Mccormack, R.

English

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NASA News
National Aeronautics and
Space Administration
Washington DC 20546
AC 202 755 8370
Richard McCormack
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
(Phone: 202/755-8487)
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RELEASE NO: 77-150
LANDSAT SATELLITE OBSERVES FIFTH BIRTHDAY
Landsat 1, the first satellite ever launfehedJ-(€o focus
specifically on the Earth and its natural resources, com-
pleted its f i f t h year in orbit last week.
Launched July 23, 1972 — with a life expectancy ofii
i only one year — Landsat 1 carries devices which record and
transmit to Earth the unique signatures radiated by land,
water, minerals, vegetation and man made structures.
I
j Landsat 1 was joined by a second such satellite,
j Landsat 2, Jan. 22, 1975. Weighing some 816 kilograms
(1,800 pounds) and circling 925 kilometers (575 miles)
above the Earth in polar orbit, each satellite photographs
three strips 185 km (115 mi.) wide of North America and 11
similar strips covering the rest of the world.
-more- Mailed:
July 21, 1977
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19770079551 2020-03-22T06:32:19+00:00Z
-2-
Strips photgraphed the following day are contiguous to
those of the first day, with a 14 per cent overlap of cover-
age at the equator and a greater overlap near the poles.
With each satellite 180 degrees apart, coverage of a
given spot on the Earth is repeated every nine days. It is
this repetitive coverage that provides Landsat with the
ability for monitoring time-dependent changes in surface
features. In early 1978, the system will be joined by a
third satellite, Landsat 3. Landsats are built by the Space
Division of General Electric Co., Valley Forge, Pa.
No satellite has stirred more excitement than Landsat.
The late space pioneer, Dr. Wernher von Braun, predicted
that through this one program alone, the nation could realize
"a return exceeding its total space program investment."
Using the signatures and other data collected by the
satellite,scientists have achieved some dramatic applications.
Landsat imagery has provided the raw data to identify the
polluters of air and water. It has led geologists on oil
and mineral hunts in Alaska, Oklahoma, the Rocky Mountains
and the jungles of Brazil. Biologists have been able to
detect potential fishing grounds. Changes in ecology brought
on by forest fires, earthquakes and strip mining have been
plotted.
-more-
-3-
Urban development is guided by determining in advance
how projected growth patterns will affect transportation
needs, public service facilities and the environment.
Landsat's potential for agriculture is staggering.
Farmland of an entire region can be sorted crop by crop in
a matter of hours in combination with high speed computers.
The end result is a computer-printed terrain map showing
precise location and area of each crop with an accuracy of
more than 90 per cent. Investigators using Landsat images
of California's Imperial Valley, for instance, inventoried
in 40 man hours more than 25 separate crops in 8,865 fields.
The total area covered was 185,150 hectares (458,000 acres).
Among the crops readily identified were corn, popcorn, soybeans,
sorghum, oats, grasses (rye, Bermuda, Alicia and Sudan), let-
tuce, mustard, tomatoes, carrots, onions and alfalfa. The
scientists distinguished between wet-planted fields, plowed
lands, harvested fields and bare soil in areas as small as
4.5 hectares (10 acres). (The remote sensing devices on a
Landsat scheduled for launch in the early 1980s will locate
and identify these characteristics on a one-acre plot!)
This experiment demonstrated the potential of a satellite
system to conduct extensive and repeated crop surveys which
could increase accuracy and timeliness of forecasting harvest
volume and contribute to decisions on new plantings to meet
demands.
-more-
-4-
One such system using Landsat satellites is the Large
Area Crop Inventory Experiment (LACIE), a three-year project
involving NASA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Designed to improve the accuracy of global crop fore-
casts, LACIE, in its initial states, is aimed at forecasting
wheat crops. It can, however, be expanded at a later date
to include other major grains such as rice and corn. The
first full crop year of LACIE has been completed as planned,
and with the final successful completion of this major
experiment, the United States will have demonstrated the
technology required for an operational global crop forecasting
system of paramount international political and economic
significance.
To date the oil and mining industries are the largest
purchasers of Landsat data, which are made available through
the U.S. Department of the Interior's EROS Data Center at
Sioux Falls, S. D. Although the Landsat data use techniques
are still experimental, there have been some notable successes
locating new mineral deposits with the help of these images
and tapes.
-more-
-5-
Landsat images completely free of clouds are now
available for every part of the United States. A large
scale mosaic covering several western states has revealed
some previously unrecognized details of an east-west fault
associated with the Colorado mineral belt. Known mineral
locations corresponding with those deduced from Landsat
data have thus indicated the possibility of new and untapped
lineaments revealing similar areas to be explored.
Accurate predictions of snowmelt are important in
planning the best use of water for power generation, irriga-
tion/ flood control planning and estimating future water
supplies for major cities. Up to now, such predictions —
useful in deciding whether to hold or release water in
reservoirs — have been based on less accurate observations
made by foot or land vehicle penetration of remote wilder-
ness areas or by aircraft (see NASA photos on pages 7 and 8).
NASA is working with other federal agencies and several
states in analyzing the data gathered by Landsat and weather
satellites for predicting the amount of water to be expected
from melting snow in mountain areas.
Landsat data are also being used in a cooperative effort
to assess the marine environment in a 3.87 billion square
meter (4.63 billion square yard) area of the Gulf of Mexico.
-more-
-6-
In combination with ground information gathered by a
commercial fishing fleet of some 70 vessels, three oceano-
graphic research ships, a low-flying "spotter" group of
nearly 40 airplanes, four marine oil drilling rigs and a
weather satellite, Landsat images have been used successfully
to locate and harvest living marine resources in the Gulf.
But even with all these applications it is obvious that the
potential of Landsat has just barely begun to be tapped.
Photographs to illustrate this news release will be
distributed without charge only to media representatives
in the United States. They may be obtained by writing or
phoning:
The Public Affairs Audio-Visual Office
Code FV/NASA Headquarters
Washington, D.C. 20546
Telephone: 202/755-8366 Photo Nos: 77-H-226
77-H-225
-end-
-7-
SNOW BARED SIERRA NEVADA IMAGED BY SATELLITE — Clear evidence of the
West's continuing drought is shown in this satellite scene of the snow
bare Sierra Nevada mountains. Covering 13,225 square miles, the image
was recorded by the Landsat satellite Feb. 14, 1977, and radioed to
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Measurements made
from this image reveal that the snowline is 2,000 feet higher in 1977
than in a comparable 1975 image, a near normal snowfall year. Infor-
mation from snow survey teams and in-place ground sensors confirms
that the available snow in the Sierras not only covers less area but
is thinner. Lake Tahoe can be seen in the photograph center.
NASA Photo: 77-H-226
-8-
r t
SNOW LADEN SIERRA NEVADA IMAGED BY SATELLITE — This satellite photo-
graph of the Sierra Nevada mountains, covering a 13,225 square mile
area, depicts a near normal snowpack Feb. 23, 1975. It was recorded
by the Landsat satellite and radioed to NASA's Goddard Space Flight
Center, Greenbelt, Md. Measurements made from this image reveal that
the snowline is 2,000 feet lower than the snowline in a comparable
1977 Landsat image. Lake Tahoe can be seen in the photograph center.
NASA Photo: 77-H-225
-end-


LANDSAT satellite observes fifth birthday

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