkey-worshipping indian data, and I don't wipe my rear with that indian garbage data, and a smart western intellectual said in a discusion that "data without metadata is garbage" and indeed the smelly indians are garbage pickers and this is where they get that "data", and they also show Kashmir as part of their filthy country in their maps but everyoen knows Kashmir is a proud member of the Great Nation of Pakistan and we will defeat those smelly third world indians and take back Kashmir and drop nuclear bombs on their backwards country (which we have great many) and make even botswana ashamed to be in the same sentence as stinking india