The Future

Question 1

The Future of Landsat

Answer 1

• Landsat 9 was just launched in
  September 2021
  o It has the OLI-2 and TIRS-2 on board
  o Which are copies of the OLI and TIRS on Landsat 8
  o But improved sensitivity

* Landsat Next (launch planned for
2030)
o Will be a constellation of 3 satellites
▪ Improving temporal resolution
o Will have 26 bands

Question 3

ESA Sentinel Series of Satellites

(european landsat)

Answer 3

• European Space Agency
• 6 satellites types in the mission

1. Weather (launched) – RADAR
2. “Land services” (launched) - Multispectra
3. Ocean and land monitoring (launched) – Multiple instruments
4. Atmospheric composition monitoring
5. Atmospheric composition monitoring (launched)
6. Global sea surface height for climate studies (launched) - RADAR

Question 4

LiDAR Satellites

Answer 4

• We’ve already talked about ICESat
• Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation Lidar (GEDI)
  o GEDI is on the International Space Station
  o** It provides global, high-resolution LiDAR data Laser scanning a forest canopy **(Source: NASA)

Question 5

Constellation Satellites

Answer 5

Group of satellites working together

o** Improves **temporal resolution
▪ Earth observation satellites in constellations are often offset in the same orbit

For the future:
o Continuing to develop the GNSS & earth observation constellations

o Small Earth-observing satellites in constellations (CubeSats - more on this later in the lecture)

Question 6

Open Skies

Answer 6

• Historically, high costs of operating large earth-observing satellites make
  it difficult for a single nation or company to collect all relevant data

o As a result, many satellites observe the entire earth and share data with other countries (e.g. Landsat, Sentinel)

o This allows research from many countries

o Additionally, satellites can legally observe the entire Earth

Question 7

Open Skies: areas that cant be showned to the public

Answer 7

• This poses issues for finer spatial
  resolution images (that go as detailed
  as 30 cm) as some areas are sensitive
  and countries would not want them
  to be publicly available
• These satellites are commercial and the imagery is not publicly available
• On websites where satellite and aerial images can be freely viewed (such as Google maps), many areas are blurred out

Question 8

More about open skies

Answer 8

• It no longer takes a nation to build
  satellite
• Private enterprises can enter into Earth observation

o Due to technological advancements and lower costs
o For example: miniature satellites
(CubeSats)
▪ Such as Planet Labs

• Leading to democratization of space

democrazation of space = allows for anyone to be able to crate a satelite that can be lunched into space

Question 9

The Revolution of CubeSats

Answer 9

Developed over the past 5-10 years

• Miniaturized satellites that are usually 10 cm cubes and a mass of less than 1 kg
• Hundreds of CubeSat launches from
  governments, NASA, private
  companies CubeSat

Question 10

Advantages of CubeSats

Answer 10

• Very inexpensive
• Standard, off the shelf technologies
• Can be built very quickly
• Simple design
• You can efficiently build up very large constellations
• Allowing for very high temporal resolution
• Potential for high/moderate resolution imagery with daily global coverage

the cubesats data right now is not as good as lansat for example .but it can be in the future

Question 11

Beyond Earth

Answer 11

Satellites currently observe, have
observed, or are planned to
observe the following planets:
* Mars
* Saturn
* Venus
* Mercury
* Jupiter

• Other satellites are also
  observing moons and asteroids

These satellites mainly observe:
* Atmospheric composition
* Geological composition

Question 12

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) / Drones

Answer 12

* Although drones do not observe the Earth from space, they are still important for the future of remote sensing

• Carry imagers on a pre-programmed path that can help
• Determine plant health and cover,
• Determine mineral locations,
• Create 3D models of an area,
• Map wildlife migrations,
• Emergency responses,
• Track storms,
• And more

Question 13

Technologies Allowing Advancement of drones

Answer 13

• Price
  o Electronics much cheaper
• GIS/GPS
  o More accurate control/control over path

* Battery
o Lighter and longer lasting

Question 14

Advantages of Drones

Answer 14

• Very high resolution imagery
  o Sub-centimetre
• Custom spectral resolution
  o NIR common
  o RGB common
  o Lidar
• Custom temporal resolution
  o Fly every day
  o Every week
  o Every month
  o Every year

Question 15

Disadvantages of Drones/Future Advancements

Answer 15

• Flight time
  o Typically batteries last 30-45mins
  o Reduces ability to get larger coverage
  o Battery life continuing to improve
• Licensing and flight zones
  o You need a license to fly certain drones
  o Can only be flown in certain areas

Question 16

Drones and forestry

Answer 16

• Current technology can produce
  3D models of forests using aerial
  imagery and LiDAR
• this is very Valuable for predicting timber volume, forest structure, and fire regimes
• May be less expensive than
  airplane-based aerial imagery
  and LiDAR