# Core Science Systems

**Agency:** Interior  
**Account:** Surveys, Investigations, and Research  
**Source document:** U.S. Geological Survey · p. 13  
**Vintage:** President's Budget PB2027  
**Canonical URL:** https://hitchintel.com/budget/interior/core-science-systems  

> **Trust:** parsed from the agency Congressional Justification. Approximate, **not summable**, verify at the cited page.

## Funding ($M)

| Fiscal year | Basis | Amount |
| --- | --- | --- |
| FY2026 | enacted | 276.1 |
| FY2027 | request | 156.7 |

## Interior discretionary budget authority (OMB PBDB — authoritative)

FY2027 $18.80B, FY2026 $17.30B. This is the agency total, not a sum of the parsed lines.


## What this funds

Science Information Products and Archives -10,050 -1 Integrated Remote Sensing for Mine Waste Mapping +3,909 -9 Sustainable Land Imaging Operations and Development -16,472 Justification of Program Budget: National Land Imaging Program Our country's economic security, natural resource vitality, and ability to respond to the impacts of natural hazard events rely on the USGS's continuous monitoring of the Earth's land surfaces, surface waters, and coastal regions. The USGS National Land Imaging (NLI) Program, through its USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, provides the world's largest civilian archive of remotely sensed Earth observations. This information drives strategic choices and fuels smart investments and decision-making by land resource managers in all 50 States, Tribal lands, and U.S. The USGS is responsible for U.S. civil operational land surface observations through its Landsat satellite missions that are designed, launched, and operated in collaboration with NASA under both agencies' Sustainable Land Imaging (SLI) partnership. This partnership ensures continued, long-term operational provision of global land, water, and coastal remote sensing data on a free and open basis. Through EROS, the USGS operates the Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 satellites, continuing the world's longest-running operational civil satellite series with simultaneous full spectrum coverage including visible, near- to short- wave and thermal infrared sensors. The thermal and short-wave infrared sensors help to measure the Earth's surface temperature and detect differences in moisture content in soils and plants, which are crucial for informing water use management in Western States. These satellites provide continued, foundational Earth observations to hundreds of thousands of government, commercial, educational, and research users across the country. With over 50 years of continuous data, Landsat drives smarter decisions, protects critical resources, and addresses resource challenges - supporting wide-ranging applications from wildland fire response to infrastructure planning - at multiple scales. The USGS processes and distributes Landsat data and maintains the long-term Landsat data archive. Through its partnership with commercial cloud data services and free and open data access, the USGS has exponentially increased the amount of Landsat data product accesses by users across all sectors in recent years. For example, the total volume of Landsat data accessed increased from less than 4,000 terabytes in FY 2020 prior to the commercial cloud implementation, to over 31,000 terabytes in FY 2025 - an eight- fold increase in five years. The Budget continues Landsats 8 and 9 satellite flight operations and data collection, processing and product distribution, and supports other preparatory work for a phased transition to a commercial solution of the Landsat program. In FY 2027, the USGS will continue the development of a ground system that will operate one satellite (referred to as LandIS-1) to be launched in the early 2030s. Also in FY 2027, NASA and USGS will work with industry to implement a roadmap to address technical challenges and demonstrate capabilities in preparation for this transition. In addition to Landsat operations and development, the NLI Program also funds the USGS National Civil Applications Center (NCAC), which uses Earth observations from military and U.S. Intelligence Community sensors to detect wildland fires, compile Incident Commanders' wildfire response maps, and to monitor global volcanoes for aviation safety and local government information. The NCAC also manages the interagency Civil Applications Committee (CAC), which oversees and facilitates appropriate Federal civil agency access to, and use of, military, intelligence, and commercial Earth observations. These observations are used extensively by Interior, the USGS, and numerous agencies for disaster response, environmental infrastructure monitoring, energy development, and scientific research. The NLI Program funds the USGS National Uncrewed Systems Office in Lakewood, Colorado, to enable the broad use of uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) technology across the USGS. UAS observations support observations to maximize user need satisfaction across the science community. The 2027 budget request for National Land Imaging Program is $90,721,000 and 110 FTE, a program Integrated Remote Sensing for Mine Waste Mapping (+$3,909,000 / +12 FTE) - This funding will support innovation in mapping and powerful data collection supporting the characterization of critical minerals in mine waste. This work adds new high-resolution remote sensing and AI technology to existing mine waste mapping techniques. Integrating high-resolution UAS (drone) data and satellite imagery from classified and commercial sources along with Earth MRI's foundational data and the Mineral Resources Program's national mine waste inventory will ultimately accelerate assessments of critical minerals in mine wastes and identify further opportunities for resource recovery and site reclamation. Science Information Products and Archives (-$10,050,000 / -33 FTE) - To address higher priorities, the budget does not request funding for this activity. In FY 2027, the USGS will maintain key existing Landsat-derived science products such as fire and land cover product suites through remaining capabilities in the National Land Imaging Program. National Civil Applications Center (-$250,000 / -1 FTE) - In FY 2027, the USGS will continue emergency response support for wildfire detection and disaster mapping at the Reston, VA Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF). The USGS will also continue to manage the interagency CAC, which facilitates Federal civil agency access to military, intelligence, and commercial Earth Sustainable Land Imaging Operations and Development (-$16,472,000 / -9 FTE) - The USGS will continue operating the on-orbit Landsat 8 and 9 satellites, as well as the collection, processing and distribution of Landsat data, adding 20 million square miles of new imagery to the USGS EROS Archive in Sioux Falls, SD, every day. The USGS will maintain calibration and validation of Landsat data and products and science investigation to ensure the quality and continuous production of Landsat standard and derived products. The FY 2027 budget continues development of the ground system that will support the next iteration of the Landsat program and prepares for a phased transition to a commercial solution. Through these development activities, the USGS will design, develop, and implement an operational capability for flying the new satellite (LandIS-1) and to collect, archive and process its data, to include monitoring, assessing, and projecting land surface conditions and change as part of the Landsat operational science product suite. These operational science products provide scientific information to the broad user community for informed decision-making to manage the country's natural resources. The USGS will also work with NASA and industry on preparatory work to support a phased transition to a commercial solution for the Landsat program.


**Where it sits:** Civilian / Non-Defense › Interior › U.S. Geological Survey › Surveys, Investigations, and Research › Core Science Systems


*HitchAI is an independent intelligence service, not affiliated with the U.S. government. Civilian line dollars are parsed from agency Congressional Justifications and are approximate.*