24 April 2007, 9:32am
Satellites designed to document our planet over time provide us with valuable information about the impact of human activity, natural disasters and climate change. The Landsat Program has changed the way we look at our planet. An entire new field for scientific study and practical applications had emerged: remote sensing.
Credit: Reto Stockli, NASA GSFC
Today, the Landsat program has accumulated over 1.7 million scenes and over 630 terabytes of data (one terabyte is equivalent to 109 DVD movies). The archive grows by over 320 gigabytes every day.
The Future of Operational Land Imaging Working Group is leading an effort to develop a long-term plan to achieve technical, financial, and managerial stability for operational land imaging in accord with the goals and objectives of the U.S. Integrated Earth Observation System.
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Each month we select a hot topic and a leading figure in the industry to write about it.What message are we sending to senior level decision makers about the importance and value of Spatial Data Infrastructure - SDI - if we keep misrepresenting what SDI is or is all about?
In previous editorials in this magazine I have touched on various SDI issues, especially now that the pan-European SDI has achieved a legally mandated status within the European Union's 27 Member States. Yet I fear that the Geographic Information community - or communities, for there are many - continue to… More…
Roger Longhorn