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P. E 6 R. S Jan 89

PRESIDENT'S PAGE

An open letter to members of the ASPRS

Unlike some of my predecessors, I have not provided regular letters to you, but I trust that you are reasonably well-informed on Society affairs.
I am taking this opportunity to given you a few thoughts about the Landsat program which, to me, has been one of the most meaningful happenings in my lifetime, adn which I believe is of vital concern to our Society — and society in general.

LANDSAT AND THE MISSION TO EARTH
A few years ago my son Jim was being examined on his Master's degree thesis about blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay. The examiners (professors at Virginia Institute of Marine Science) noted that Jim's study showed high levels of heavy metals in the crabs, but he had not made a real issue of this point — why not? Jim explained that it would have been misleading since no one had previously recorded the crabs' heavy content, and there was no way of knowing how much of this level was natural and how much could be attributed to mans recent pollution of the bay.
Ten years from now NASA promises to have elaborate sensor systems in orbit which will measure many phenomena which relate to our environment. Just as Jim found heavy metals in the crabs, scientists will be recording all kinds of significant conditions from receding glaciers to vegetation stress patterns. The big questions will be: What do these things mean? Are they natural or manmade? What can be done about them? Without proper historical background, scientists and decisionmakers will be making some wild guesses and their conclusions and decisions are bound to be wrong in many cases.
The concept of Mission to Earth is as obviously worthwhile as motherhood and apple pie. If we believe in it, we have to invest in the new systems NASA wants. But how can we ignore the Landsat systems which is the only available tool we now have for systematically studying the Earth in any real detail?
The big problem with Landsat is that it has been too successful! If Landsat data can be used to help find oil and metal deposits, if it can monitor a nuclear accident, if it can map the works of man, then the Office of Management and Budget insists that we make it a commercial enterprise. The problem with this concept is that well over half of all data sales are for public rather than for private use. During the 16 years of Landsat operations, and in an effort to make it commercially viable, 

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the prices charged for data) images and tapes have risen by well over a magnitude. This has greatly curtailed the use of Landsat data without materially increasing the revenues. Most government agencies, academic institutions, and private companies operate within budgets and are unwilling to pay the current exorbitant prices for a product which was generated by tax dollars in the first place. As of today, Landsat operations are being greatly curtailed and no funds are available to continue the preservation and archiving of previously acquired Landsat data.
Ten years from now scientists and decisionmakers will be seeing the first results of NASA's so-called Mission to Earth program. When they examine new data of the Earth, the first question will be: What was this area like 10 or 20 years ago? If we continue our current policy to abandon Landsat, no one will have the answer. Just as Jim could not tell his examiners the significance of heavy metals in the blue crab, scientists and decisionmakers in the year 2000 will not know the meaning of what they find on the Earth's surface.
We as a people have spent over 2 billion dollars on the Landsat program and it has been an unqualified success. Below is a lost of a few of the significant events and conditions that have been uniquely recorded by Landsat since 1972. However, its true value is not what it records today, but that it provides a base line for future systems. With relatively simple modifications, the next Landsat to be designed (Landsat 7) can, in addition to what it does today, provide us with the first detailed three-dimensional model of the Earth's surface.
If we are serious about the Mission to Earth — if we really care about this planet, its environment, and what steps man can take to protect it — then we will fully support Landsat as the public service system that it is. Moreover, this can all be done for a fraction of the costs involved in major space programs.

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Significant Events and Conditions Mapped by Landsat Since 1972
1972 Major flooding in central Australia — Lake Ayre.
1973 Major flooding of the Mississippi River.
     Effect of Range Management Policies in central Africa — vegetation boundaries.
1974 50 mile long swath of a violent tornado in Northern Alabama. Antarctica — extensive mapping initiated
1975 The huge IXTOC-I oil spill across the Gulf of Mexico.
     Discovery of Landsat Island — an extension to Canada's sovereign territory.
1976 Discovery of an unmapped reef on the Indian Ocean and Initiation of the revision of the nautical charts of the shallow seas throughout the world.
1977 Extent of ice coverage of Chesapeake Bay, based on coldest recorded winter.
     Monitoring of land use.
1978 Inventory of the world's ice bodies initiated.
     Large area crop inventory initiated.
1979 Deforestation of the Amazon region.
1982 Mount St. Helens preceding, immediate post eruption, and sequential rehealing of the area.
1985 Great Salt Lake — historic high level
     Desertification in Africa.
1986 Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster.
     Extent of Hydrilla in the Potomac River.
1987 Formulation of new lake — Newfoundland Evaporation Basin, Utah.
1988 Forest Fires, U.S. and foreign areas.
     Floods in India.
The above are only a few selected items. The record of subtle but continuous changes on the Earth's surface is Landsat's real legacy.
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