and geophysical and geochemical surveys. This will lead to 
more rapid indication of site-selective areas for specific 
examination and eventual drilling and testing. 
Satellite Remote Sensing for Energy and Mineral Resources 
The international industrial geological community is represented 
by The Geosat Committee, which was created in 1976 to demonstrate 
the potential benefit of Landsat and future geologically-oriented 
remote sensing systems. Geological satellite remote sensing 
capabilities to be added to the current Landsat systems and data 
base during the 1980's include fixed and pointable digital stereo- 
Scopic coverage, increased spatial resolution to 10 meters IFOV 
(instantaneous field of view), rock/soil sensitive spectral bands 
in the short wave and thermal infrared portions of the electro- 
magnetic spectrum, and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). Because 
of increased digital data rates associated with these improve- 
ments to the Landsat-type satellite remote sensing systems, ade- 
quate ground segment systems for digital data acquisition, pro- 
cessing, archiving, and distribution must be upgraded to handle 
the data and provide for the growing user market which will 
develop from the availability of these new data and the geological 
and other data derived therefrom. 
These improved satellite remote sensing capabilities have been 
studied and are demonstrated by the joint Geosat-NASA Test Case 
Program, which has made extensive remote sensing studies over 
three porphyry copper, two uranium, and three oil and gas deposits 
in the U.S. from 1977 through 1982. These studies have utilized 
various remote sensing techniques provided by NASA and the Jet 
Propulsion Lab who flew them over these sites of known geology 
provided by The Geosat Committee. The site geologic, geophysical, 
and geochemical information was provided by several Geosat companies. 
Studies of these systems have been compared, and, in some cases, 
integrated for maximum geological information. Technique compari- 
sons and geological assessment of these remote sensing capabilities 
have been jointly studied by geologists from NASA, Jet Propulsion 
Lab, the U.S. Geological Survey, and from several participating 
Geosat Committee companies. This multi-million dollar program and 
its study will be published in early 1983 and will be available 
through NASA, the AAPG, and The Geosat Committee. 
New Satellite Systems for the 1980's 
Several global satellite systems to be developed during the 1980's 
will provide added geological capabilities to the growing Landsat 
digital data base. The U.S. LANDSAT D was successfully launched 
and thus became LANDSAT 4 on July 16, 1982. After NASA evaluation, 
this system will provide both multispectral scanner (MSS) and 
Thematic Mapper (TM) scanner data, which will improve both the 
spatial and spectral resolution coverage provided by Landsats 
1,2, and 3. The Thematic Mapper, in addition to having four bands 
  
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