Accomplishments of the 70's 
Our ability to understand the Earth's environment was greatly increased with 
the launch of the first Earth Resources Survey Satellite, Landsat-1, on 
July 23, 1972. Perhaps the most valuable space application to date, the 
Landsat satellites, coupled with meteorological satellites and other ancillary 
data, offer the potential for systematically and routinely monitoring the bio- 
sphere. 
The Department of the Interior played a key role in the design of the first 
Landsat satellite. Performance specifications for an Earth Resources Satellite 
System, developed by Interior in consultation with the Department of Agriculture, 
were proposed to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 
October 1966. From this beginning, a close working relationship with NASA has 
developed and expanded to include cooperation in data production and dissemina- 
tion, research, and training activities. 
Within Interior, the Earth Resources Observation Systems (EROS) Program was 
established in 1966 to develop, demonstrate and encourage applications of re- 
motely sensed data acquired from aircraft and spacecraft to the resource and 
environmental inventory, and management responsibilities of the Department. 
During the 70's, the EROS Program role has expanded to include operation of the 
EROS Data Center (EDC) which serves all agencies of the Federal Government and 
the public and, by the end of 1978, will be the sole national distributor of 
Landsat data products. 
The EROS Data Center began its initial operation in October 1971, housed in 
temporary rented space in downtown Sioux Falls, South Dakota. On July 25, 1972, 
EDC began receiving, processing and distributing Landsat images, and in January 
1974 the staff moved into the present modern facility northeast of Sioux Falls. 
Currently employing more than 300 employees, EDC has experienced a three fold 
increase in demand since Fiscal Year (FY) 1973 for imagery and a 280 fold in- 
crease in demand for digital tapes (see Table I). Training courses have risen 
from one in FY 1973 to an estimated 28 to be conducted in FY 1978. Data base 
holdings have increased to nearly six million frames during the same time period. 
In addition, data quality and timeliness have steadily improved, with further 
improvements anticipated for Landsat-2 and -3 data with the operation of the new 
EROS Digital Image Processing System (EDIPS), which is currently being installed 
and tested at EDC. 
Applications of the Landsat data have followed a similar pattern. Initially, 
simple photointerpretation procedures were uséd to extract information from the 
Landsat color composite images. During the past six years the photointerpreta- 
tion methods have been augmented with innovative and powerful optical and digi- 
tal processing procedures. These procedures, many developed through research 
programs using aircraft prior to the launch of Landsat-1, capitalize on the 
unique characteristics of the Landsat system (i.e., stable sensor platform, 
sun-sychronous orbit, digital multispectral format, and multidate coverage). 
Digital and optical contrast stretching, for example, have improved the detec- 
tion of water turbidity, point sources of pollution, and oil slicks (Falconer, 
et al, 1975; Deutsch, et al, 1977). Band ratioing procedures have enabled