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"GLOBAL SATELLITE REMOTE SENSING FOR ENERGY, MINERALS AND OTHER RESOURCES" 
by 
Frederick B. Henderson III, PH.D., President 
The Geosat Committee 
153 Kearny, Suite 209 
San Francisco, CA 94108 
U.S.A. 
During the 1970's, the development of civilian satellite remote sensing 
began on a global scale with the introduction of the U.S. Landsat satellites 
in 1972. These satellites were designed principally for agriculture, hydro- 
logy, and land use planning. Applications have demonstrated the value of syn- 
optic perspective, global satellite coverage, and increased efficiency of 
reconnaisance geology in mapping from space to the energy and mineral resource 
industries. 
The international industrial geological community represented by The 
Geosat Committee has worked with NASA, NOAA, JPL, USGS, C.N.E.S., BRGM, NASDA, 
MITI, CSIRO, CCRS and others to demonstrate the potential benefits of the Land- 
sat system and additional satellite capabilities to be realized in the 1980's 
to the energy and mineral exploration community. Capabilities added to current 
Landsat systems should include fixed and pointable stereoscopic coverage, 
increased resolution (to 10 meters IFOV), additional rock/soil sensitive bands, 
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), and corresponding ground segment systems for 
digital data processing and applications. The exploration and engineering 
value of these capabilities has been demonstrated in the joint Geosat-NASA/JPL 
Test Case Program for oil/gas, uranium, and copper deposits. The Test Case 
Program Report, a 3-volume document, will be published around September 1982. 
Several international satellite systems in various stages of proposal/ 
development may include the U.S. LANDSAT D and D', with both the 4-band multi- 
spectral scanner (MSS) and the 7-band Thematic Mapper (TM) scanner. In France, 
there is the SPOT system (1985); in Japan, MOS (Marine Observation Satellite, 
mid-80's) and ERS (Earth Resources Satellite, 1987). The European Space Agency 
(ESA) proposes a marine/land observation system (ERS) late in the 1980's. All 
these developing satellite systems recognize the necessity of international 
cooperation, primarily because of the commonly held view of preserving the "Open 
Skies" policy (mutual accessibility/availability of data to all) in civilian 
satellite remote sensing. 
The success of the various national developing civilian satellite remote 
sensing systems will in large measure depend on international cooperation and 
exchange of data and on mutual cooperative use of ground receiving stations for 
efficient and economic data distribution. This will inherently lead to the 
eventual industrialization of these operational systems. Such industrialization 
will occur in those areas where industry can more efficiently supply the user 
community with the required data than can government agencies. 
Because of the high cost of obtaining, processing, distributing, and pre- 
serving the data produced by these future civilian satellite remote sensing 
systems and because of the high potential value in future exploration and 
development of non-renewable resources utilizing the satellite data, all 
national systems are encouraged to move towards internationalization and indus- 
trialization of complementary and compatible systems in the 1980's for the 
benefit of all mankind. 
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