U.S. Department of the InteriorU.S. Geological Survey

Tim NewmanUSGS National Land Imaging Program Coordinator

USGS National Land Imaging Presentation to the JACIE Workshop - September 24, 2019

Fundamental goal: Ensure public availability of a primary data record about the current state and historical condition of the Earth’s land surface

Satellite OperationsDevelop and operate systems to acquire, produce, preserve, and deliver products and services to meet civil Earth observation research and operational requirements Collect, archive, process & disseminate Landsat & Landsat-like data (Landsat 1-8, S-2) Operate the Landsat 7 and 8 satellites, calibrate and validate the incoming data Develop the Landsat 9 ground system in concert with NASA for late 2020 launch Collect, maintain and analyze user requirements; inform 2019/2020 Landsat Next decision

Science, Research & InvestigationsConduct science, research and technology investigations to improve upon and develop new products and services Applied science & applications, including drought monitoring, global cropland estimates Remote sensing research and development, including unmanned airborne systems

Manage National Civil Applications activities Provide National Security Space system geospatial data supporting USGS applications Facilitate Federal civil agency use of these systems via Civil Applications Committee

USGS National Land Imaging Program

Landsat 8/9 (pushbroom)

Landsat 7 (whiskbroom)

Landsat 7 Flight Operations (1999- )• Collecting about 470 new scenes per day; latest fuel estimate projects operations

into 2021.Landsat 8 Flight Operations (2013- )• Collecting up to 740 new scenes per day; frequent night and off-nadir imaging of

volcano and fire imaging. Landsat Archive Operations• Over 8 million Landsat scenes available; many other datasets: ResourceSat-2 over

US, Sentinel-2, Commercial satellite data, aerial photography, UAS data.Landsat 9 (December 2020 launch)• Essentially a copy of Landsat 8, but with important improvements for accuracy and

resiliency (upgrade to fully Risk Class B); 14-bit data.Landsat Next (~2026-2030 launch)• Technology & user needs studies led to a NASA/USGS Architecture Study Team.

Many approaches: smallsats/super/hyperspectral; International/Public/Private partnerships; must maintain Landsat “Gold Standard” calibrated data source.

Landsat Operations and Development Status

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Purpose: Execute a feasibility study for the design and implementation approach of a spaceborne system to provide global,

continuous Landsat-quality multispectral and thermal infrared measurements for approximately a fifteen-year period starting in 2026 Apply advancements in space systems technologies Address a broad set of civil land imaging needs and science applications collected by USGS

AST 2019 is sponsored and implemented by: Director, USGS, James Reilly; SLI Representatives: Tim Newman/Steve Covington; AST Co-Lead: Doug Daniels Director (Acting), NASA Earth Science Division, Sandra Cauffman; SLI Representatives: Eric Ianson/Marissa Herron; AST Co-Lead: Jeff Masek

Guidelines: Address commercial, international, and other Government providers of Earth observation data

Understand these environments, assess their merits and potential contributions, and present business models which might best be used to exploit these capabilities

Ground System is a substantial driver Due to the decrease in costs for spacecraft technology and launch systems, the potential for data volume increase, by orders of magnitude, may

shift the balance of investment from the historically-higher space segment to the ground segment and long-term operations Address feasibility of multi-mission science data harmonization in terms of data interoperability for science quality Abide by cost constraints and the important goal of lowering long-term costs to the Nation Deliverable: Set of viable architecture concepts that will provide NASA and DOI/USGS a basis for formulating future

acquisition strategies and approaches

AST 2019 Charter Purpose & Guidelines

5

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• Architecture is some or all of these elements• Evolves over time • Contains combination of existing and new capabilities

(t)CommercialCapability(License)

Ground System(USG, Commercial, International)

Business Model

CommercialInternational

Other Government

Risk Class

Platform/LV

Instrument

International Data +

xx

++Cross-

Calibration via transfer radiometer

AST Architecture Definition

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Engagement activities International Community Industry & Commercial providers Other Government agencies

USGS Requirements Capabilities & Analysis for Earth Observations (RCA-EO) identified system agnostic user needs metrics at “minimum” and “breakthrough” levels User needs defined by spectral band coverage, spatial resolution, and cloud-free temporal revisit frequency needed for their applications Comprise a key component for AST assessment of architecture performance AST recognizes user needs do not imply SLI requirements

NASA Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) Investigations contributed directly to AST initial analyses: SLI-Technology (SLI-T) & Reduced Instrument Envelope Studies (RIES; size, weight, power) Instrument Incubator Program (IIP) Enabling technology advancements (Intelligent Payload Module and Compression Algorithms)

Landsat Science Team assessment of relative system priorities and Landsat Advisory Group (LAG) future mission recommendations guided AST formulation discussions

Critical Building Blocks Contributing to Study

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Design Cycle 3: Roadmap & Tech Evolution

(In-Progress)

Design Cycle 2: First Missions, Risk,

Partnerships

Design Cycle 1: Cost & User Needs

Evaluate

&

RefineArchitectures

Formulate Candidate Architectures

User Needs Analysis and Draft Requirements

- Define Architecture “families” and specific permutations- Define candidate instrument capabilities & SWaP- Establish metrics for evaluating architectures

- Assess minimum/breakthrough needs- Formulate overall system requirements (threshold, goal)

Viable SLI Architectures &Long-term Road Map

Final Report: Nov

Dec-Feb

Mar-Jun

Aug-Oct

Nov-Dec

Aug-Nov

Current capabilitiesRCA-EO SurveyLST, NRC, LAG, etc

RFI ResponsesInt’l/Com LandscapeSLI-T/IIP concepts

AST Process Overview

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Spatial resolution from 30m to 10m to observe smaller agricultural fields Observation frequency from 2 weeks to 1 week to better capture tillage and

crop planting Spectral needs from broad spectral bands to narrower multiple SWIR bands to

capture the cellulose absorption feature for identifying non-photosynthetic vegetation

User need level

Spatial resolution

Cloud-free observation frequency

Spectral characteristics

Minimum30m

(reflective), 100m (thermal)

2 weeksReflective shortwave and thermal

infrared

Breakthrough10m

(reflective), 100m (thermal)

1 week10-50nm-wide bands centered near 2030, 2100 and 2200nm;

thermal infrared

Application: USDA Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS) Crop Yields Measurement: Non-Photosynthetic Vegetation

“Breakthrough” User Need Example & User Needs Satisfaction

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Targeting Breakthrough Spectral Improvements

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Minimum User Needs are generally met by continuity of current Landsat 8 & 9 and Sentinel 2A & 2B

Breakthrough User Needs generally met by: 10-meter VSWIR & 30-meter TIR spatial resolution At least weekly clear observations (implies revisit period of 2-4 days due to cloud cover) Addition of narrow spectral bands for vegetation health, water quality, atmospheric correction, and other applications

Other key attributes Free and open distribution of data Maintain current Landsat latency of one (1) day for standard products Global land coverage Maintain current Landsat radiometric and geometric accuracy

AST evaluating architectures against Landsat Global Survey user needs

User Needs General Findings

The need for consistent system calibration and product validation processes are critical for the harmonization, interoperability, and usability of historical and future data for science

Well-calibrated datasets like Landsat provide the data infrastructure upon which the public and private sectors rely Robust geometric and radiometric calibration is foundational to science applications The public and private sectors use this data to improve current information products and as a base

layer to enable the development of new information products and derived services These products and services provide significant economic, environmental and

societal benefits worldwide USGS is committed to maintaining Landsat as a well-calibrated system USGS is investing in the EROS Calibration Center of Excellence (ECCOE) to ensure calibration

processes are well established & documented

Landsat Calibrated Data = Global Reference