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FS-1999 (03)-004-GSFC
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The ETM+ will produce approximately 3.8 receive, process, archive, and distribute ETM+
gigabits of data for each scene, which is roughly data. The primary ground station, the data
equivalent to nearly 15 sets of encyclopedias at handling facility and archive are located at the
29 volumes per set. EROS Data Center and will fall under USGS
management following launch and on-orbit
The satellite will orbit the Earth at an activation of the satellite. NASA will manage
altitude of approximately 438 miles (705 kilome- flight operations from the control center at the
ters) with a sun-synchronous 98-degree inclina- Goddard Space Flight Center until October 1,
tion and a descending equatorial crossing time 2000, when responsibility for flight operations
of 10 a.m. The orbit will be adjusted upon transfers to the USGS as well. The ground
reaching orbit so that its 16-day repeat cycle system will be able to distribute raw ETM+ data
coincides with the Landsat Worldwide Reference within 24 hours of its reception at the EROS
System. This orbit will be maintained with peri- Data Center.
odic adjustments for the life of the mission. A
three-axis attitude control subsystem will stabi- The ground system at the data center
lize the satellite and keep the instrument pointed will be capable of capturing and processing 250
toward Earth to within 0.05 degrees. Landsat scenes per day and delivering at least
100 of the scenes to users each day. All 100 of
A silicon cell solar array, nickel hydrogen these scenes can be radiometrically corrected to
battery power subsystem will provide 1,550 within five percent and geometrically located on
watts of load power to the satellite. A communi- the Earth to within 820 feet (250 meters). Uncor-
cations subsystem will provide two-way commu- rected data that is ordered will contain sufficient
nications with the ground. The command uplink information to allow a user to do the correction.
and the housekeeping telemetry downlink will be Data captured will routinely be available for user
via S-band while all the science data will be ordering within 24 hours of its receipt at the
downlinked via X-band. A command and data EROS Data Center. The user will be able to
handling subsystem will provide for command- query metadata and image browse data from
ing, data collection, processing and storage. A the archive electronically to determine if it
state-of-the-art solid state recorder capable of contains suitable information. If so, the data can
storing 380 gigabits of data (100 scenes) will be be ordered and delivered either electronically or
used to store selected scenes from around the in a digital format by common carrier.
world for playback over a U. S. ground station. In
addition to stored data, real-time data from the
Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus can be trans- Calibration and Validation
mitted to cooperating international ground
stations and to the U.S. ground stations. The data from these satellites cannot
easily be compared and integrated for the
detection, monitoring and characterization of
Landsat Ground System global change without calibration to common
units of measurement. Calibration is essential to
The Landsat ground system includes a the role of Landsat 7 in the Earth Observing
spacecraft control center, ground stations for System era. Landsat 7 will be launched as part
uplinking commands and receiving data, a data of a planned constellation of satellites dedicated
handling facility and a data archive developed by to Earth observations. The Enhanced Thematic
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Mapper Plus aboard Landsat 7 will be calibrated
Greenbelt, Md., in conjunction with the U.S. accurately in order to use its data in concert with
Geological Survey (USGS) EROS Data Center the data from the other satellites and thereby
(EDC), Sioux Falls, S.D. These facilities, aug- realize the full potential of the integrated remote
mented by existing NASA institutional facilities, sensing systems under development by the
will communicate with Landsat 7, control all Earth Science Enterprise.
spacecraft and instrument operations, and will
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The inclusion of a new full-aperture- Enterprise, a long-term program that is studying
solar-calibrator and a partial-aperture-solar- changes in Earth’s global environment. The goal
calibrator on Landsat 7 will afford improved of the Earth Science Enterprise is to provide
calibration relative to the earlier Thematic people a better understanding of natural envi-
Mapper and Multi-Spectral Scanner sensors on ronmental changes. Earth Science Enterprise
Landsats 4 and 5. These two devices will permit data, which will be distributed to researchers
use of the sun, with its known exo-atmospheric worldwide at the cost of reproduction, is essen-
irradiance, as an absolute radiometric calibra- tial to people making informed decisions about
tion source. The data provided by the on-board their environment.
solar calibrators, in conjunction with an internal
calibration lamp and occasional ground-based For further information on Landsat 7, visit
validation experiments, will permit calibration to the websites at: http://geo.arc.nasa.gov/sge/
an uncertainty of less than five percent. This landsat/landsat.html or
level of accuracy is consistent with the radio- http://mtpe.gsfc.nasa.gov/landsat/default.htm
metric requirements for the Earth Observation
System sensors.
Management
4 March 1999