RENO, Nev. (AP) — A scientist at the Desert Research Institute in Reno has been named to a special National Science Team to support a new Landsat satellite scheduled to launch next month from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The U.S. Geological Survey selected Justin Huntington to serve with the team of scientists and engineers that will spend the next five years providing technical and scientific input to the USGS and NASA for the Landsat Data Continuity Mission Satellite.

Huntington and five others will receive a $300,000 grant to do the work through 2017. They include fellow DRI staff scientists Charles Morton, Tim Minor and Matt Bromley.

The mapping technology is being used to assess a wide variety of things, from crops and water to forests and other natural resources.