Online Compendium Allows Visualization of Earth Observing Satellites and Sensors
The Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation (JACIE) is a collaboration between six Federal agencies that are major users and producers of satellite land remote sensing data. In recent years, the JACIE group has witnessed an ever-increasing number of remote sensing satellites being launched.
This rapidly growing wave of new systems created a need for a single reference for land remote sensing satellites — that provides basic system specifications and linkage to any JACIE assessment that may have been completed on existing systems.
In 2019, the first USGS publication titled 2019 Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation—Land Remote Sensing Satellite Compendium put into print specifics of nearly 100 Earth observation systems and provided historical details about Land Remote Sensing from space. In 2020, along with an updated print version, a web-based interactive tool was also produced, which includes filters and selectors to help users determine which sensor’s data would be most useful and beneficial to their research.
The Earth Observing Satellites Online Compendium contains details about current, historical, and known future Earth observing satellites and the sensors they carry.
Some of the filters in the Compendium include searching by satellite name, specific band type, or wavelength ranges, as well as ground sampling distance, orbit type, and type of sensor (Lidar, Multispectral, Hyperspectral, etc.). The filtered results provide a visual view of the many aspects of the selected satellite – as seen in the Landsat 9 example below.
The Earth Observing Satellites Online Compendium was developed by staff supporting the Requirements, Capabilities and Analysis for Earth Observation (RCA-EO) project within the EROS Cal/Val Center of Excellence (ECCOE) at USGS EROS. Research and compilation of the compendium is performed in conjunction with the multi-agency JACIE consortium. The information contained in the online compendium is updated regularly, based on data available from satellite owners and other resources, and can be used freely, endorsing the USGS for publications. The RCA-EO team or the USGS do not warrant the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of this information. Also, any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
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