HU geographers appointed to NASA's Landsat Science Team
Prof Dr Patrick Hostert and Dr Dirk Pflugmacher will contribute their expertise to one of the world's most important earth observation programmes
The two geographers Prof Dr Patrick Hostert and Dr Dirk Pflugmacher from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin are part of the interdisciplinary research group "Synergistic Data Processing Pipelines for Landsat and European Satellite Missions" headed by David Frantz (University of Trier), which will support the renowned Landsat Science Team (LST) in future. The appointment was made by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and is regarded as a special scientific honour: only world-leading experts who are helping to shape the further development of one of the world's most important earth observation programmes are appointed to the Landsat Science Team. Other members of the group are Sebastian van der Linden (University of Greifswald) and Cornelius Senf (Technical University of Munich).
Satellite data of the Earth's surface is the basis for environmental research and policy advice
The Landsat programme has been continuously supplying high-resolution satellite data on the Earth's surface for over 50 years and thus forms a central basis for research on climate change, land use, ecosystem changes, forests, agriculture and urbanisation. The freely available data is used worldwide in science, environmental monitoring and policy advice. The members of the Landsat Science Team contribute directly to the strategic development of the programme with their research. This includes advising on the utilisation of existing satellites as well as helping to shape future missions, in particular the upcoming Landsat Next Generation.
Precise recording of environmental changes
The research group with scientists from Berlin, Greifswald and Munich contributes expertise in several areas: Analysing large satellite data archives, combining different satellite missions such as Landsat and Sentinel as well as high-resolution temporal evaluation methods and AI-supported analyses. The aim of the project, entitled "Synergistic Data Processing Pipelines for Landsat and European Satellite Missions", is to precisely record environmental changes over decades - such as increased forest damage due to climate change, agricultural land use changes and intensification, the degradation or renaturalisation of moors or the dynamics of growing cities.
Further information
- Press release of Trier University
- Communication from NASA
- Research and teaching of the Earth Observation Lab of the HU Institute of Geography
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HU press release, 15 January 2026