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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."
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!