Landsat 8 to continue the legacy

No conversation about earth perception and Remote Sensing is finished without a notice of Landsat satellites. The Landsat program is the longest running undertaking for procurement of satellite symbolism of Earth. On July 23, 1972 the Earth Resources Technology Satellite , in the long run renamed to Landsat, was propelled. The latest, Landsat 7 with ETM+ ready, was propelled on April 15, 1999. Landsat 7 information has eight phantom groups with spatial goals extending from 15 to 60 meters; the transient goals is 16 days.

This satellite included:

a panchromatic band with 15m spatial goals

ready, full gap, 5% supreme radiometric adjustment

a warm IR channel with 60m spatial goals

an on-board information recorder

Thought about a triumph in satellite information alignment, the Landsat 7 strategic immaculately until May 2003 when an equipment part called Scan Line Corrector fizzled bringing about wedge-formed spaces of missing information on either side of Landsat 7’s pictures. In this SLC-off mode, the ETM+ despite everything gains around 75 percent of the information for some random scene. The holes in information structure substituting wedges that expansion in width from the middle to the edge of a scene. So as to make the information helpful the holes are filled utilizing other SLC-off scenes or the scenes date before the disappointment.

So now what’s going on in Landsat 8, likewise called Landsat Data Continuity Mission(LDCM), to be propelled in February 2013? LDCM is a cooperation among NASA and the U.S. Geographical Survey. It will give moderate-goals (15 m–100 m) estimations of the Earth’s earthbound and polar locales in the obvious, close infrared, short wave infrared, and warm infrared district.

Landsat Data Continuity Mission, an Artist’s impression. Graciousness NASA.

LDCM will give congruity the 38-year long Landsat land imaging informational index. Notwithstanding far reaching routine use for land use arranging and checking on territorial to nearby scales, backing of catastrophe reaction and assessments, and water use observing, LDCM estimations will straightforwardly serve look into in the center regions of atmosphere, carbon cycle, biological systems, water cycle, biogeochemistry, and Earth surface/inside.

Landsat 8 highlights two sensors Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS). The following are the determinations of both the sensors:

Operational Land Imager (OLI):

Band # Spectral Region Wavelength Resolution

Band 1 Visible 0.433 – 0.453 µm 30 m

Band 2 Visible 0.450 – 0.515 µm 30 m

Band 3 Visible 0.525 – 0.600 µm 30 m

Band 4 Near-Infrared 0.630 – 0.680 µm 30 m

Band 5 Near-Infrared 0.845 – 0.885 µm 30 m

Band 6 SWIR 1 1.560 – 1.660 µm 30 m

Band 7 SWIR 2 2.100 – 2.300 µm 30 m

Band 8 Panchromatic 0.500 – 0.680 µm 15 m

Band 9 Cirrus 1.360 – 1.390 µm 30 m

Warm Infrared Sensor (TIRS):

Band # Spectral Region Wavelength Resolution

Band 10 TIRS 1 10.3 – 11.3 µm 100 m

Band 11 TIRS 2 11.5 – 12.5 µm 100 m

The LDCM scene size will be 185-km-cross-track-by-180-km-along-track. The ostensible rocket height will be 705 km. Cartographic exactness of 12 m or better (counting remuneration for territory impacts) is anticipated from LDCM information items.

The LDCM shuttle is planned to be propelled on February 2013 on board an Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 3 at Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB), California. The dispatch will be the primary Atlas V dispatch from VAFB.