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GeoInformatics-7-2009
interview [a] [b] (a) this map shows the route of the crop assessment being carried out on the ground in ethiopia to assist in the interpretation and analysis that is being c onducted by usda/fas using spaceborne imagery. (b) the water requirement satisfaction index (wrsi) is a water-balance model developed by the un food & agricultural organisation (fao) which, in this case, indicates the potential performance of the maize crop for the imaged area in ethiopia. health, vegetation type, soil moisture, precipitation and temperature. spaceborne imagery is often the only primary observation integrated into the decision making process that provides objective, transparent and timely assessments of global food supply. understanding the global food supply is clearly more important today than ever. response and fewsnet is working with nasa to continually get better access to observations and models to help improve their response, both in timeliness and accuracy. gp regarding the analyses of the imagery that are being conducted continuously by fas/oga, how are the results communicated to organisations such as the famine early warning system network (fewsnet) for africa and the mesoamerica famine early warning system (mfews) for latin america? can this information be supplied in time to have an impact on the availability of food in those countries affected by widespread drought (that develops over a long time period) or through disasters such as large-scale river or coastal flooding (that occur over a much shorter time-scale)? bd - fewsnet and fas work closely together to share both data and analysis. fas publishes its analysis in collaboration with the world agriculture outlook board (waob) and the fas attaches who are located in u.s. embassies around the world. fas focuses on global food supply and the factors that drive global supply and demand. fewsnet (which is funded by usaid) is a key partner that focuses on food deficit countries and has a network of analysts and spaceborne derived products that target these nations and their specific needs. fewsnet has been a key resource for supporting emergency relief and providing early warning of disasters. timeliness is always a key issue in disaster latest news? visit www.geoinformatics.com gp given the current and well-documented limitations in the availability and quality of landsat imagery, presumably considerable use has had to be made by fas/oga of non-u.s. medium-resolution space imagery for monitoring purposes. if so, then how has this worked out in practice? has this imagery been readily available for use on a global scale or has it only been used for those areas that are of concern? bd landsat has been a key tool for fas for the past three decades. for many of those years, fas has used spot-hrv satellite data to provide observations in support of the landsat observations. in recent years, fas has used irs-p6 (resourcesat-1) awifs imagery to further support its mission, both to compensate for landsat limitations and to enhance the frequency of coverage in key agriculture regions. while the global systematic coverage and the long-term archive that the landsat program provides could not be replaced, key agriculture regions were covered in this way. gp obviously the successful launch of the ldcm (as landsat-8) and its entry into service in 2012 will be a great step forward in ensuring the continuity of the landsat archive and in conducting global agricultural monitoring. however looking to the longer term, what about the further continuity of the landsat programme? have the decisions been made to ensure this continuity, given the considerable time that will be required to construct, test and launch the required satellites. bd ldcm and the landsat program are recognized as a great asset to the u.s. space program by nasa. discussions are on-going as to how the moderate resolution imagery that landsat has provided over the years can be provided in the long-term. an artist s impression of the npp (npoess preparatory project) satellite which will test out three of the imaging instruments that will be used later in the fully operational npoess satellites. the test instruments will include the visible infrared imaging radiometer suite (viirs) which will cover the wavelength spectrum from 0.4 to 13 micrometres in 22 spectral bands at gsd values ranging from 600 to 1,200 metres. gp in many countries, extensive use is being made of the lower-resolution modis imagery for monitoring purposes. this imagery is available from nasa s terra and aqua satellites. however these satellites were launched a long time ago terra in december 1999 and aqua in may 2002. so again there is the question among the global remote sensing community about the continuity of this very valuable and widely-used resource. are these satellites going to be replaced when they come to the end of their operational lives? october/november 2009 29
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