The German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD) in Neustrelitz was host to the 31st Landsat Technical Working Group Meeting that took place in Rostock from October 3-7, 2022. The Neustrelitz ground station is a component of the international ground station network of the U.S. Landsat earth observation programme. The first Landsat satellite was launched 50 years ago.
Thirty-eight experts from the USA, Australia, India, Italy, Korea, Norway, So Africa and Germany shared information on the current status of the Landsat-8 and Landsat-9 missions. All the participating countries gave reports about their own earth observation research activities and described their current and planned national earth observation missions. DLR in Neustrelitz is a partner in many international cooperative agreements and currently assists in the reception of data from 20 satellite earth observation missions.
The programme also included a visit to the DLR antenna site in the Mecklenburg Lake District. The ground station experts could inform themselves about the modern infrastructure and view the antenna system that had recently been officially opened there. With this investment DLR has prepared itself for future missions in order to reliably acquire a data volume from future satellites that in some cases amounts to a ten-fold increase. DLR engineers and representatives of the VERTEX antenna company answered numerous questions posed by the interested international specialists.
Group photo taken in front of the new antenna in Neustrelitz during the 31st Landsat Technical Working Group Meeting
Describing the maritime security research activities in Neustrelitz
Zuvor hatten sich die Kollegen vom Geologischen Dienst der USA (USGS) und EOC zu einem dreitägigen Workshop in Oberpfaffenhofen getroffen. Ziel der Gespräche vom 28.-30. September war die Vertiefung bei vielen Kooperationsthemen. So ist USGS schon jetzt in der Science Advisory Group von EnMAP vertreten und unterstützt die Validationsaktivitäten von EnMAP. Das gemeinsame Interesse an der hyperspektralen Erdbeobachtung bildete demnach einen Schwerpunkt der Diskussionen. Daneben wurden Projekte des DFD präsentiert, bei denen Landsat-Daten zum Einsatz kommen, so wie beim World Settlement Footprint (WSF). Ein Erfahrungsaustausch bei den jeweilen Big Data Plattformen, sowie ein Besuch der DLR terrabyte Platform am Leibniz Rechenzentrum in Garching, rundete das Spektrum der Themen ab.
Participants of the three-day USGS and EOC workshop in Oberpfaffenhofen.