July 17, 2012

Steve Cole Headquarters, Washington 202-358-0918 stephen e cole@nasa gov

MEDIA ADVISORY: M12-131

BRIEFING TO CELEBRATE 40 YEARS OF CONTINUOUS EARTH OBSERVATIONS

WASHINGTON -- NASA and the U S Geological Survey (USGS) will hold a news conference at 11 a m EDT, Monday, July 23, to highlight the accomplishments of the world's longest-running Earth-observing satellite program -- Landsat The briefing will be held at the Newseum at 555 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, and feature extensive imagery of our changing planet and local U S landscapes

In cooperation with the U S Department of the Interior (DOI) and its science agency, USGS, NASA launched the first Landsat satellite July 23, 1972 The resulting 40-year archive of Earth observations from the Landsat fleet forms an impartial, comprehensive, and easily accessed register of human and natural changes on the land This information supports the improvement of human and environmental health, biodiversity, energy and water management, urban planning, disaster recovery and crop monitoring

During the briefing, NASA and USGS will announce the 10 most significant images from the Landsat record, the U S regions selected for the "My American Landscape" contest showing local environmental changes, and the top five Landsat "Earth As Art" images selected in an online poll

The panelists for the briefing are: -- Anne Castle, assistant secretary for water and science, U S Department of the Interior, Washington -- Waleed Abdalati, chief scientist, NASA Headquarters, Washington -- Jeff Masek, NASA Landsat project scientist, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md -- Tom Loveland, USGS senior scientist, Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center, Sioux Falls, S D -- Jim Irons, Landsat Data Continuity Mission project scientist, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md -- Roger Auch, research geographer, EROS Center, Sioux Falls, S D

Media may ask questions of the panelists during the briefing Media wanting to attend the briefing must send their name, affiliation and telephone number to Steve Cole at stephen e cole@nasa gov no later than 4 p m EDT, July 20 Reporters unable to attend the briefing in person can ask questions during the event via Twitter using the hashtag #asknasa NASA Television and the agency's Web site will provide live briefing coverage

For information on receiving NASA TV, go to:

http://www nasa gov/multimedia/nasatv/digital html

For NASA TV streaming video, scheduling and downlink information, visit:

http://www nasa gov/ntv

The Landsat program is jointly managed by NASA and DOI/USGS NASA is preparing to launch the next Landsat satellite in February 2013 For more information about the Landsat program, visit:

http://www nasa gov/landsat

and

http://landsat usgs gov

-end-

To subscribe to the list, send a message to: hqnews-subscribe@mediaservices nasa gov To remove your address from the list, send a message to: hqnews-unsubscribe@mediaservices nasa gov

The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription:

You are subscribed to the following list: [list_name]

using the following email: example@example.com

You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by visiting the following URL:

https://aus-city com/cgi-bin/dada/mail cgi/u/NASA_REPORTS/example/example com/

If the above URL is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address Some mail readers will wrap a long URL and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism

You may also change your subscription by visiting this list's main screen:

<[program_url]/list/[list]>

If you're still having trouble, please contact the list owner at:

<mailto:[list_owner_email]>

The following physical address is associated with this mailing list:

[physical_address]