Steve Cole
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0918
stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov
MEDIA ADVISORY: M12-131
BRIEFING TO CELEBRATE 40 YEARS OF CONTINUOUS EARTH OBSERVATIONS
WASHINGTON -- NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) will hold a
news conference at 11 a.m. EDT, Monday, July 23, to highlight the
accomplishments of the world's longest-running Earth-observing
satellite program -- Landsat. The briefing will be held at the
Newseum at 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, and feature
extensive imagery of our changing planet and local U.S. landscapes.
In cooperation with the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and its
science agency, USGS, NASA launched the first Landsat satellite July
23, 1972. The resulting 40-year archive of Earth observations from
the Landsat fleet forms an impartial, comprehensive, and easily
accessed register of human and natural changes on the land. This
information supports the improvement of human and environmental
health, biodiversity, energy and water management, urban planning,
disaster recovery and crop monitoring.
During the briefing, NASA and USGS will announce the 10 most
significant images from the Landsat record, the U.S. regions selected
for the "My American Landscape" contest showing local environmental
changes, and the top five Landsat "Earth As Art" images selected in
an online poll.
The panelists for the briefing are:
-- Anne Castle, assistant secretary for water and science, U.S.
Department of the Interior, Washington
-- Waleed Abdalati, chief scientist, NASA Headquarters, Washington
-- Jeff Masek, NASA Landsat project scientist, Goddard Space Flight
Center, Greenbelt, Md.
-- Tom Loveland, USGS senior scientist, Earth Resources Observation
and Science (EROS) Center, Sioux Falls, S.D.
-- Jim Irons, Landsat Data Continuity Mission project scientist,
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
-- Roger Auch, research geographer, EROS Center, Sioux Falls, S.D.
Media may ask questions of the panelists during the briefing. Media
wanting to attend the briefing must send their name, affiliation and
telephone number to Steve Cole at stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov no later
than 4 p.m. EDT, July 20. Reporters unable to attend the briefing in
person can ask questions during the event via Twitter using the
hashtag #asknasa. NASA Television and the agency's Web site will
provide live briefing coverage.
For information on receiving NASA TV, go to:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/digital.html For NASA TV streaming video, scheduling and downlink information,
visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv The Landsat program is jointly managed by NASA and DOI/USGS. NASA is
preparing to launch the next Landsat satellite in February 2013. For
more information about the Landsat program, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/landsat and
http://landsat.usgs.gov
