ISSAC's principle focus during the testing period has been collecting imagery to validate sensor performance and calibration. Students operating the camera remotely from the University of North Dakota used orbital data and powerful space analytical software to determine when ISSAC's sensor would intersect that of LANDSAT, an already proven Earth-observing satellite. Using LANDSAT's images for comparison, spatial, spectral, and geo-referencing analysis was performed. Results show that ISSAC imagery radiance is quite comparable to LANDSAT's, while ISSAC imagery spatial resolution at 20 meters is consistently better then LANDSAT's at 30 meters. Below, ISSAC and LANDSAT images taken 30 miles southeast of El Paso, Texas were used in radiometric calibration, the results of which are graphed at right.

Primarily conceived to help farmers and ranchers increase productivity and benefit from precision farming, ISSAC used its unique platform aboard the International Space Station to image a vast diversity of targets across the entire globe. Extending beyond its agricultural basis, ISSAC has acquired rapid response imagery of worldwide disasters such as the Fukushima earthquake in Japan, volcanic eruptions in countries such as Italy and Chile, and flooding across the Northern Plains and Midwestern regions of the United States. In addition to imaging disasters, ISSAC testing captured images that showcase the beauty of planet Earth. These images include ancient civilization marvels such as the Great Pyramids and Machu Pichu and natural wonders such as Mount Everest, Victoria Falls, and the Rock of Gibraltar.

In just a few months ISSAC has proven itself, promoting sustainability through its precision agriculture applications, remaining poised to capture significant world disasters as they occur, and highlighting the artistic nature of our planet. In support of this performance, ISSAC operated for just over 1,000 hours while capturing just under 1,000 images in the time span between June and October. In total, ISSAC collected 63 GB worth of data, the majority of which will be made available to the public online. These numbers and the sensor's capability will continue to grow as ISSAC takes its operations into the future. ISSAC will continue to operate 24x7 capturing earth's vegetation, and will be ready to fulfill our end-user's requests for the growing season (Apr - Oct 2012) of the Northern plains and other regions of the United States.