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going on in the surface of the Earth," Loveland said.
• NASA launched Landsat 8 into space in February. Since then, teams have been running it through a barrage of tests before placing the satellite into orbit 438 miles above the planet's surface.
• "The spacecraft has been extremely healthy," said Jim Nelson, ground systems manager. "The instruments have performed really well."
• The EROS Center, the main federal repository for satellite images, will officially take over the mission May 30 from NASA.
• Since 1972, Landsat satellites have been continuously snapping pictures across the globe as part of a 40-year mission to document the planet.
• Landsat 8, which is about the size of UPS truck with a 30-foot-long deployed sheet of solar panels, is stocked with a 10-year supply of fuel. It travels at a speed of 17,000 miles per hour.
• Landsat 8 will work in tandem with Landsat 7, launched in 1999, to take pictures of each inch of the planet's surface every eight days. Landsat 7 continues to operate despite a faulty scan line corrector that leaves zigzag gaps in some images.
• Landsat 5, which dates back to 1984, worked decades past its expected mission end but began failing in November. Landsat 6 never reached orbit after its 1993 launch because of a ruptured manifold.
• Nelson said the EROS Center has been preparing for the wave of new data, upgrading its ground station near Sioux Falls as well as partner facilities in Alaska and Norway.
• It also overhauled its data processing and storage systems, "so we can get as much data as possible online for the users to get direct access to," Nelson said.
• Loveland said there's a huge demand for the images in the scientific community, giving an example of a recent Brazilian Remote Sensing Symposium that drew more than 800 people looking to tap into the data.
• "There's a great deal of planning going on from people ready to use the images," Loveland said.
• The center used to charge for the images, but for years now, they've been free.
• "When you put all this free stuff in universities, innovation happens," Loveland said."
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• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- Gov. Dennis Daugaard on Monday requested a Presidential Disaster Declaration to help South Dakota recover from an ice and snow storm that hit the state last month.

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