Highlights for May 14, 1999
USGS Center for Biological Informatics

I. Key Department News:

• USGS Scientist Contributes to National Land-Cover Data Implementation Strategy. Maury Nyquist of the USGS Center for Biological Informatics has been asked to serve on a peer review panel comprised of six federal and university scientists charged with the review of MRLC 2000: Implementation Strategy for Production of National Land-Cover Data from the Landsat 7 Thematic Mapper Satellite. The Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium was formed in 1992 to meet the needs of several federal agencies (EPA, NOAA, USFS, USGS) for current land-cover information. The consortium was originally formed to acquire and process Landsat data to a specified standard so that each agency could use the data to meet individual needs. This MRLC national land-cover mapping project marks the first consistently classified coterminous land-cover dataset since USGS's Land Use Data Analysis System, which derived these data from high-altitude aerial photography in the early 1970s. The primary purpose of the peer review is to ensure that "MRLC 2000" provides a workable strategy for implementing a national land-cover project with the most recent satellite data. (Maury Nyquist, Denver, 303-202-4217)
  
• Guide to Datums and Projections. The BRD Geospatial Technology Program Web site has posted the new publication, Datums and Projections: A Brief Guide, by Tom Owens of the USGS Center for Biological Informatics <http://biology.usgs.gov/geotech/geodoc.htm>. Scientists and resource managers often use or create data that are referenced to locations on the earth (geospatial data). Users of geospatial data need to know the coordinate system or projection the data are in so that they can make accurate measurements from the data or overlay different datasets for analysis. Frequently, users or creators of geospatial data are unaware or unsure of the projection or datum geospatial data are in, or which projection to select when creating geospatial data. This document provides geospatial data users with a practical, non-technical introduction to projections and datums--and their use and misuse. (Tom Owens, Denver, 303-202-4259)
  
• USGS Scientists Present Temporal Analysis Technique for National Park Fuels Mapping. On May 17-21, Ralph Root of the USGS Center for Biological Informatics and Jan Van Wagtendonk of the USGS Western Ecological Research Center's Yosemite Field Station will present a poster at the 1999 Annual Conference of the American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. The conference, "From Image to Information," covers mapping, photogrammetry, environmental management, remote sensing, GIS, natural resources, GPS, and geodesy. In their poster, Root and Van Wagtendonk describe a process, patterned after hyperspectral analysis techniques, that identifies different types of ground cover based upon how their reflectance changes through a single growing season. The process used Landsat Thematic Mapper data obtained at approximately one-month intervals over an entire growing season, from May through November. (Ralph Root, Denver, 303-202-4232)
  

II. Agency Works on Presidential Initiatives: No report.

III. Notable Congressional Activity: No report.

IV. Press/Media Inquiries: No report.

V. FOIA Requests: No report.