U.S. Government land remote sensing program and coordinated operations of Landsat 5 and 7

Presented are the rationales in favor of the U.S. Government, specifically the United States Geological Survey, implementing coordinated operations of the Landsat 4, 5 and 7 Earth imaging satellites. As a part of this study, we provide a brief summary of the history as well as discuss the current status and direction of the Landsat Program. It is evident that policies, and, in particular, the attempts at commercialization of the program, have kept the program from achieving the expectations of its early proponents in terms of the widespread science and applications use. Programmatic issues, operational costs and data policies have made it difficult, if not impossible, to test the true potential of improved observational frequency to address key science questions related to important ecological issues such as those of global environmental change scientists. Our analysis indicates that if the operational use of Landsat satellite data is to become truly widespread, the coordinated operation of two or more satellites will be required.