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December 04, 2008 4:21 PM |
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India Terrorism: Statistics from Global Terrorism Database Time Single Working Moms Spend with Kids Surprises Researchers |
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Highlighted News Items, December 3 Fall Maryland Media Metrics Report India Faced 4,100 Terror Attacks from 1970 to 2004 Following the horror of Mumbai, remarkable terror numbers are released by the campus U.S. National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism's Global Terrorism Database. (Indo Asian News Service, United Press International) US Should Use More Diplomacy to Curb Iran's Nuclear Program, Promote Mideast Peace Sadat Professor Shibley Telhami takes part in Brookings Institution/Council on Foreign Relations report. Telhami: Middle East thinks U.S. "greatest threat." (Associated Press) |
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For Immediate Release
June 16, 2004
Contacts: Lee Tune, 301 405 4679 or ltune@umd.edu
UM Makes Landsat Data Available Free to the World
College Park, Md. -- The Global Land Cover Facility of the University of Maryland now provides free access to Landsat satellite images for the years 1975, 1990 and 2000. This huge GeoCover"collection contains some 24,000 Landsat images and covers a majority of the Earth's land surface at a resolution of 30 meters.
The GeoCover collection of Landsat images is the first global, validated satellite dataset at this level of resolution. Potential applications for this data set include global, regional and local studies of deforestation, urban growth, habitat conservation, carbon sequestration and agricultural land conversion. During May users downloaded almost 8 trillion bytes (7.7 terabytes) of GeoCover and other Landsat data from the university's Global Land Cover Facility, which is now the world's largest source of free Landsat imagery.
NASA coordinated collection of the imagery and the Earth Satellite Corporation (EarthSat) of Rockville, Md. processed the scenes to enhance the precision with which the images match real world terrain. EarthSat used a process known as orthorectification to correct the satellite images for elevation distortion, using elevation information provided by the HREF="http://www.nima.mil/portal/site/nga01/index.jsp?front_door=true">National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
NASA, the United States Geological Survey, and the Global Land Cover Facility already have made copies of the collection available through the United Nations Environment Programme to the environmental agencies of each country in the developing world.
Earth Science Treasure
"This is an extraordinary collection of satellite imagery that was sponsored by NASA and is of great importance to the Earth science community," says Paul Davis, project manager at the Global Land Cover Facility. "In a larger sense, its also a gift to the world from the people of the United States."Davis notes that release of this collection is a major step toward systematic monitoring of land surface dynamics. "The fact that the data set spans 25 years, makes it possible for scientists and policy makers to characterize how humans are affecting and being affected by the world we live in," he says.
Because the data set has been orthorectified using the highest resolution digital elevation models possible, it can be used as a baseline data set to which other data sets may be registered.
"Providing free access to Landsat GeoCover allows scientists and other analysts around the world to work from a common resource," says Davis.
Global Land Cover Facility principal investigator John Townshend presented statistics on GeoCover download traffic and general distribution at a June 4 briefing for U.S. House of Representatives staffers, titled "U.S. Satellite Technology, Making the World Greener." Together with representatives from NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey, EDC and EarthSat, GLCF staff helped representatives from the United Nations Environmental Programme explain the great potential benefit of this gift.
A Leading Center for Land Cover Products
The Global Land Cover Facility is a research and data center in the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies. As a member of the Research, Education, and Applications Solutions Network (REASoN) program, the facility is sponsored by NASA's Earth Science Enterprise. The Global Land Cover Facility focuses on making critical Earth science imagery and products easily accessible to research and management communities.To provide data across the Internet in a fast, free and simple manner, , the GLCF development team, led by J. Michael McGann, has created the Earth Science Data Interface, through which users can easily access essential data collections. Further research to enhance data distribution is being conducted at the Global Land Cover Facility under the auspices of co-principal investigator, Joseph JaJa. This work includes improving products such as GeoCover through data grids and other delivery applications.
The online archive of the Global Land Cover Facility is a major source of Landsat, MODIS and ASTER imagery as well as a source for land cover products that help explain how the planet surface is changing. Working with University of Maryland scientists in the Department of Geography and other departments, the GLCF is creating important new data sets, such as a series of products showing forest change in South America. The entire Landsat GeoCover collection is available for free download from the Global Land Cover Facility at www.geocover.org.
Began in 1972, the Landsat program is the longest running scientific enterprise for imaging Earth from space. The latest satellite in the series, Landsat 7, was launched in 1999 Earth Observing satellites such as Terra and ICESat now are providing a wide variety of Earth science information. However, scientists still consider Landsat imagery to be one of the most important tools for Earth observation and study.
Information provided by the Office of University Communications