GLIMS Update: free Landsat data coming soon

[Jeff Kargel]

-----Forwarded Message-----
>From: Michael Abrams <Michael.J.Abrams at jpl.nasa.gov>
>Sent: Apr 21, 2008 12:43 PM
>To: asterteam at jpl.nasa.gov
>Subject: free Landsat data coming soon
>
>*Imagery for Everyone... *
>*/Timeline Set to Release Entire USGS Landsat Archive at No Charge. /*
>
>RESTON, VA -- The USGS Landsat archive is an unequaled 35-year record of 
>the Earth's surface that is valuable for a broad range of uses, ranging 
>from climate change science to forest management to emergency response, 
>plus countless other user applications.  Under a transition toward a 
>National Land Imaging Program sponsored by the Secretary of the 
>Interior, the USGS is pursuing an aggressive schedule to provide users 
>with electronic access to any Landsat scene held in the USGS-managed 
>national archive of global scenes dating back to Landsat 1, launched in 
>1972.  By February 2009, any archive scene selected by a user -- with no 
>restriction on cloud cover -- will be processed automatically to a 
>standard product recipe, using such parameters as the Universe 
>Transverse Mercator projection, and staged for electronic retrieval.  In 
>addition, newly acquired scenes meeting a cloud cover threshold of 20% 
>or below will be processed to the standard recipe and placed on line for 
>at least six months, after which they will remain available for 
>selection from the archive.
>
>Newly acquired, minimally cloudy Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus 
>(ETM+) data covering North America and Africa are already being 
>distributed by the USGS over the Internet at no charge, with expansion 
>to full global coverage of incoming Landsat 7 data to be completed by 
>July 2008 (see timeline below).  The full archive of historical Landsat 
>7 ETM+ data acquired by the USGS since launch in 1999 will become 
>available for selection and downloading by the end of September 2008.  
>At that time, all Landsat 7 data purchasing options from the USGS, 
>wherein users pay for on-demand processing to various parameters will be 
>discontinued. 
>
>By the end of December of 2008, both incoming Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper 
>(TM) data and all Landsat 5 TM data acquired by the USGS since launch 
>(1984) will become available, with all Landsat 4 TM (1982-1985) and 
>Landsat 1-5 Multi-Spectral Scanner (MSS) (1972-1994) data becoming 
>available by the end of January 2009.  All Landsat data purchasing 
>options from the USGS will be discontinued by February 2009, once the 
>entire Landsat archive can be accessed at no charge.
>
>Landsat scenes can be previewed and downloaded using the USGS Global 
>Visualization Viewer at _ http://glovis.usgs.gov_ [under "Select 
>Collection" choose Landsat archive: L7 SLC-off (2003-present)].  Scenes 
>can also be selected using the USGS Earth Explorer tool at _ 
>http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov_ [under "Select Your Dataset" choose 
>Landsat Archive: L7 SLC-off (2003-present)].  For further information on 
>Landsat satellites and products, see _ http://landsat.usgs.gov_
>
>-- 
>Michael Abrams
>ASTER Science Team Leader
>NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory
>Mail Stop 183-501
>4800 Oak Grove Dr.
>Pasadena, CA 91109
>818-354-0937  FAX: 818-354-5148
>michael.j.abrams at jpl.nasa.gov
>
>