RADARSAT 
JERS-1 
POLAR PLATFORM 
NROSS 
SPOT 2,3,4 
The concept of the LANDSCAN system is to provide a 
high resolution multi-channel, multi-satellite 
receiving system, with extensive facilities to 
archive, catalogue and process the raw data. 
Facilities wil be provided to enable researchers to 
investigate the techniques from which new products 
can be developed. 
user terminals with electronic browse capabilities. 
The total integration of the system is therefore 
available from a single supplier. 
3 SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE 
The main processing features of this system can be 
summarised as follows: 
- A computer system with sufficient disc, memory 
and I/O capability to store and process a 
range of image types. This will provide the 
basic processing capability for the: 
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2 APPLICATION AREAS 
The application areas for remotely sensed data are 
both wide and varied. These applications can 
usually be grouped around the sensor resolution and 
type. The increasing resolution of data now 
available to the commercial user, 10 metres in the 
case of SPOT, has greatly expanded these application 
areas. Satellite images are potentially useful in 
fields such as cartography, land use, agriculture, 
forestry, geology and pollution monitoring. 
Satellite data is now used in cartography for 
example, where a few years ago aerial photography 
was suitable. Images can detect geological faults 
and aid in the exploration of oil and gas. 
Individual crop types can be identified and their 
health and stage of growth noted. Civil engineering 
uses of the data as an aid to town planning and 
cartography are also under development. 
Due to the high cover pass rate of the NOAA series 
of meteorological satellites, many users are finding 
it a valuable tool in non-meteorological fields, 
such as environmental monitoring and hydrology. 
Access to the data is also relatively easy and it is 
widely available and cheap. 
The application areas can be increased by 
combining sensor types. LANDSAT with its 30 meter 
resolution metre resolution covers the same area 
once every 16 days. Coupled with AVHRR with its 1.1 
km resolution but multiple daily passes, it can 
yield an increase in the usefulness of the data. 
Some of the main application areas that benefit 
from the LANDSCAN range of system are: 
HYDROLOGY - Runoff estimation, hydrological 
planning, snow cover mapping. 
AGRICULTURE - Crop monitoring, conservation, 
forestry, insect damage. 
GEOLOGY - Mineral assessment, oil and gas 
exploitation. 
ENVIRON 
MENTAL 
OCEANOGRAPHY - 
LAND USE 
Pollution monitoring, coastal 
zone monitoring, volcanic 
activity. 
Sea surface temperatures, ice 
berg detection, ice edge 
mapping, meteorology. 
Cartography, civil engineering. 
The interest flexibility of the LANDSCAN systems 
to support a whole range of different data types, 
catalogue the data, process orders for the data and 
distribute the data, offers a number of advantages 
to potential users. 
- Handling and control of the data 
- Storage 
- Applications software 
- Range of input data types on CCT 
- Two work stations for the presentation, 
analysis and interactive display of 
images received from both satellites 
(LANDSAT, SPOT) 
- Interface to photographic kit, 
film-writers etc. 
- Interface facilities to enable the 
output products from the LANDSCAN 
system to be easily available to other 
Remote Site Systems via an X25 network. 
Interfaces to the Earthnet/SPOT 
catalogues for on-line order handling 
and product generation queries 
- Archive of system data 
- Data Catalogue 
Tape/Archive Catalogue 
- Products can be specified in a user 
friendly product definition language 
for regular products to be generated 
- Order Handling 
- Log file generation 
- Sufficient space for future development 
of new facilities 
- Simple incorporation of user defined 
formation into the software and system 
menu's 
3.2 Design principles 
The principal objectives of the design of the 
LANDSCAN range of systems ensures that: 
- The overall design approach was simple. 
- The proposed design was maintainable. 
- A multi-user capability exists. 
- The operating system interface has been 
optimised. 
An even distribution of CPU loading occurs. 
- Files in the system can be easily accessed. 
- The system is divided into a number of logical 
or modular entities. 
- The system has no unnecessary constraints 
built into the design. 
- The system can easily be expanded with the 
addition of new routines/modules. 
- The system degrades in performance in a 
controlled way in the event of peripheral 
failure. 
Software in the system is run as and required 
i.e. modules are not always running but are 
started when they are needed to run to produce 
a series or set of output results. 
Errors in the system are handled in a 
systematic and consistent way. 
3.3 Hardware architecture 
They represent the state-of-the-art in national 
and regional data centre capabilities and are 
suitable for a wide range of application areas. 
They are also supported by the low and remote access 
3.3.1 Overview 
This section briefly lists the overall hardware and 
proprietary software components of the LANDSCAN 
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