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nasa-talk.md

Clear Skies: Turning Massive NASA/USGS Data into a Pixel Perfect World Atlas

In spring 2013, the satellite team at Mapbox collected and processed 6 terapixels of NASA/USGS open MODIS imagery into Cloudless Atlas [1] -- a global, cloud-free mosaic. The next iteration of Cloudless Atlas [2], currently under way, leverages the USGS/NASA Landsat archive to add even more cloud-free zoom levels to our global imagery mosaic.

We'll speak from our perspective as a bulk consumer of U.S. Government open data endpoints, and discuss how we use commercial cloud computing services to manage the task at every stage – from downloading and storage, through processing, and into production. In a matter of weeks, the first iteration of our cloudless base map project produced a higher quality product than was possible with conventional methods or existing commercial imagery offerings, all enabled by open NASA data. We’ll talk about our experience with Landsat data availability, processing, and the strengths and weaknesses of Landsat data from our perspective as commercial open data consumers.

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