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USGS won’t have enough money to fund landsat
Moran 3/17 (Mike, Representative, congressional hearing on 2012 USGS budget, http://findarticles.com/p/news-articles/political-transcript-wire/mi_8167/is_20110320/rep-mike-simpson-holds-hearing/ai_n57124204/?tag=mantle_skin;content, accessed 7-5-11, JMB)
I owe you big time. Well, let's focus first of all on the $48 million increase for the outyear Landsat missions because it's coming from base programs that we feel are vital. And that is clearly on both sides of the aisle here. Now, I've seen a chart that shows the plan is for the USGS share of Landsat 9 and 10 missions, the two skyrocket, now, because that's a pun that the staff put in there deliberately. But -- but here we are, zero and in F.Y. '11, it goes to 48 million, of course, and this new budget in F.Y. '12, but then a 159 million in F.Y. '13 and 410 million in F.Y. '14. I mean, at -- in just two years from now, 410 million to a $1 billion agency, that's obviously over 40 percent of the entire agency.
Inherency – Landsat TOs with USGS
Landsat trades off with other USGS priorities
Moran 3/17 (Mike, Representative, congressional hearing on 2012 USGS budget, http://findarticles.com/p/news-articles/political-transcript-wire/mi_8167/is_20110320/rep-mike-simpson-holds-hearing/ai_n57124204/?tag=mantle_skin;content, accessed 7-5-11, JMB)
I hope we do have time to talk about lessons learned from that oil disaster, because there is an important role for both enhanced federal regulation and enhanced federal science. The -- as say though, Mr. Chairman, I couldn't agree more with you that this budget request is deeply troubling. It does include a large funding increase, but for a new responsibility the cost of future Landsat rockets. There is an overall increase of 50 million for Landsat, but many of the core reliable, and necessary science programs at the USGS have been cut to make room for Landsat. That doesn't make sense. So, I hope we can work together to figure this out and to rectify the -- I think the wrongheaded decision frankly, that the administration has made. The nation does need Landsat. But there are also needs the research as the Chairman says, on water quality, on groundwater stream gauges, mineral science, mapping, biology, earth sciences, all of those a cut in this request. The budget requires the loss of 230 full-term equivalent positions.
Solvency – Clarity
Landsats provide the clearest images.
Goetz 6 (Alexander, University of Colorado at Boulder, http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov /about/Application6.5.html, , accessed 7/5/11) CJQ
Alexander Goetz, professor of geological sciences at the University of Colorado is leading a research team to create an effective way to assess how the High Plains will be affected by future climate change. Using Landsat 5 data from 1984 to the present, Goetz' team has completed a detailed study of land cover change in northeastern Colorado and is creating a 15-year database of land cover and human-induced land cover changes in the region. One of the more striking observations is the dramatic shift from dry-land farming and flood irrigation to center-pivot irrigation since 1985. Some of the pivots are located in the dune areas and these spots would become dune reactivation sites if the irrigation were discontinued, according to Goetz. Combining land-cover data with meteorological and future climate data in a regional climate model, Goetz plans to produce a model-based method for estimating future dune reactivation and identifying the areas with the highest potential for reactivation. The team will also investigate the potential effect of abandoning farmed and irrigated lands on dune reactivation. Landsat 7 data provides the researchers with many more images than were previously available, since the team can acquire images from every pass of the satellite over the region. With multiple images during a growing season, they can more precisely distinguish crop types and change. Goetz expects that by extending the Landsat data set beyond 2000, he will be able to catch a significant drought year, which will help to validate models for the effect of low rainfall in the High Plains.
Solvency – Thermals – Tracking
Thermal band use is the only internal link to effective usage tracking.
NASA 7 (http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/pdf_archive/soc_0011.pdf, accessed 7/4/11)CJQ
Four important characteristics of Landsat explain its prominence in water resources management. Most importantly, Landsat collects thermal imagery. It also collects visible, near infrared, and shortwave infrared data all at a reasonably high spatial resolution, plus, the data have been collected regularly and archived since 1982. Thermal imaging “The thermal imager of Landsat is a critical component of the surface energy computations that we conduct to determine evapotranspiration,” explains Allen. 29 The thermal band allows managers to calculate the full surface energy balance and thereby estimate water consumption by both agricultural irrigation and urban landscaping that is much more accurate than estimates made using short-wave data alone. 30 Resolving power Landsat’s spatial resolution (30 m for the reflective bands, and 60 to 120 m for the ETM+ and TM thermal bands, respectively) fills a special niche in the world of water resources management. Landsat’s swath is wide enough to provide a synoptic view of a large region while at the same time its resolution is high enough to identify individual fields––which are typically ten to 160 acres (180 to 750 m per side) in the U.S. 31 “Actual consumptive use of water is needed if misuse of water is to be proved or water scarcity confirmed, and generally this needs to be done on a field-by-field basis,” according to Morse. 32 While there are other Earth-observing satellites that regularly collect thermal imagery, their low resolution makes field-level ET analysis impossible.
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