DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR PROPOSED TESTIMONY FOR 3/22/84 ON S. 1855 S. 1861 S. 2292 -- LANDSAT COMMERCIALIZATION ACT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86B00338R000200280003-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 11, 2008
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: March 16, 1984
• Content Type: MEMO

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EXECUTIVr.- OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET
WASHINGTON. D.C. 20503
March 16, 1984
LEGISLATIVE REFERRAL MEMORANDUM
Federal Communications Commission
Gener Services Administration
Dep_ tment of Justice
D rtment of State
Legislative Liaison Officer
Department of Aqriculture
National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationbO
entral Intelligence Agency
National Security Council
Department of Transportation
SUBJECT:
Department of the Interior proposed testimony for
3/22/84, on S. 1855, S. 1861, S. 2292 -- LANDSAF
Commercialization Act.
The Office of Management and Budget requests the views of your
agency on the above subject before advising on its relationship
to the program of the President, in accordance with OMB Circular
A-19.
A response to this request for your views is needed no later than
4:00 p.m. - Tuesday, March 3.0; 1984. Oral comments acceptable.
ny)
O"
'
Questions should be referred to William ,h./ Maxwell (395-3890),
the legislative analyst in this office.
Jamc C. ?4t lrf tor
Assistant Director for
Legislative Reference
Enclosures
cc: Scott Gudgs Arnie Donahue
Dan Taft Norine Noonan
Tim Sprehe Pat Szervo
Bill Hughes
Henry Lilienthal
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CONCEESSION, :AL Y'#5?InQNY BEFORE THE SCIL1tCE, TECHHOLO Y, AMP SPACE
SUB O 1TT1E OF THE SMATS COl (ERCE, 3CIEHCE, AW
TEANEPOFTLTIOii 22'
, ira:Eb kxd e4at4rs of the cut wittte, m7 Da. a
t. C,
On behalf of the
I am the tit
pep4Lrtusnt of t`e Interior, I am pleased to be here today to discuss
Interior's per;peCtiVB on ct~sreislization.of the U .S. land rastot*
ssrsii i, eetellits aystast. I will dlso- co=ent briefly on selected
atpccti: of the Ltreo bills before this subcommittee pertaining to
satell?,te land rt=te sensing -- S. 2292, S. 1855, and S. 1861. All
three bills have as a principal objective the s-ainteneDCe of Onited
Stites leadership in this technology. Of the three bills, S. 2292,
rscent::7 t tro%dueed by Cbeirs-an Gorton and Betator Goldwater, appears to
be the most comprehansiVe and is quite s1stilar to H.B. 4836, recently
introduced It the Amuse Co~ittee oa Science and Technology. Kenco, .Y
commen'.:s directed towards the legislation will coneern S. 2292, the "Lead
Re,aott Sensing satellite Comminications Act of 1954."
I Want tc aaiphsoita at the outset that the Departlnt of the Interior
it amo:5g the Strongest advocates for this new era of remote sensing
technology. The Department eras among the strlicst to recognize the
potential of satellite land remote sensing for manaf,irig the ccuntr7's
land std we.ter resources. Durin# the lest decade, managers, plemnera,
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ar.d EciEntiets within the various tureaua of the Department nave learned
to use de!s from Landaat by employing a balanced appcoaeh, combining
remotely esnaed date from astelllte and aircraft with other fors of
topobrephic arid cartobraphic date and with ground verifications. Land s at
deta, in cc binatiof with other types of data, have been used to support
6eo1oric analytos, bydroloLSc aseessswnts, land cover mapping, ioage
Rapping, and Applications research.
For oiMple, Landaat and digital elavatifr data have been used to
mete land cover classifications for about 130 million acres of A1ask4
lands, Participants in this program incluta the U.S: Geological Survey
(CSGS), Bureau of Land l-sr.ataawnt (ILA), U.S. Pisb and wildlife service
(USrWS), U.S, Forest Service (DEFE). and the State of Alaska. Another 60
million acres of land are being classified this year sad we expect to
re=does the entire state in the nest 3 to 4 years. Prior to this time,
very little land cover iafor tticn tad been available for at rations of
Alaska, Those Sureave and lgencies are now usint, Landaat data, as part
of a dit.itsl data base, for a variety of applications. Data bases have
been developed for many of the Watioral Wildlite Refuges, ethers they are
used for Refuge plannitS in responat to the Alaska National interest
Lands conservation d.ct of 19$0? other applications include en$intorint
and water resource planning on the Nortb Slope, and wildfire suppression
planning on public lands.
Interior Bureaus are actively usinb L$Adeat data in their operational
am well Lz.researcb programs. Several Bureaus have facilities and
trained staff devoted to the analysis of roratoly sensed data (including
Leadeet) AAd other earth science data. SelFctad locations Include USGS
(Reston, Virginia; Denver, Colorado; Flagstaff. Arisoaa; Sioux Pa11s,
Ti
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vuth f~akota; Menlo Park, California; and Anchorage, Alaska), Bt.
;palV t 1 Colorado; ana; AnchoraLe, A1eL:a) , UcPwS (FL. Collins, Colorado;
Slidell, Louisiana; St. petereburb, Florida; and Anchorage, &laika), kFS
(Denver. Colorado), and Bureau of R6c1GffAt1or (Denver, Colorado). Other
Bureaus and t4encies a.e Usint these facilitieo as w411 as the services
of the privato zeotOt to teat and iuP1tmont the use -of Landsat technology.
Interior's commitment to fostering the use of reawte sonsin6 was
ccrsoiidatsd in 1966 by the formation of.the Earth Resources Obeervatica
Systems (EROS) Program. Coder the Suidauce of the staff of this
;,~aia.:t.mental activit7, awt.rensas of petaibilities of aircraft s.n~?
satellite re-mote seDsing was It er+a.sed is the De;artmsnt. ZDS
scieptlste and s$oaters helped in the conctptual design of Chi first
Barth Resources Technology Satellite, ERTS-1 (now Xno''" as Landsat U.
no MS Data Center was esteblisbed in Sioux Calla, South Dakota, at the
batirnint of the t,at+deat prcgraL to serve as a national center to
process, archlv*, atd distribute Landsat' products to Users. This role It
the Landsat program began as a cooperative effort with the ltatioual
Mrotautics and Space L inistration (kA.SL) sad continues today ltitb the
National Oceenic and atmospheric Administration (WOA.A) that now bas
management responsibIlity for the operatjottal aspects of the Landsat
program. The Data Ctnter'a continvinb association with the Landsat
program iz also demonstrated by its active contacts with foreign laedsat
ground receiving stations and International smote aensinS progra*a.
At the time that the #1t05 Data Center began to proeeea and distribute
T,andsat data in the early 1970'9, the Department made a cot:mit ent to
develop ainetional capability at the Data Crater for analltinb reawtely
sensed data and traDeferrinS this new technology to various program
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e1esertB of the Dtparte nt. THe action was entirely cone" an% wiin,
and a logical e:tcn$lcn of, t;ts FRGS Probren eorcept that was for,wleted
in the lhte 1960';. Over the gears, the ZRDS Data Cantor's capabilities
for image proceeBir.E. spatial date handling, and technology traoifer grew
rapidly. Katy cooper*tlve projects were begun with interior Bureaus, and
specially designed training courier were offered to Interior and other
Fedora! a.aency personnel to help spread an understanding, of the potential
uses of rte Retains tecbeolOU . !-etive pertleipatlon by flOS
peteon:el helped several Bureaus to establisb *oft of the Department's
re cte a4nzink/dif1tal data avslysis centers that I mentioned earlier.
EWE tcitntista ccttinus-to cooperate witb Bureau personnel to develop
and implement new technology.
At the present trans, the Center has over 90c easplo1669 Ca tombiration
of Gover nt end cattractor personnel), with less than one-fourth of
these directly identifiable to le.ndeat date bandlitt and processing. The
saa3crity of the individuals who staff the Center's data bandlin$ sod
dietributioo activities are sbnred between W Ab'i Landsat activities and
tSCS'i eiroratt data program. Only 10 to 12 fall-tune iadiTidualo are
unique to Latde at operations, CoaputGr facilities and photog.rapbic
proceseitE equipT nt are alto shared between Landsat and other Center
activities.
If the Center's Landsat processing activity were to be taken over by
a commercial i,etem operator, tbere would be an obvious impact on the
Qtntsr'0 work force. However, the Center would continue to serve the
wide variety of Departmental functions that it has addressed for many
years, including 1) specialized proceaaia$ Q! Landsat data to seat unique
Interior needs (ima56 w.IPPinS, enhanced imago;, geographically registered
4
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? etc. 2) cocpetative appil,.~?~?,_ T .
data? tc_s,
3) ralesres and
ea wall a: ta*ny Other digital earth ectence data sets;
noflware develoP+naat, 14ad)nt to more effective ways to manipulate
digital data and use geobrephic Information sY'tems; 4) trslning and
technolcSY transfer; and S) archiving, processing, and distributing
aircraft data products. Because of these ongoing ZDterior functions, it
should be clearly uodtrstood that the UOS Data Center'i hardware ayeteds
will not be available for posnlble transfer to a coss"rrial operator.
We support wording in the legislation that confirsss the role of 1US81,
IIOkL, and other Federal agencies to continue land remtte tensing research
and developsient? The Dspa>rtment intends to continue its ras~ot4 sousing
research and development probranAwbich are designed to swset its specific
rescurce information requirO0e-uts By carefully defining our itforwAtion
evaluate; and
rsqulr-cta and date needs, we will continue to test,
i lams new approachse to data analysis and applications,
Interior Bureaus and offices bav4 worked actively with data that are
obtained from new aircraft and satellite sensing eysttt$, including
Lands&t. We have undertaken research and develaperent to understand the
unique charactsrix4t s of each new data type, as well LB to.ezplore ways
that new data can be used to evaluate, invantory, and monitor our
a ion'* natural rosourcez. for example, wt have found that the ivtprovod
n t Sats
8 ectral resolution of Landsat Thematic tapper (T!i) data helps $,DIOg
P
to identify important mineral occurrences that were not revealed on
hi another example, the
landsat Kultispectral Scanner (K88) Wages.
itt;d the Oeoloslcal
increased spatial resolution of TT data has per+a
Survey to print more detailed lirige maps. The recently released
' of the t{ashla6ton, D.C. area, printed at
false-color gatollite Image map
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a e gal of 1: *00.000 t.as boot :hc' to meet Watiorle! nap } jracy
Stan~a-de. I~ this way It is cornpattble with other mop; is our national
tamp series. Other Interior Buroaua are discovering that the resolution
of T) data also permits them to perform more d,tailed inventotles of
Pedorel lands vtdcr their jurisdiction.
Interior will continue to perform studies like these at new data axe
eterated by future satellite sensing syste B we, plan to use new data
L
free botb the s and TB -sensors on Landaat $, and would hope to use data
provided by e_ c -arcial system operator as defined under Title III of
S 22521 and dr.tt from other operators who obtain licenses to collect
data fader Title IT. Furthermore, forelbn Benein6 systems are being
deoit=,ed with features not offered by Landsat 5 (improved spatial
cte , o imaging Capability; apd slcrowave -spectral
resolution,
seneli:ivitl) We will also want to wort with data front these slate= to
icsap swsre of the tecbnological benefits offered by those oyeteaaE.
Based on our experiences with Landaats 1, 2, 3. and e, we believe
very atrontly tort there is a.nead for technological iVrove:ment
throughout the 19601B in season design, data processing procedures. e d
Imp in spatial resolution and spectral
analy-tis tezhniquot. ~-F
n the
aonsitivity ppd the availability of eta rooscopic coverage are awe 6
1 ical advaacetnte needed to ensure increased utility Within the
tacbao og
Departnant of data from V.S.-sponsored systems.
The Department ban made s aibnificamt ievostment in personnel as well
as facllitios to use thin eaer6in& technology. Continuity in the
availability of data from Landaat and follow-on systems is i^pOrta.Bt to
the Department. Many of the applications of Landsat data ere relatively
new and have dcoonstrated a cost ssviniB over traditional cethods. For
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those applications rocutr,nb current. (new) data. $ data L .r would
probebly reduce the acceptance of thlt techtialotY? We have noted that
the transttto' period specified in 2292 (6 yetra) is aborter than the
12-year contract period (including the anticipated 3-y "r lifetime of
Landsst 5) defined Jo the Commerce I3opartstbent'C ReQuost for Proposals for
Transfer of the U.S. Lend xewte Sensing program to the Private Sector.
We mope that your c ittee will carefully cooaider the most appropriate
transition period so that the opportunity for successful
eczarcializatioa can be pa:IMized.
We fully erred witb the clauses Ic*the proposed legislation which
data of
support the rigbt of all nations to acquire land remote sensing
any site on the Bartb, so lcng as cueb data are made available to all
potential seers on a nondiccrlra4nator1 basis. Any policy other than
"open skies". and nondiscriminatory data dissemination would be contrary
to the lontstatdir.g tradition of the United Btatas retarding the ezckemse
of scientific and tectnologlc informAtion with other nations of the world.
. A tranelticn resultitt in total c = wereializatilon should logically
include a strong and viable value-addod earvices industry is the private
at of the Intsr.ior is among those, who currently. draw
sector. The bepa,rtse
upon this industry for enhanced producta+aad specialized analytical
services. Consegvantly, we are encouraged that the proposed le!islatioa
attempts to ensure that possible unfair competitive advantages by the
eventual other/operator of th* satellite system be eliminated. To ensure
the hitbost level of competition and effectlveaoss.witb the services
industry, each participant must have direct, timely, and equal access to
the satellite data to they beacon available,
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tir. C airstT . th16 COflC' 'U "J r"----- -
?
rtunltY to be htro today. and I would be hIPPY to a.,..wor any
th*
s.
quLatlor,? at this U me.
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