2020 Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation—Remote Sensing Satellite Compendium
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2020 Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation— Remote Sensing Satellite Compendium Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation NASA • NGA • NOAA • USDA • USGS Circular 1468 Version 1.1, October 2020 U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey Cover. An artist’s conception of the Landsat 9 spacecraft, the ninth satellite to be launched in the long-running Landsat program, high above the U.S. Gulf Coast. National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) Goddard Space Flight Center/Conceptual Image Laboratory. Facing page. The Ganges River forms an extensive delta where it empties into the Bay of Bengal. The delta is largely covered with a swamp forest known as the Sunderbans, which is home to the Royal Bengal Tiger. It is also home to most of Bangladesh, one of the world’s most densely populated countries (image from NASA, acquired by Landsat 7’s Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus [ETM+] sensor on February 28, 2000). 2020 Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation—Remote Sensing Satellite Compendium By Shankar N. Ramaseri Chandra, Jon B. Christopherson, and Kimberly A. Casey Circular 1468 Version 1.1, October 2020 Supersedes USGS Circular 1455 U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey ii U.S. Department of the Interior DAVID BERNHARDT, Secretary U.S. Geological Survey James F. Reilly II, Director U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia: 2020 First release: September 2020 Revised: October 2020 (ver 1.1) Supersedes USGS Circular 1455 For more information on the USGS—the Federal source for science about the Earth, its natural and living resources, natural hazards, and the environment—visit https://www.usgs.gov or call 1–888–ASK–USGS. For an overview of USGS information products, including maps, imagery, and publications, visit https://store.usgs.gov. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. Although this information product, for the most part, is in the public domain, it also may contain copyrighted materials as noted in the text. Permission to reproduce copyrighted items must be secured from the copyright owner. Suggested citation: Ramaseri Chandra, S.N., Christopherson, J.B., and Casey, K.A., 2020, 2020 Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evalu- ation—Remote sensing satellite compendium: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1468 (ver. 1.1, October 2020), 253 p., JACIE https://doi.org/10.3133/cir1468. [Supersedes USGS Circular 1455.] Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Chandra, Shankar N. Ramaseri, author. | Christopherson, Jon B., author. | Casey, Kimberly A., author. | Geological Survey (U.S.), issuing body. Title: 2020 Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation : remote sensing satellite compendium / by Shankar N. Ramaseri Chandra, Jon B. Christopherson, and Kimberly A. Casey. Other titles: Remote sensing satellite compendium Description: Reston, Virginia : U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, [2020] | Series: Circular ; 1468 | Supersedes USGS Circular 1455 | Includes bibliographical references. Identifiers: LCCN 2020041056 | ISBN 9781411343757 (paperback) | ISBN 9781411343757 (pdf) Subjects: LCSH: Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation (Program) | Remote sensing. | Landsat satellites. Classification: LCC G70.4 .C525 2020 | DDC 526.9/82--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020041056 ISSN 1067-084X (print) ISSN 2330-5703 (online) ISBN 978-1-4113-4375-7 iii Preface The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Land Imaging Program (NLIP) has responsibility for providing Earth science data to support scientific, operational, resource management, and other national needs. The USGS NLIP gathers details on the scientific and operational Earth observation sensor needs of users around the world and applies these metrics towards various Earth observation sensor and data development efforts. The USGS NLIP operates and provides data for the Landsat series of satellites and their more than 48-year data record of our changing planet. To understand and quantify Earth observation scientific and operational user needs, the Require- ments, Capabilities, and Analysis for Earth Observation (RCA–EO) Project has been established. One of the missions of the RCA–EO Project is to identify and catalog existing and planned capabilities for measuring and monitoring the Earth. The RCA–EO Project also supports the Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation (JACIE) mission and has developed this compendium as one of the USGS contributions to the JACIE effort. This publication was produced by the USGS NLIP RCA–EO Project Team at the USGS National Center and Earth Resources Observation and Science Center. Authors: Shankar N. Ramaseri Chandra, KBR, contractor to the USGS. Jon B. Christopherson, KBR, contractor to the USGS. Kimberly A. Casey, USGS. JACIE iv Acknowledgments Decades ago, the former director of the National Aeronautics and Space Agency’s (NASA’s) Earth Observation Programs began a satellite list of his own, offering basic facts about a variety of commercial and civilian orbiters. Affectionately known as the “Bill Stoney list,” the publica- tion served as a template for the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center- produced compendium released over the summer. Three of the EROS staffers who worked on the book had the chance to hand Mr. Stoney a copy of it in 2019 during their visit to Reston, Virginia, for the annual Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation (JACIE) workshop—an event Stoney spoke at 12 years ago. Stoney remains a well-known figure within the JACIE community; however, Stoney’s legacy is further reaching than his postre- tirement contributions to satellite tracking. Stoney began his career in 1949, before NASA had the name it has come to be known by. He worked on pilotless aircraft and led the development of the Scout rocket that was responsible for launching satellites aloft from 1961 through 1994. In 2017, NASA called the rocket “one of the most successful boosters in NASA history” Jon Christopherson (center) and Greg Stensaas in the piece titled “Ten People You Wish (right) handing over the first edition of the com- You Met,” where Stoney is featured. pendium to Mr. Stoney (left), September 2019. Stoney also served as the head of the spacecraft technology division at the Manned Spaceflight Center in Houston, Texas, from 1963 to 1968 and director of engineering for the Apollo Program JACIE Office. In 1969, he was awarded the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, but he was not finished. He was named director of Earth Observation Programs in 1973, where he worked with the Landsat program. In addition, this year we give a special acknowledgement to the NASA Terra mission. Auspiciously, with this 2020 compendium release, Terra has passed its 20th year of continuous monitoring of several of Earth’s atmosphere, land, and aquatic characteristics. The Terra mission, roughly the size of a small school bus and launched on December 18, 1999, has been crucial in providing a myriad of data to study the Earth, allowing for analysis of data spanning Artistic rendering of the Terra satellite and its five sensors onboard: ASTER, CERES, MISR, MODIS, and MOPITT. v many years and now decades. Terra is considered a flagship mission of the NASA Earth Observ- ing System. Earth science data from the Terra mission have resulted in ground-breaking science, represented in over 20,000 peer-reviewed science publications. The five sensors aboard Terra (ASTER, CERES, MISR, MODIS, and MOPITT) yield an impressive span of data that can be har- nessed to improve our understanding of Earth and its processes. Compendium Coverage, Conventions, and Caveats • This edition of the compendium provides data sheets for the numerous Chinese and Russian Systems. • Many sources were mined for the data and information in this compendium. Appendixes 1 and 2 list those sources and how we harvested information from them. • The data sheets in appendix 4 are arranged alphabetically by satellite or constellation name with their respective sensors behind each satellite. Sometimes satellites are known by more than one name. • In cases where data are not available or unknown, we have used a dash “—” to indicate this lack of information. • The compendium focuses heavily, but not exclusively, on land imaging satellites and measur- ing sensors. Satellites carrying multiple instruments (for example, Terra or Aqua) describe only the instruments aboard with significant land imaging or measuring capabilities. Because of the rapid changes in the industry, the information presented in this compendium will change, and some of it will likely be out of date by the time of publication. Information in this compendium was gleaned from numerous sources to the best of the abilities of the authors. JACIE JACIE vii Contents Preface ...........................................................................................................................................................iii Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................................................iv Compendium Coverage, Conventions, and Caveats .......................................................................v Introduction.....................................................................................................................................................1 The Compendium of Land Remote Sensing Satellites ...................................................................1