GEOG Chairman, Dr. Chris Justice Speaks on Capitol Hill

 On July 23, 2012, AGU co-hosted a briefing for the 40th anniversary of the Landsat program along with Congressional hosts Representative Bruce Braley and Representative Tom Latham . AGU writes, “As the world's longest-running Earth-observing satellite program, Landsat is a fundamental archive of human and natural changes to the Earth and its data has a wide variety of uses. It has provided scientific and policy insight in such diverse subjects as the improvement of human health, environmental assessments, biodiversity estimates, energy and water management, urban planning, natural disaster recovery, and agricultural monitoring. We were proud to support NASA and the USGS as they review the past 40 years of success and look forward to 40 more.

“For forty years, Landsat has protected and enhanced our quality of life by tracking changes on the Earth's surface over time, creating a vast global database of land images and data. Our panel of experts discusses how Landsat helps us track wildfires, assess agricultural challenges, and mitigate water management issues. Providing hundreds of millions of dollars in estimated value to the U.S. economy per year, Landsat is an essential program to provide for our nation's future remote sensing needs.”

The briefing, titled, “Fire, Food, and Water: 40 Years of Landsat Satellites,” took place at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C. Speakers included:

Mike Freilich, Division Director, Earth Science Division, NASA
Christopher Justice, Professor & Chair, Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland
Matthew Larsen, Associate Director, Climate and Land Use Change, U.S. Geological Survey
Philip Rasmussen, Director, Western Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Center, Utah State University

 Source: AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION (AGU) 

Published on Tue, 08/21/2012 - 16:23