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Public request for input on future Landsat requirements

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The NASA and USGS are now seeking input on requirements for future Landsat missions from all data users. Quoting from the RFI:

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Land Remote Sensing Program has collected a diverse set of U.S. Federal civil user measurement needs for moderate-resolution land imaging to help formulate future Landsat missions. The primary objective of this RFI is to determine if these needs are representative of the broader Landsat user community, including, but not limited to, private sector, government agencies, non-governmental organizations and academia, both domestic and foreign. Responses to this RFI will be considered along with other inputs in future system formulation.

This is quite remarkable. Usually parameters of such projects are decided on almost exclusively between public institutions. If input is sought from the general public this tends to be in the form of multiple choice questionnaire which are often set up to lead to a specific result and are then interpreted to that goal as well. This however looks a bit different, they are asking for free form answers to a number of specific but open questions and specifically ask not only what you want but also for your reasons why you think this would be good to have.

There is no guarantee of course that any of this will actually have an effect on future Landsat plans but i would still urge anyone routinely using Landsat data, who understands the questions and feels qualified to give answers to them to send in their thoughts. So far the interests that went into future Landsat planning were probably almost exclusively from government and scientific institutions as well as likely a few larger corporations. And interests of these are not necessarily the same as those from the broad range of smaller private sector users, independent scientists, community projects or similar things. If you belong to any of these underrepresented groups, are a Landsat data user and are reading my posts here on satellite image related topics with interest and not just skim them for interesting images there is a good chance you could provide useful input here.

Answers should be sent before July 14.

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