What is Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation (JACIE) team?
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the United States Geological Survey (USGS), and their associates and partners, are directly responsible for establishing and leading a unique interagency team of scientists and engineers who work together to evaluate and enhance the quality remote sensing data for commercial and government use. This team is called “the Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation (JACIE) team”. This team works together to define, prioritize, assign, and assess civil and commercial image quality and jointly sponsors an annual JACIE Civil Commercial Imagery Evaluation workshop with participation support from the remote sensing calibration and validation science community. The intent of the JACIE workshop is to exchange information regarding the characterization and application of commercial and civil imagery used by the government and commercial sectors. This workshop is focused on the synergy of high, medium and low resolution imagery and remote sensing technologies used by the Government.
Quality image data is crucial to the Federal Government to aid in decision-making for global problems, such as climate change, food supply monitoring, and deforestation, and specific problems, such as the management of federal lands, defense and homeland security. Ensuring the acquisition and delivery of quality remote sensing data requires independent characterization and validation; this is the true JACIE “trademark”. JACIE serves as a model for how government should characterize remotely sensed data that it purchases in the future.
Each of the JACIE agencies brings its own unique resources and the talents of its people to this task. The JACIE team has a strong focus on geospatial and radiometric calibration, accuracy, and resolution. Image interpretability, feature extraction capability and the imagery’s applicability to problem solving are core areas. The relationship that developed between the government and industry has resulted in a spirit of cooperation and trust that is key to JACIE's non-biased assessment of the data. The interagency collaboration -- combined with openness and involvement with industry -- has been especially successful. The cooperative effort of the JACIE team and industry has resulted in improved product quality for all commercial remote sensing data users.
In addition to the partnership between the five federal agencies, the JACIE team has invested in partnerships with state and local governments as well as universities who bring their diverse expertise, needs, and insights to the table. This extended partnership has been encouraged and funded by all four agencies and helps to promote and expand the usefulness of this government research while simultaneously giving the federal partners key insights in the capabilities and needs of other entities.
The JACIE team effort is a model partnership that integrates the unique abilities, strengths, and particular interests of its members to produce a meaningful set of studies on all aspects of satellite data quality. JACIE supports several of the Administration’s emphasis areas, such as the U.S. Commercial Remote Sensing Policy, the United States Land Remote Sensing Policy, National Land Imaging Programs, the United States Group on Earth Observations (GEO), and the team members’ agency requirements, in terms of commercial government partnerships and building a foundation for acceptance and understanding of new technologies.
The JACIE fosters growth in the use of remote sensing within DoD and civil agencies as well as the broader commercial marketplace. Remote sensing continues to produce new applications that improve our quality of life. With the strong climate of government reliance on data from commercial systems versus government owned and operated systems that the work of JACIE becomes extremely relevant.
JACIE fills an important role in providing government users visibility and understanding of the many new sources of earth observing data. It has also allowed the industry partners to better understand the myriad needs of the federal government and potential uses for their data.
The methodologies, techniques, and science used and developed by JACIE have application in evaluating many remote sensing technologies, such as optical satellite and airborne imagery, LIDAR, Hyperspectral, RADAR, and science techniques and applications. The JACIE team is continuing to evolve its characterization methodologies and is extending its calibration and validation work to future satellites and other technologies from the U.S. and around the world. Much of the work done by JACIE partners is new and directly supports many organizations science needs. The JACIE team is also currently supporting international satellite system characterization in support of a medium resolution Global Data Gap (i.e.; Landsat).
When did JACIE begin?
The annual Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation (JACIE) workshop event began in the year 2000 allowing partners from, NASA, NGA, NOAA, USDA, USGS, other Federal, State, Local government, academia, and industry, and guests from across the public and private sectors to work together. The JACIE workshop represents the U.S. government’s continuing commitment to remote sensing technology as an important tool in providing information to address critical science issues.