Jim Irons, Former Landsat Project Scientist, Wins Pecora Award

Landsat Navigation Landsat Home Missions Landsat 10 Landsat 9 Landsat 8 Landsat 7 Landsat 6 Landsat 5 Landsat 4 Landsat 3 Landsat 2 Landsat 1 News Latest News People of Landsat Q&As Newsletter Publications Data Overview Cal/Val Open Data Benefits Overview Agriculture & Food Security Disaster Management Ecosystems & Biodiversity Energy Resources Forest Management Human Health Urban Development Water Resources Wildfires Case Studies Outreach Multimedia About Search Now an emeritus scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Dr. Jim Irons is the former Landsat 8 Project and GSFC Earth Science Division Director. Last month, Landsat’s very own Jim Irons won the prestigious William T. Pecora Award. Irons, now an emeritus scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, played an integral role in shaping the Landsat program into what it is today. He served as deputy project scientist for Landsat 7 before taking over as project scientist for Landsat 8. From the earliest days of Landsat 8—then called the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM)—all the way through launch and operation, Irons worked across the agency and with colleagues at the USGS to ensure that Landsat continued providing critical data to researchers around the world. He championed rigorous calibration standards and fought to keep the thermal band on Landsat 8. Now, with projects like OpenET relying on evapotranspiration data derived from Landsat thermal imagery, the strength of his vision has only become more apparent. Irons also served as the director of NASA Goddard’s Earth Science Division during the turbulent early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Contending with global disruption, he prioritized making sure that everyone had the support that they needed to continue doing great work. As a leader and a scientist, Irons left a legacy of collaboration and innovation that lives on today. We checked in with Irons about his role in Landsat’s history, what it takes to be a good leader, and winning the Pecora award: NASA missions are so collaborative. Are there mentors, colleagues, or teams that you would want to share this recognition with or give special mention to? One reason I feel so honored is that prior recipients have been my supervisors, mentors, role models, and colleagues whose work I admired and who inspired me. There’s a long list of people who have been recipients, and I am very honored to be added to that list. There are also many people who have not yet been recognized who are very deserving. I’ve written letters of support for others, and I hope I’m called on again because there are more people who deserve recognition than there are awards to give out. One of the things highlighted in the Pecora Award announcement was your commitment to the long-term continuous data record of Landsat. Looking at the Landsat program, why is this continuity so critical for Earth science today? Data continuity is the backbone of the Landsat program. We are looking for change over time. When we talk about climate change and the impact of humans on the land surface, those changes are multi-decadal. We wouldn’t be able to understand, characterize, and monitor those changes without a continuous data record. And it’s really important that the data record is well-calibrated. When we see changes between data from one Landsat sensor relative to another, we need to be confident that it’s a change occurring on the Earth, not a change in the performance of the sensors. That’s another major contribution cited in your award: how much you pushed for rigorous data calibration and quality assurance. How did you establish those processes, and how did that make Landsat the gold standard of satellite data? Early in my career, I got in trouble over calibration. NASA was flying an airborne sensor called the Thematic Mapper Simulator, intended to anticipate the capabilities of Landsat 4 and 5. But the operators kept changing the radiometric gain in-flight to maximize the dynamic range. I told NASA Headquarters that we couldn’t compare that data to the actual Thematic Mappers if they kept changing the gain—it wasn’t the same radiometry! The HQ manager got really upset, but I weathered the storm and stuck to my guns. Later, when Landsat 4 and 5 were returned to the U.S. government from private operation, there had been no real calibration since launch. I advocated for a ground system component at USGS EROS to perform calibration. I didn’t build it, but I did advocate for USGS to hire a brilliant guy named Jim Storey, who developed the software for the precise geolocation of pixels in the data. When I became Landsat 8 Project Scientist, we needed a pre-launch calibration lead. I advocated for Brian Markham. Brian just did a remarkable job ensuring the calibration of the Operational Land Imager (OLI) and its cross-calibration with previous instruments. He was modest, humble, and built