Bundaberg, Queensland. Landsat 8 image over Open Street Map, displaying the ‘pastures & greens’ image filter (custom parameters) which highlights irrigated areas in bright green and ploughed fields in brown. Image provided by MapXplorer.
The venerable Landsat satellites have provided the Australian Earth observation community with over 40 years of imagery — now you can influence the next generation of the program.
NASA and USGS have released a request for information (RFI) on the future of the Landsat program, beyond the Landsat 9 satellite currently under development.
Specifically, input is requested on ‘system concepts and innovative approaches’ for the second Sustainable Land Imaging Architecture Study, AST 2019, seeking:
- Initial concepts for space system architectures, including evolutionary instrument or system architecture capabilities that enhance temporal frequency, spectral coverage and resolution, and/or spatial resolution while constraining system costs;
- Ideas for international partnerships, public-private partnerships, and/or commercial image provision to satisfy some or all Landsat requirements;
- Innovative approaches to the Landsat ground system, including mission flight operations, evolution of Landsat storage, data processing and production, and use of cloud computing and on-demand generation of science data products.
Within the RFI, NASA and USGS state that ‘Compatibility with previous Landsat missions, as well as consistency with the characteristics of the data stream currently produced by Landsat 8, as practical’ are the overarching goals of the study.
The RFI is open until the end of November.
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