With the advent of Landsat in 1972 and later the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on NOAA polar orbiters, digital imagery with broad-band spectral measurements sensitive to land cover and vegetation attributes became available. These two sensors were the workhorses for conducting U.S. ecological research until the launch of the first Earth Observing System (EOS) satellite in 1999. This talk will focus on the role that NASA research and researchers played in developing a wide range of significant, quantitative ecological applications of satellite data. These applications ranged from early empirical studies focused on agriculture to a host of highly quantitative analyses of land cover change, vegetation productivity, and the impacts of climate changes. I joined NASA in 1985 to manage a newly formed Terrestrial Ecosystems Program. Along with other NASA program managers, I was charged with reorienting the program to be less empirical and have a greater focus on first principles and also to prepare for a next generation of earth-observing satellites. As an ecologist myself, I thought that focusing on important ecological questions and recruiting practicing ecologists to the program would facilitate such a change in directions. Of enormous appeal would be the global scope and ability to address change over time on large scales. So, in the mid-1980’s through the mid-1990’s we initiated many new projects and activities (e.g., field campaigns focused on establishing a biophysical basis for remote sensing measurement (e.g., FIFE, BOREAS), the Landsat Pathfinder Program, the NOAA/NASA NDVI Pathfinder, development of ecological models capable of utilizing satellite data). NASA also created new programs in preparation for its Mission to Planet Earth program and EOS satellite data. Of particular note are the Interdisciplinary Science program and the Graduate Student Research Program (GSRP), both of which included ecological and biogeochemical research topics. The GSRP was overwhelmingly successful in recruiting hundreds of new ecological investigators to the NASA program and heightening their awareness of the compelling research questions that could be addressed using satellite data. Many of these new investigators are now among the leading global change ecologists today, and they are posing the next set of ecological questions for future satellite missions to address.
