An
ash plume drifts from Paluweh volcano in Indonesia. Image taken April
29, 2013 from the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM, now Landsat 8)
Operational Land Imager instrument. Courtesy NASA.
The latest in the Landsat series of Earth observation satellites,
Landsat 8, officially begins its mission on May 30 to extend an
unparalleled four-decade record of Earth’s land surface as seen from
space. The Landsat program is a joint effort between the U.S. Geological
Survey and NASA.
NASA launched the Landsat Data Continuity Mission satellite on
February 11. Since then, NASA mission engineers and scientists, with
USGS collaboration, have been putting the satellite through its paces –
steering it into its orbit, focusing the instruments, calibrating the
detectors, and collecting test images. Now fully mission-certified, the
satellite will be transferred to USGS operational control and renamed
Landsat 8.
As the world’s population surpasses seven billion people, the impact
of human society on the planet is increasing. The continuation of
Landsat’s four-decade look at Earth will help monitor those impacts and
more accurately forecast future environmental change.
A big picture, yes, but more
Landsat images from space are not just pictures. They contain many
layers of data collected at different points along the visible and
invisible light spectrum. Consequently, Landsat images can show where
vegetation is thriving and where it is stressed, where droughts are
occurring, and where wildland fire is a danger.
Landsat satellites give us a view as broad as 12,000 square miles per
scene while describing land cover in units the size of a baseball
diamond. From a distance of more than 400 miles above the earth surface,
a single Landsat scene can record the condition of hundreds of
thousands of acres of grassland, agricultural crops, or forests.
Landsat images reveal subtle, gradual changes, such as Wyoming
rangelands greening up after a drought, as well as massive landscape
changes that occur in rapidly growing urban areas. Landsat can also
provide broad assessments of sudden natural or human-induced disasters,
such as the number of acres charred by a forest fire or the extent of
tsunami inundation. Landsat data have been used to monitor water
quality, glacier recession, sea ice movement, invasive species
encroachment, coral reef health, land use change, deforestation rates,
and population growth.
LDCM image acquired March 22, 2013. LDCM looks back to its launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Courtesy NASA.
The USGS role in observing Earth
USGS and NASA have distinct roles in the Landsat program. NASA
develops remote-sensing instruments and spacecraft, launches satellites,
and validates their performance. The USGS then assumes ownership and
operation of the satellites, in addition to managing ground-data
reception, archiving, product generation, and distribution.
USGS has managed the operations of two Earth observing satellites — Landsat 5 and 7 — for over a decade.
Launched in 1984, Landsat 5 orbited the planet over 150,000 times
while transmitting over 2.5 million images of land surface conditions
around the world, long outliving its original three-year design life. In
December 2012, USGS announced
that Landsat 5 would be decommissioned. The durable satellite
delivered precise images of Earth for nearly 29 years, making it the
longest-operating Earth-observing satellite mission in history as noted
by the Guinness Book of Records.
Landsat 7, launched in 1999, continues to provide daily information
about our planet from space, although an instrument problem reduces the
amount of data it collects.
Landsat 8 brings a clearer view
Landsat 8 is about the size of a delivery truck with a 30-foot-long
deployed sheet of solar panels. Stocked with a 10-year supply of fuel,
the satellite travels at a speed of 17,000 miles per hour. It carries
two highly-sensitive observation instruments, the Operational Land
Imager (OLI) and the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS). Advanced technology
increases the reliability and sensitivity of these instruments, while
the improved measurements are still compatible with the past Landsat
data record.
The technical capabilities of Landsat 8 move forward in three areas
in comparison to Landsat 7: increased spectral coverage; higher data
precision (the ultimate resolution is not changed); and increased
quantity of data collection (60% more scenes per day).
Landsat 8 will orbit Earth once every 99 minutes at an average
altitude of 438 miles (705 kilometers), repeating the same ground track
every 16 days. As Landsat 8 joins Landsat 7 in imaging the Earth,
researchers and natural resource managers will once again be able to
receive Landsat data every eight days for any given location. Many
Landsat users depend on a short repeat cycle for prompt data on
resources such as agricultural crops, forests, and water. The USGS,
NASA, and aerospace contractors have worked diligently to ensure that
Landsat 8 would be operational in time for the 2013 North American
growing season.
Even
in notoriously warm Phoenix, AZ, the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS)
aboard LDCM (now Landsat 8) shows cooler (darker) areas of irrigated
agriculture (lower center of image) and mountain forests to the North.
Courtesy NASA.
Free data for innovation
Beginning May 30, Landsat 8 data will be available from the USGS data
archive free of charge. The Department of the Interior and USGS policy
of unrestricted access and free distribution of Landsat data encourages
researchers everywhere to develop practical applications of the data.
Special-purpose applications of Landsat data can serve commercial
endeavors in agriculture and forestry; they can enable land managers in
and out of government to work more efficiently; they can assist
scientists in defining and assessing critical environmental issues.
Ready access to authoritative Landsat images provides a reliable common
record of Earth conditions that advances the mutual understanding of
environmental challenges worldwide by citizens, researchers, and
decision makers.
Two visually compelling examples of commercial systems that access
the long record of consistent Landsat data to document land cover change
around the globe are Google Timelapse and ESRI Change Matters.
Additional information
USGS Landsat Missions (latest satellite status and related information)
Come Fly With Me (a colorful video that allows viewers to see the Earth as the satellite does)
What is the Economic Value of Satellite Imagery? (USGS Professional Paper)
Related:
When Floods Hit, the USGS is There
A Glimpse Into the Future of Our Science
Tick-Tock, Nature’s Clock Out of Sync?
USGS Marks 134 years of Science for America: A Most Unusual Birthday
A Cold Look at Planet Earth: Learning from the World’s Frozen Places
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Building Stones of Our Nation’s Capital
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The March 11 Tohoku Earthquake, One Year Later. What Have We Learned?
An Extraordinary Sense of Public Service
From Space to Place: Using Satellites to Aid World Heritage Sites “In Danger”
Is Your Groundwater Susceptible to Radium Contamination?
The President’s 2013 USGS Budget Proposal
The Other 364 Days of the Year: The Real Lives of Wild Reindeer
Science Helping to Save Lives in Africa
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Climate Change Projections for California’s Bay-Delta System: Five Things Resource Managers Should Know
President Obama Honors 3 USGS Scientists with Presidential Early Career Awards
Our Ever-Changing Earth: Science to Understand, Prepare for, and Mitigate the Risks of Change
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Climate Change Lessons from the Past
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Mount Rainier Has Lost 1/7th of Its Ice and Snow
Species at Risk
The Science Behind the State of the Birds Report 2011
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Help Shape the Future of Our Global Change Science
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Global Change Keeping Up With an Ever-Changing Planet ts
Facing Tomorrow’s Challenges ts
Landsat 8 Satellite Begins Watch
WASHINGTON
-- NASA transferred operational control Thursday of the Landsat 8
satellite to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in a ceremony in Sioux
Falls, S.D.
The event marks the beginning of the satellite's mission to extend an unparalleled four-decade record of monitoring Earth's landscape from space. Landsat 8 is the latest in the Landsat series of remote-sensing satellites, which have been providing global coverage of landscape changes on Earth since 1972. The Landsat program is a joint effort between NASA and USGS.
NASA launched the satellite Feb. 11 as the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM). Since then, NASA mission engineers and scientists, with USGS collaboration, have been putting the satellite through its paces -- steering it into its orbit, calibrating the detectors, and collecting test images. Now fully mission-certified, the satellite is under USGS operational control.
"Landsat is a centerpiece of NASA's Earth Science program," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden in Washington. "Landsat 8 carries on a long tradition of Landsat satellites that for more than 40 years have helped us learn how Earth works, to understand how humans are affecting it and to make wiser decisions as stewards of this planet."
Beginning Thursday, USGS specialists will collect at least 400 Landsat 8 scenes every day from around the world to be processed and archived at the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science Center in Sioux Falls. The newest satellite joins Landsat 7, which launched in 1999 and continues to collect images. Since 2008, USGS has provided more than 11 million current and historical Landsat images free of charge to users over the Internet.
"We are very pleased to work with NASA for the good of science and the American people," said U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell in Washington. "The Landsat program allows us all to have a common, easily accessible view of our planet. This is the starting point for a shared understanding of the environmental challenges we face."
Remote-sensing satellites such as the Landsat series help scientists observe the world beyond the power of human sight, monitor changes to the land that may have natural or human causes, and detect critical trends in the conditions of natural resources.
The 41-year Landsat record provides global coverage at a scale that impartially documents natural processes such as volcanic eruptions, glacial retreat and forest fires and shows large-scale human activities such as expanding cities, crop irrigation and forest clear-cuts. The Landsat Program is a sustained effort by the United States to provide direct societal benefits across a wide range of human endeavors including human and environmental health, energy and water management, urban planning, disaster recovery, and agriculture.
With Landsat 8 circling Earth 14 times a day, and in combination with Landsat 7, researchers will be able to use an improved frequency of data from both satellites. The two observation instruments aboard Landsat 8 feature improvements over their earlier counterparts while collecting information that is compatible with 41 years of land images from previous Landsat satellites.
For more information about the Landsat mission, visit:
The event marks the beginning of the satellite's mission to extend an unparalleled four-decade record of monitoring Earth's landscape from space. Landsat 8 is the latest in the Landsat series of remote-sensing satellites, which have been providing global coverage of landscape changes on Earth since 1972. The Landsat program is a joint effort between NASA and USGS.
NASA launched the satellite Feb. 11 as the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM). Since then, NASA mission engineers and scientists, with USGS collaboration, have been putting the satellite through its paces -- steering it into its orbit, calibrating the detectors, and collecting test images. Now fully mission-certified, the satellite is under USGS operational control.
"Landsat is a centerpiece of NASA's Earth Science program," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden in Washington. "Landsat 8 carries on a long tradition of Landsat satellites that for more than 40 years have helped us learn how Earth works, to understand how humans are affecting it and to make wiser decisions as stewards of this planet."
Beginning Thursday, USGS specialists will collect at least 400 Landsat 8 scenes every day from around the world to be processed and archived at the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science Center in Sioux Falls. The newest satellite joins Landsat 7, which launched in 1999 and continues to collect images. Since 2008, USGS has provided more than 11 million current and historical Landsat images free of charge to users over the Internet.
"We are very pleased to work with NASA for the good of science and the American people," said U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell in Washington. "The Landsat program allows us all to have a common, easily accessible view of our planet. This is the starting point for a shared understanding of the environmental challenges we face."
Remote-sensing satellites such as the Landsat series help scientists observe the world beyond the power of human sight, monitor changes to the land that may have natural or human causes, and detect critical trends in the conditions of natural resources.
The 41-year Landsat record provides global coverage at a scale that impartially documents natural processes such as volcanic eruptions, glacial retreat and forest fires and shows large-scale human activities such as expanding cities, crop irrigation and forest clear-cuts. The Landsat Program is a sustained effort by the United States to provide direct societal benefits across a wide range of human endeavors including human and environmental health, energy and water management, urban planning, disaster recovery, and agriculture.
With Landsat 8 circling Earth 14 times a day, and in combination with Landsat 7, researchers will be able to use an improved frequency of data from both satellites. The two observation instruments aboard Landsat 8 feature improvements over their earlier counterparts while collecting information that is compatible with 41 years of land images from previous Landsat satellites.
For more information about the Landsat mission, visit:
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
ayabaca@gmail.com
ayabaca@hotmail.com
ayabaca@yahoo.com
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