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Water Data and Science Committee Meeting Summary: August 3rd, 2022

Meeting Summary

Water Data & Science Committee

August 3, 2022

9amMT/10amCT/11amET

 

Link to Meeting Recording: https://youtu.be/A960gk9BrnM

  1. Call to Order—Chair Amy Shallcross -DRBC called to order at 11:00 am Central.
  2. Introductions of Participants on the call: Amy Shallcross (Committee Chair), Beth Callaway (ICWP Executive Director), Tim Stryker and Steve Aichele with USGS (Guest presenters), Ole Mikkelson, Becca Emery, Han Wei, Kay Whittington , Melinda Fegler, Wade Loseman.
  3. Guest speaker: Tim Stryker, USGS Chief, Outreach and Collaboration Branch of the National Land Imaging Program. Topic: Landsat’s 50th Anniversary

 Tim Stryker provided an overview of recent and future Landsat satellite missions, plus a look at Landsat applications that support government, commercial, NGO, educational and other users across the United States. The Landsat program is a joint NASA / USGS program and is the longest-running enterprise for acquisition of satellite imagery of Earth, also known as the “Swiss Army knife of earth observing systems.” It monitors land cover change, ag/forestry uses, ecosystem characterizations, tracks and monitors natural disasters, water, climate, energy/minerals, ocean/coastal changes, etc. It is the second most impactful earth observing data services, second only to GPS.

Landsat’s water resources applications include analysis of consumptive water use (evapotranspiration, or ET), surface water quality, coastal wetlands mapping/monitoring, to name a few. Landsat Collection 2 was released in the commercial cloud May 2021 and has new tools for search and discovery, improved radiometry, geometry, and metadata and access. These tools are free and open data access (Earth Explorer, Glovis, Landsat Look). Landsat 9 has already been distributing data to users for months and collects up to 730 new scenes per day. Landsat 8 has been operational since 2013.

The goal of the next Landsat mission (“Landsat Next”) will be able to meet emerging needs and better characterize these phenomena in the future with improved revisit frequency, higher spatial resolution, additional spectral bands, maintaining radiometric quality. It would provide weekly ET observations, better field scale estimates due to higher resolution, better mapping of snow covered area, OpenET support. Expected data delivery modes are to make it easier for AI and machinery applications to pick up the data that can be automated into applications; EROS is staying on top of that.

ICWP members were invited to attend the NASA to USGS handover event for Landsat 9 on August 10-11th in Sioux Falls, SD.

  1. ICWP Internship Program for Spring, 2022— Links to the Final Reports were provided below:
    1. Evaluating the Health of Aging Irrigation Infrastructure on a Statewide Level – Kimber Logan (invited)
    2. Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Guidebook – Kelly Shen
    3. Review of Federal Climate Action Plans – Natalie Von Turkovich
  1. Topics in the works
    1. Overall vision for this committee — Time will be dedicated at the next meeting to talk more about this in detail.
      1. Amy to talk to the ICWP Board on how this committee fits into ICWP’s portfolio of policy issues. How can this committee better drive the content of some of the greater policy issues that the Legislation and Policy Committee and Board take on?
      2. Can WD&S get technical presentations and translate it to ICWP membership for what’s important for states to do.
      3. Increase engagement
    2. WD&S 2022 Workplan updates – to be revisited in more detail at the next meeting.
  1. Tracking activities
    1. Atlas 14 updates – to be revisited in more detail at the next meeting.
    2. NOAA Seasonal to Sub-Seasonal Forecasting – to be revisited in more detail at the next meeting.
    3. 3531 National Climate Adaptation & Resilience Strategy Act– to be revisited in more detail at the next meeting.
  2. Event notice: National Water Use Workshop: August 16-18, 2022, Salt Lake City—Sponsored by WSWC, USGS and ICWP
  3. Set next meeting – August 31st at 4pmET
    1. Potential agenda topic: Industry technology updates