Landsat%20

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Landsat A key climate sensor

• Compton Tucker
• NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
• Greenbelt, Maryland
• and
• Climate Change Science Program
• Washington DC

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Houston, We Have a Problem
We are altering our planets climate
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Atmospheric CO2 since 1740
385 ppm now
Different d CO2 slopes d
time reflect techno-economic conditions
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What? Me worry?
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What do we need to be rescued from?
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Landsat A key climate sensor

• Absolutely crucial land climate sensors
• Landsat 1972 now
• AVHRR-MODIS-VIIRS continuum 1981 -- now
• Lidar for the 3rd Dimension (DESDnyI)
• Why?
• Land use, land cover change
• Carbon cycle land
• Cryosphere, etc.

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Landsat A key climate sensor

• Why?
• 30 m spatial resolution close-to-perfect match to
  surface variability (Townshend and Justice 1988)
• Spectral bands are well situated
• Repeat cycle OK
• Excellent data system

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Tropical Glaciers of Peru Bolivia
Landsat data from 1972 to 2008
Compton Tucker, Tim Killeen, and Dan Slayback
NASA/GSFC Code 610 Conservation International
90 of worlds tropical glaciers are in Peru
(70) and Bolivia (20) 5500-6500 m elevations,
summer growth/winter recession
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Study Area and Landsat Scenes Used (WRS-2)
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Cordillera Blanca Peru 2006
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Cordillera Blanca22-Jul-2006 / TM5 / 543
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Landsat-4/5 TM Data Used
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Tropical Glaciers of Peru Bolivia1982-1986
2,854 km22006-2007 2,150 km2
90 of worlds tropical glaciers are in Peru
(70) and Bolivia (20) 5500-6500 m elevations,
summer growth/winter recession
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How to enhance Landsat

• Landsat exploits the spatial spectral domains
• 30 m spatial resolution excellent
• Excellent spectral band selection
• Exploit the time domain (e.g. AVHRR, MODIS,
  Seawifs, etc.) but at 30 m spatial resolution
  with TM/ETM spectral bands
• Wider field of view, 4-5 day repeat cycle
• Build multiple instruments (e.g. Landsat-5s TM)
  Continuity!!

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Tropical Air Temperature
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Cloud cover variations 1978 to 2004
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Cloud cover variations 1978 to 2004