The LTER Network uses Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System technologies extensively in its research activities. This page provides information and links to this activity at the LTER sites and LTER Network Office within the LTER Program.
Remote Sensing data has been use extensively in past research and collaborations, particularly with NASA. These data have been preserved in an archive. Access to the archive is being developed for the LTER NIS, and data from these collaborations can be found through a Metacat search or by direct FTP access. These data are described in a static, archived description page of Satellite Image Data of LTER Sites. LTER site location data used in these projects is documented on the LTER General Site Geographic and Landsat WRS coordinate page.
Access to Landsat data for all LTER sites has been a continued recommendation of LTER Technology committees, and with LTER Synthesis funding the entire 1985 to 2013 Landsat-5 archive was searched for images with 10% or less cloud cover and placed into an archive linked for FTP access and are being prepared for incorporation into the LTER NIS through the LTER data portal.
A general history of the remote sensing data use can be found on the Remote Sensing, GIS and Technological Coordination Background page, Past LTER collaborations with NASA are described in pages for early workshop and initiative reports as well as specific projects on the LTER-NASA Sunphotometer description page of the LTER-NASA atmospheric correction of remote sensing data.
Other remote sensing projects include obtaining specific International Space Station Photography of LTER Sites, MODIS Subsets for LTER Sites, and targeted and declassified reconnaissance imagery of LTER sites through the Global Fiducual Library (GFL) program of the USGS.
