Landsat 8

http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov
Launched on February 11, 2013, Landsat 8 (formerly the Landsat Data
Continuity Mission, LDCM) is the future of Landsat satellites. It is collecting valuable
data and imagery to be used in agriculture, education, business, science, and
government.
The Landsat Program provides repetitive acquisition of high resolution
multispectral data of the Earths surface on a global basis. The data from Landsat
spacecraft constitute the longest record of the Earths continental surfaces as seen
from space. It is a record unmatched in quality, detail, coverage, and value.

Landsat 8 Overview

Landsat 8 launched on February 11, 2013, from Vandenberg Air Force Base,
California, on an Atlas-V 401 rocket, with the extended payload fairing (EPF) from
United Launch Alliance, LLC. The Landsat 8 satellite payload consists of two science
instrumentsthe Operational Land Imager (OLI) and the Thermal Infrared Sensor
(TIRS). These two sensors provide seasonal coverage of the global landmass at a
spatial resolution of 30 meters (visible, NIR, SWIR); 100 meters (thermal); and 15
meters (panchromatic).
Landsat 8 was developed as a collaboration between NASA and the U.S.
Geological Survey (USGS). NASA led the design, construction, launch, and on-orbit
calibration phases, during which time the satellite was called the Landsat Data
Continuity Mission (LDCM). On May 30, 2013, USGS took over routine operations and
the satellite became Landsat 8. USGS leads post-launch calibration activities, satellite
operations, data product generation, and data archiving at the Earth Resources
Observation and Science (EROS) center.

Evolutionary Advances
Landsat 8 instruments represent an evolutionary advance in technology. OLI
improves on past Landsat sensors using a technical approach demonstrated by a
sensor flown on NASAs experimental EO-1 satellite. OLI is a push-broom sensor with
a four-mirror telescope and 12-bit quantization. OLI collects data for visible, near
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infrared, and short wave infrared spectral bands as well as a panchromatic band. It
has a five-year design life. The graphic below compares the OLI spectral bands to
Landsat 7s ETM+ bands. OLI provides two new spectral bands, one tailored
especially for detecting cirrus clouds and the other for coastal zone observations.

The OLI collects data for two new bands, a coastal band (band 1) and a cirrus
band (band 9), as well as the heritage Landsat multispectral bands. Additionally, the
bandwidth has been refined for six of the heritage bands. The Thermal Instrument
(TIRS) carries two additional thermal infrared bands. Note: atmospheric transmission

values for this graphic were calculated using MODTRAN for a summertime midlatitude hazy atmosphere (circa 5 km visibility). Graphic created by L.Rocchio &
J.Barsi.

Table courtesy of B. Markham (July 2013)

TIRS collects data for two more narrow spectral bands in the thermal region formerly
covered by one wide spectral band on Landsats 47. The 100 m TIRS data will be
registered to the OLI data to create radiometrically, geometrically, and terraincorrected 12-bit data products.

Landsat 8 is required to return 400 scenes per day to the USGS data archive (150
more than Landsat 7 is required to capture). Landsat 8 has been regularly acquiring
550 scenes per day (and Landsat 7 is acquiring 438 scenes per day). This increases
the probability of capturing cloud-free scenes for the global landmass. The Landsat 8
scene size is 185-km-cross-track-by-180-km-along-track. The nominal spacecraft
altitude is 705 km. Cartographic accuracy of 12 m or better (including compensation
for terrain effects) is required of Landsat 8 data products.

Mission Details
Landsat 8 (formerly the Landsat Data Continuity Mission, LDCM), a
collaboration between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey, provides moderateresolution (15 m100 m, depending on spectral frequency) measurements of the
Earths terrestrial and polar regions in the visible, near-infrared, short wave infrared,
and thermal infrared. Landsat 8 provides continuity with the more than 40-year long
Landsat land imaging data set. In addition to widespread routine use for land use
planning and monitoring on regional to local scales, support of disaster response and
evaluations, and water use monitoring, Landsat 8 measurements directly serve NASA
research in the focus areas of climate, carbon cycle, ecosystems, water cycle,
biogeochemistry, and Earth surface/interior.
Unprecedented changes in land cover and use are having profound
consequences for weather and climate change, ecosystem function and services,
carbon cycling and sequestration, resource management, the national and global
economy, human health, and society. The Landsat data series, begun in 1972, is the
longest continuous record of changes in Earths surface as seen from space and the
only satellite system designed and operated to repeatedly observe the global land
surface at moderate resolution. Freely available Landsat data provide a unique
resource for people who work in agriculture, geology, forestry, regional planning,
education, mapping, and global change research.
The Landsat 8 satellite payload consists of two science instrumentsthe
Operational Land Imager (OLI) and the Thermal InfraRed Sensor (TIRS). These two
sensors provide seasonal coverage of the global landmass at a spatial resolution of
30 meters (visible, NIR, SWIR); 100 meters (thermal); and 15 meters
(panchromatic). The spectral coverage and radiometric performance (accuracy,
dynamic range, and precision) are designed to detect and characterize multi-decadal
land cover change in concert with historic Landsat data. Coordinated calibration
efforts of USGS and NASA are part of the Landsat 8 calibration strategy. The Landsat
8 scene size is 185-km-cross-track-by-180-km-along-track. The nominal spacecraft
altitude will be 705 km. Cartographic accuracy of 12 m or better (including
compensation for terrain effects) is required of Landsat 8 data products.
Landsat 8 includes evolutionary advances in technology and performance. The
OLI provides two new spectral bands, one tailored especially for detecting cirrus
clouds and the other for coastal zone observations, and the TIRS will collect data for
two more narrow spectral bands in the thermal region formerly covered by one wide
spectral band on Landsats 47. Additionally, Landsat 8 is required to return 400
scenes per day to the USGS data archive (150 more than Landsat 7), increasing the
probability of capturing cloud-free scenes for the global landmass.
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Landsat 8 Status and Launch Date

Landsat 8 is operating normally after its successful launch on February 11,
2013. Landsat 8 data are freely available from the USGS.
NASA and USGS Roles
The Landsat 8 mission is a partnership between NASA and USGS that builds
upon a strong relationship developed during previous Landsat missions. NASAs
expertise in Earth observation missions and USGSs expertise in data archives and
remote sensing data processing provides for a mutually beneficial partnership.
NASAs Landsat 8 responsibilities include development of the OLI and TIRS
instruments, spacecraft, launch vehicle, implementation of the USGS-funded Mission
Operations Element, and mission on-orbit verification. NASA acquired most elements
of the space segment from industry with Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) acting
as the mission integrator and leading mission systems engineering. TIRS was built inhouse at GSFC and launch services were provided by Kennedy Space Center. The
Landsat 8 mission operations center is at GSFC.
USGS is providing the ground data processing systems which are located at the
USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) center. USGS acquired the
ground data processing systems from industry. The flight operations team is also
provided by USGS through an existing NASA contract. USGS funds and leads the
Landsat science team. Upon completion of on-orbit verification, USGS began to lead
post-launch calibration activities, satellite operations, data product generation, and
data archiving.

LDCM Launch Vehicle

Launch services were provided by the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC). The
launch vehicle was an Atlas-V rocket and was managed by KSC and procured from
United Launch Alliance.
LDCM Ground System
The LDCM Ground System includes all of the ground-based assets needed to
operate the LDCM observatory. The primary components of the Ground System are
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the Mission Operations Element, Collection Activity Planning Element, Ground

Network Element, and the Data Processing and Archive System.
The Missions Operations Element (MOE) was provided by the Hammers
Corporation. The MOE contract was awarded in September 2008. The MOE provides
capability for command and control, mission planning and scheduling, long-term
trending and analysis, and flight dynamics analysis. The overall activity planning for
the mission is divided between the MOE and Collection Activity Planning Element
(CAPE). The CAPE schedules activities on a path-row scene basis. The MOE converts
CAPE-generated path-row scenes to observatory activities, schedules these and any
other detailed observatory activities, and generates commands necessary to collect
the identified scenes and operate the observatory. The Ground Network Element
(GNE) is comprised of two nodes located at Fairbanks, Alaska and Sioux Falls, SD.
Each node in the GNE includes a ground station that will be capable of receiving
Landsat 8 X-band data. Additionally, each station provides complete S-band uplink
and downlink capabilities. The Data Processing and Archive System (DPAS) includes
those functions related to ingesting, archiving, calibration, processing, and
distribution of Landsat 8 data and data products. It also includes the portal to the
user community. The Ground System, other than the MOE, is developed by USGS
largely through their support service contract.

Spacecraft & Instruments

Spacecraft

The Landsat 8 spacecraft was built by Orbital Sciences Corporation. The

spacecraft contract was awarded in April 2008. The spacecraft accommodates two
government-furnished instruments forming the Landsat 8 Observatory, OLI and
TIRS. The spacecraft has a design life of 5 years, but carries sufficient fuel for 10
years of operations.
Landsat 8 consists of two major segments: the observatory and the ground
system. The observatory consists of the spacecraft bus and its payload of two Earth
observing sensors, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) and the Thermal Infrared
Sensor (TIRS). OLI and TIRS collect Landsat 8 science data. The two sensors will
coincidently collect multispectral digital images of the global land surface including
coastal regions, polar ice, islands, and the continental areas. The spacecraft bus
stores the OLI and TIRS data on an onboard solid-state recorder and then transmits
the data to ground receiving stations.

The ground system provides the capabilities necessary for planning and
scheduling the operations of the Landsat 8 observatory and the capabilities
necessary to manage the science data following transmission from the spacecraft.
The Landsat 8 spacecraft, built by Orbital Sciences Corporation, has a design life of 5
years, but carries sufficient fuel for 10 years of operations.
Excerpt: LDCM Spacecraft
NASA awarded a contract for the LDCM (Landsat 8) spacecraft to General
Dynamics Advanced Information Systems (GDAIS) in April 2008. Orbital Science
Corporation (Orbital) subsequently acquired the spacecraft manufacturing division of
GDAIS in April 2010. Orbital has thus assumed responsibility for the design and
fabrication of the LDCM spacecraft bus, integration of the two sensors onto the bus,
satellite-level testing, on-orbit satellite check-out, and continuing on-orbit
engineering support under GSFC contract management (Irons & Dwyer, 2010). The
specified design life is five years with an additional requirement to carry sufficient
fuel to maintain the LDCM orbit for 10 years; the hope is that the operational lives of
the sensors and spacecraft will exceed the design lives and fuel will not limit
extended operations. The spacecraft design calls for a three-axis stabilized vehicle
built primarily of aluminum honeycomb structure with a hexagonal cross-section. It is
being built in Orbitals spacecraft manufacturing facility in Gilbert, Arizona.
Excerpted from Remote Sensing of Environment 122, James R. Irons, John L.
Dwyer, and Julia A. Barsi , The next Landsat satellite: The Landsat Data Continuity
Mission, 11-21, Copyright 2012, doi:10.1016/j.rse.2011.08.026, with permission from
Elsevier
Courtesy of the journal Remote Sensing of the Environment.

Operational Land Imager

The Operational Land Imager (OLI) was built by the Ball Aerospace and
Technologies Corporation. The Ball contract was awarded in July 2007. OLI improves
on past Landsat sensors using a technical approach demonstrated by a sensor flown
on NASAs experimental EO-1 satellite. OLI is a push-broom sensor with a four-mirror
telescope and 12-bit quantization. OLI collects data for visible, near infrared, and
short wave infrared spectral bands as well as a panchromatic band. It has a five-year
design life.
The Operational Land Imager (OLI), built by the Ball Aerospace & Technologies
Corporation, will measure in the visible, near infrared, and short wave infrared
portions of the spectrum. Its images will have 15-meter (49 ft.) panchromatic and
30-meter multi-spectral spatial resolutions along a 185 km (115 miles) wide swath,
covering wide areas of the Earths landscape while providing sufficient resolution to
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distinguish features like urban centers, farms, forests and other land uses. The entire
Earth will fall within view once every 16 days due to LDCMs near-polar orbit.
OLIs design is an advancement in Landsat sensor technology and uses an
approach demonstrated by the Advanced Land Imager sensor flown on NASAs
experimental EO-1 satellite. Instruments on earlier Landsat satellites employed scan
mirrors to sweep the instrument fields of view across the surface swath width and
transmit light to a few detectors. The OLI will instead use long detector arrays, with
over 7,000 detectors per spectral band, aligned across its focal plane to view across
the swath. This push-broom design results in a more sensitive instrument providing
improved land surface information with fewer moving parts. With an improved
signal-to-noise ratio compared to past Landsat instruments, engineers expect this
new OLI design to be more reliable and to provide improved performance.
Excerpt OLI
NASA released an RFP in January 2007 for an OLI to acquire visible, near
infrared, and short wave infrared image data from an LDCM spacecraft. The RFP
specified instrument performance rather than a specific technology although the
specifications were informed by the performance of the ALI push broom sensor.
NASA awarded a contract to Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation (BATC) in
July 2007 after an evaluation of proposals.
Excerpted from Remote Sensing of Environment 122, James R. Irons, John L.
Dwyer, and Julia A. Barsi , The next Landsat satellite: The Landsat Data Continuity
Mission, 11-21, Copyright 2012, doi:10.1016/j.rse.2011.08.026, with permission from
Elsevier
Courtesy of the journal Remote Sensing of the Environment

Thermal Infrared Sensor

The Thermal InfraRed Sensor (TIRS) was added to the Landsat 8 payload to
continue thermal imaging and to support emerging applications such as
evapotranspiration rate measurements for water management. TIRS was built by
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and it has a three-year design life. The 100 m
TIRS data will be registered to the OLI data to create radiometrically, geometrically,
and terrain-corrected 12-bit Landsat 8 data products.
The Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) will measure land surface temperature in
two thermal bands with a new technology that applies quantum physics to detect
heat.
TIRS was added to the satellite mission when it became clear that state water
resource managers rely on the highly accurate measurements of Earths thermal
energy obtained by LDCMs predecessors, Landsat 5 and Landsat 7, to track how
land and water are being used. With nearly 80 percent of the fresh water in the
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Western U.S. being used to irrigate crops, TIRS will become an invaluable tool for
managing water consumption.
TIRS uses Quantum Well Infrared Photodetectors (QWIPs) to detect long
wavelengths of light emitted by the Earth whose intensity depends on surface
temperature. These wavelengths, called thermal infrared, are well beyond the range
of human vision. QWIPs are a new, lower-cost alternative to conventional infrared
technology and were developed at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt,
Md.
The QWIPs TIRS uses are sensitive to two thermal infrared wavelength bands,
helping it separate the temperature of the Earths surface from that of the
atmosphere. Their design operates on the complex principles of quantum mechanics.
Gallium arsenide semiconductor chips trap electrons in an energy state well until the
electrons are elevated to a higher state by thermal infrared light of a certain
wavelength. The elevated electrons create an electrical signal that can be read out
and recorded to create a digital image.

Launch Vehicle
Launch services were provided by the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC). The
launch vehicle was an Atlas-V rocket and was managed by KSC and procured from
United Launch Alliance.
The LDCM observatory will launch from Space Launch Complex-3E at
Vandenberg Air Force Base aboard an Atlas V 401 launch vehicle built by the United
Launch Alliance (ULA). This rocket is an evolved expendable launch vehicle capable
of placing a 9370 kg satellite in low-Earth orbit. This capability offers ample mass
margin for the LDCM observatory. A 4 m-diameter extended payload fairing will
encapsulate the observatory atop the rocket through launch. The NASA Kennedy
Space Center selected the Atlas V 401 for LDCM in December 2009.
Excerpted from Remote Sensing of Environment 122, James R. Irons, John L.
Dwyer, and Julia A. Barsi , The next Landsat satellite: The Landsat Data Continuity
Mission, 11-21, Copyright 2012, doi:10.1016/j.rse.2011.08.026, with permission from
Elsevier
Courtesy of the journal Remote Sensing of the Environment

Launch Vehicle Assembly

Photo credit: NASA/Roy Allison

VANDENBERG AFB, Calif. A Centaur upper stage is lifted onto the first stage
booster of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V at the launch pad at Space launch
Complex-3E at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. in preparation for the launch of the
Landsat Data Continuation Mission. The Landsat Data Continuity Mission LDCM is the
future of Landsat satellites. It will continue to obtain valuable data and imagery to be
used in agriculture, education, business, science, and government. The Landsat
Program provides repetitive acquisition of high resolution multispectral data of the
Earths surface on a global basis. The data from the Landsat spacecraft constitute the
longest record of the Earths continental surfaces as seen from space. It is a record
unmatched in quality, detail, coverage, and value. Launch is planned for Feb. 2013.
More images of the Launch Vehicle can be found at:The Kennedy Media Gallery
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Ground System

The Landsat 8 Ground System includes all of the ground-based assets needed
to operate the Landsat 8 observatory. The primary components of the Ground
System are the Mission Operations Element, Collection Activity Planning Element,
Ground Network Element, and the Data Processing and Archive System.
The Landsat 8 Ground System includes all of the ground-based assets needed
to operate the Landsat 8 observatory. The primary components of the Ground
System are the Mission Operations Element, Collection Activity Planning Element,
Ground Network Element, and the Data Processing and Archive System.
Excerpt: LDCM Ground System
The LDCM (Landsat 8) ground system will perform two main functions. The first
will be to command and control the LDCM observatory in orbit. The second will be to
manage the data transmitted from the observatory. The daily software command
loads that control the observatory will originate within the LDCM Mission Operations
Center (MOC) at GSFC and will be transmitted to the observatory from the antenna
of the LDCM Ground Network Element (GNE). The data transmitted by the
observatory will be received by the GNE and then sent to the Data Processing and
Archive System (DPAS) at EROS. The DPAS will archive the data and produce the
LDCM data products distributed for science and applications. USGS manages ground
system development and USGS successfully conducted a Ground System critical
design review in March 2010.
Excerpted from Remote Sensing of Environment 122, James R. Irons, John L.
Dwyer, and Julia A. Barsi , The next Landsat satellite: The Landsat Data Continuity
Mission, 11-21, Copyright 2012, doi:10.1016/j.rse.2011.08.026, with permission from
Elsevier
Courtesy of the journal Remote Sensing of the Environment

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